Dan Padova posted:As a kid in the fifties, I would frequent Kresge's on Cotton Ave in Northeast Philly. They always had a fair amount of Marx and less of Lionel. It goes with the five & dime store mindset. Even though I could not afford hardly anything Lionel made, I looked down upon the Marx offerings, then. Now I look at Marx stuff with a new mindset. You have to give their designers some credit for emulating the higher end trains but making them affordable.
That's very true. I was a Lionel snob for the longest time, and sneered at anything made by Marx. But last year I finally became interested, and, like you, began to appreciate the ingenuity of the Marx product designers. Now, in addition to my small 3rs layout, I have an even smaller Marx layout. But it's fun all the same.
The 5&10s in the small Pennsylvania town where I grew up were also where Marx was sold. In addition to Marx rolling stock, they also sold Marx track and accessories, of which many of both went into our Lionel Christmas layout. Wish I could get mint Marx trains for those prices today!
