Choo Choo Charlie posted:Post 3 5-20-2016
The Beginning - Childhood Layout
I had childhood Marx 027 layout that had an oval and figure 8 utilizing four Marx 1590 switches on a ping pong 9’ x 5’ board on the floor. The train was a Marx 999 freight set. We had a Lionel 1033 transformer. It was on the living room floor for two weeks after being installed on Christmas Eve with a Christmas tree in the plaster of paris mountain.
I had two friends that lived on my block in south St. Louis, one had a Lionel train with cattle car loader and milk car. The other had American Flyer. Both had layouts on the floor with a single loop and a bypass or siding with a couple of switches and down for two weeks at Christmas also. I had the Marx with oval and figure 8 with four Marx switches and we all liked to run that 999 do lots of switching.
When my brother and I were 8 and 10 or so, the train gear was removed and the layout dismantled. We had moved to new house my Dad and his friend built for us in Afton, a suburb of St. Louis. My brother and I got into building plastic models, then stick and paper air planes, model boats and later 049 powered U control planes. We went into Fox 35 U control planes in high school and I got into radio control (tubes & 67 v batteries !) boats.
Charlie
Pictures of Marx 999 set
Marx 999 engine (set is original but engine is retired due to worn out motor gear, this is a replacement)
Marx Uncoupling section
Looks identical to the one I had. I later added some cars (reefer, cattle car, flat with a load, and two more box cars) and gave it a family friend's son when daddy lost his business just before Christmas.
I'm now "recreating" the layout I wanted back then and could never afford.
Thanks for showing us what some of us grew up with.
