Ken...I checked again. IAW "Greenberg Guide to Marx Trains", second edition the #898 has the number stamped on the shell in white and I could not see that. But you are indeed correct that your loco does seem to lack the stamped leading truck of the # 591 and indeed the #898 did come with a sparkler. However, if it is a #898 windup then this locomotive only led 3 mechanical sets (Greenbergs Guide to Marx Trains , Vol III "sets"). The set numbers were #815 (Circa 1950 Allied catalog), #823 (1949-1950 Allied catalog) and # 860 (A&B) both from the 1952 Allied catalog, These sets do not match your picture except for the #556 red NYC caboose and in one instance in set #823 the 787701 PRR brown hopper. Even more unexpected, in all set cases the #898 is listed with a #551 NYC tender with a grey band or in one case the #951 black "wedge" tender. Now Marx made any collectors life miserable by switching tenders all the time and the #551 has many variations so this is not too unexpected. The cars all changing however to this extent seems a bit odd, although any Marx fan will tell you that he had no difficulty switching cars to please some retailer and all the cars in question are 4 wheel 6 inch lithographed cars with tab/slot couplers. These cars were commonly used from the middle 1930's to the 1950's and then faded through the 50's but some were still in use in the 1960's.
Anyway its a great set, made up by Marx, or some retailer, or some customer who had (no doubt) hrs of fun with the set, Its a great find. I loved the video of it running. Thanks for posting.
Don
