Never heard of a Marx engine with a bulb type smoke unit before, I would love to see some photos of the mechanism.
While I do still have the train, the housing was not painted and didn't survive(rust). Lost the green glass bottle for fluid. Its here, but I haven't seen it in 20 years. Might have had asbestos in the housing too. But I committed its shape to memory so I could recreate it someday(if I find a bulb). Ill try to remember to photograph the body and light socket for you, along with a later no smoke, but lighted version I have (for comparison) but here is a MS-paint pic for you till then(below) .
Does it hurt to run one of these locos without a traction tire. I got my 8703 used and did not realize it needed a tire. It runs just fine and pulls several cars, mostly 40's & 50's postwar stuff, on my little layout just fine even through O-27 curves. I use old school Marx all metal switches and the loco runs great through them, no e-unit shifting into reverse or anything like that.The only issue I have with the little lokie is the smoke unit. It works, but nowhere near as proficiently as the ones do in my Marx 666 and 1666. LOL
Hope you get you locomotive's issues sorted out Mr. Kazy way before you turn 60!
Must be later MARX turnout switches. My early MARX locos wont run on Lionel 0-27 turnouts and my Lionel locos wont run on my MARX turnouts(0-29 or 30?). MARX wheels gear teeth run to the very edge of the flange making them too wide for Lionel turnouts. Lionel flanges bottom out on the MARX turnouts causing it to "jump"off track or loose the cars at speed.
I think yours will last a loooong time without a tire, but ware will occur. If its good enough for you, Id flow with it off forever
. I imagine the tipping issue is less noticeable on tubular, its wider overall. But I think it would round those edges quicker making constant contact on both side of the grove. T-type modern tracks I think would enter the wheel grove up to 100% making the loco more "table leg tippy".
Sorry I don't know if the Dreyfuss had smoke or not. Adding a coupler to the front? I would just use wire, or buy a new scale version with a front coupler(if made) before cutting into an old one. But that's just me
. I did add a front coupler to the chromed MPC Lionel 4-4-0 Rock Island General so I could double head 2 of those pretty bass turds around
. It required mounting to the pilot truck because the pilot beam swings out to far in turns, and removing the whole pilot plus more plastic from underneath. If you cut the old Dreyfuss up... well, it just wouldn't look right
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Edits-photo size
