Wow! what incredible tinplate. Frenchtrains - beautiful Bing LNER cars. Jim Kelley Evans - I don't know the make but the signal bridge and train (Marklin?) is really cool. Arne - the Carette train indicator is amazing and Lew has another one by Bing. I can't imagine where you two have found stuff nearly 100 years old or older but in such great shape.
My contribution this weekend is more along the lines of Rambler Don - great JL passenger set by the way. Cast engine is earlier than the sheet metal engines used later.
What I have is a group of very early, Series 1, Marx 6" cars. They have the silver lithographed frame (SLF), short wheelbase, thin axles, and Joy Line couplers (JLC). These were made in this configuration (iaw Heitshaw disc) in 1935 only and represent the first production of these 6" cars post Marx taking over the Gerard Model Works in 1934. I have managed to find 4 of 5 freight cars (missing the hopper car) and the 1935 Green US Mail/Baggage car that will go with the 2 Pullmans in same early configuration I posted previously.
Here is the group, note SLF and JLC with a round hole instead of a slot in the coupler.
The 1935 Baggage / Mail car. Sliding doors and marked for NYC along the top edge. Ends have no lithography at all just the base color of green. Note the short wheelbase common to all these cars. The axles pierce the inner set of lithographed journal boxes as opposed to the outer set used later.
The 552, early CRI&P Gondola. In all other 1935 Series cars the coupler uses a twisted tab retention mechanism, installed in a horizontal slot in the floor of the frame. In the Gondola only, the couplers are shortened and riveted to the floor.
Early Colorado and Southern Refer. Lithographed shown as # 817 plus some indistinguishable markings which has nothing to do with Marx number,cataloged as # 91453
Early Santa Fe tank car #553 . Note the round hole in the top of the coupler as opposed to the more common slot of tab/slot couplers that followed in later configurations.
#694 Early NYC caboose. Note platform railing and ladder on rear but has couplers on both ends.
While these resemble the reasonably common Marx 6" cars, the 1935 configuration with the SLF , thin axles and short wheelbase plus the JLC's set these apart and date them as the first configuration from Louis Marx after he took over from Gerard Model Works.
Have a great weekend folks
Don
