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Reply to "Two-rail tinplate track trivia question"

Those both appear to be Marx.  The rail shape, crimp pattern on the tie, and straight pins are the giveaway.  Lionel mechanical track is similar, but the original examples I've seen has the pins with the short section with the smaller diameter close to the end.  Marx pins are straight.  Other manufacturers used somewhat larger rails and larger pins, with different tie designs.  Now, what year are they?  That's a good question...

I'll preface my remarks with this is what I believe to be the case... it's hard enough to get a handle on mfg. dates for Marx Mechanical trains, let alone the track!  I have examples of Marx two-rail track that have flat ties with no holes, flat ties with one hole, and flat ties with two holes... and combinations of no hole & one hole ties in the same piece.  The two-rail flat ties are plated.  It's safe to say that those are pre-war to perhaps just postwar.  It's interesting to see the piece with the raised bump in the middle, but with what appears to be plated ties instead of black ties.  Postwar Marx Mechanical sets are typically found with two-rail track that has black ties with the bump in the middle (with plated rails), but I'm not sure when Marx made the transition from flat ties to ties with the bump.  I believe it to be sometime in the era just prewar to just postwar, and same with changing from plated ties to black ties.  So, that's my best guess on the track with the ties that have bumps but are plated... sometime right around WWII.  I'll be happy to defer to anyone who has strong evidence to the contrary.  One note of interest - there is Marx two-rail track that also has the rails blackened instead of plated, but it isn't very common.

MarxCurves

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