Forty Rod posted:I have both tin and plastic Marx...
So do I, and I'm having a lot of fun with it! Not to mention the die-cast Marx steamers, like the 333, 666 and 999.
Prices on ebay have skyrocketed in the past few years, but I can still find some really nice stuff.
I've only been interested in Marx since last spring, so I can't comment on what prices have done over the past few years. But they're still far lower than any decent Lionel equipment of any age.
I also have a ton of Plasticville, various paper buildings, some AF and Lionel accessories, and a smidgeon of sctratch built stuff.... plus candy and cracker tins, out of scale Christmas decorations, and repurposed items. See, I'm running toy trains , NOT model trains and nothing is of any particular scale.
I understand completely. Although I do try to maintain something resembling O or S scale, I'm more interested in how it looks overall than how close to exact scale it is. When I want to fuss over the niceties of scale, that's when I turn to my mostly-Lionel 3rs layout.
The tinplate locomotives almost always need work, but one of the beauties of Marx is that they're easy to work on, and parts are neither rare nor expensive. I found a Marx M-10005 streamliner at an antique mall over the summer, and nearly the entire motor and wheel mechanism needed repaired, cleaned and replaced. But compared to what I had to go through with my Lionel 783 a few years ago, it was almost enjoyable.
I've also grown to appreciate the ingenuity that Marx threw into their train line. By the time the "deluxe" line appeared, Marx was seriously nipping at the heels of Lionel's 027 lineup. Makes me wonder what the toy train (as opposed to scale models) landscape would have looked like if the toy train market had remained strong for a few years longer.
But don't tell anyone how much fun Marx trains are. It'll only raise prices higher!
