Allstate Trains?

Oops, forgot to include a scan of the advertisement for my Allstate train set.  This is from the 1964 Sears Christmas catalog, page 214:

 

 

I would love to buy a new set for $3.89!

James, I LOVE the 198.  When I first saw one pictured in a book I had to have one, and was fortunate to locate it pretty quickly.

Sears also used the Allstate brand on playsets (garages, war and more) made for them by Marx.  There are also Marx slot car sets that carry the Allstate brand.

 

Sears also carried Marx train sets under the "Happi Time" brand.  The Happi Time brand was also used on Marx playsets (usually a farm) and numerous other Marx toys.

The HappiTime name was used through 1955, then they went to Allstate. Sears did have a special arrangement with Marx. They got some things first. The cast wheels and roadbed track were Sears exclusive for a time before being available to others. As Gary mentioned, the  E7 in orange and black and the light blue  S2 with their matching bay window caboose carried the Allstate name. Also there were blue Allstate 2 & 3 dome tank cars and Allstate gondola's. These are fun due to the wide ranges of blue they can be found in. The dark blue is the most attractive to me.

Here is a video of me showing my first O set, Allstate set 9625.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2koMifH4Xk

 

Steve

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2koMifH4Xk

More Marx playsets, using the All State brand (note both also use the Happi Time brand as well.)  From the 1959 Wish Book:

 

A couple of books worth tracking down if you're interested in these glimpses into the past are:

 

The Toy Train Department (Vol. 1--Sear's Catalog's Electric Train Pages, 1950-1969)

 

The Toy Train Department (Vol. 2--Montgomery Ward's Christmas Book Catalog, 1950-1969)

 

also...

 

Boys' Toys of the Fifties and Sixties (Sears Catalogs Toy Pages, 1950-1969)

 

I have all three, purchased some years ago.  I'm not sure about current availability.

Allan, you have some valuable stuff. Amazon lists Vol.1 at $128. new, $45. used...Vol.2 $199, new, $100. used. Boys Toys only $22/$17.

Can any one tell us here about the design and the history behind the marx forked coupler. Why no compatability with lionel rolling stock as far as the couplers? Was it a patent issue at the time? My first set was my uncles allstate steam set. I have had trains in my life ever since.

I've found that in recent years, certain printed materials seem to increase in value a whole lot more and faster than toy trains.  I recall once, some years ago, getting $400 for a first MTH catalog, which was really more of a brochure.

 

Maybe I can retire some day by selling off my rather extensive collection of toy train and railroading books and then just hold onto the trains. 

My first train set was a Marx I received in 1960.

 

I wish MTH would expand their tinplate line to include some of these trains.

 

Thanks,

 

Phil     

It could be that the Marx coupler design was determined by cost considerations.

It was also back compatible with earlier Marx tab and slot couplers. 

I assume it was a patent issue, and Josh Cowen was pretty darn aggressive about protecting his firm's patents.

 

The man who would really know more about it is Jim Flynn, former manufacturer of the New Marx line of trains.  Jim is one of the premier authorities on Marx trains in the country.

Plus, back then, Lionel, Marx and Gilbert wanted you to keep buying their trains, not "the other guys."

 

Rusty

Shhhhh....us Marx colletors have been trying to keep the attractions of Marx trains

secret for years...hoping everybody will collect Lionel and Flyer and not splash in

this pond...with two Greenberg books on Marx, including Bob Whitacre's book on

Marx sets, the secret hasn't been well kept. Depending upon contributions from Marx collectors, coupled with Marx making unknown numbers of different sets, for sure, not all (probably not even close) are included in the Whitacre book, you never know when you are going to discover an oddball, different set.  Marx's tiny and infrequent catalogs did not address sets, so what you find is what you get.  All those mail order

catalogs cited above , plus Western Auto, Alden's, Spiegel,  and others, do list many of them, and may reveal a gotta have, gotta find, set.

According to material I have, Marx bought the metal fork-tilt patent from an inventor before WWII; then in the early fifties improved it by forming it from plastic.  This was better in at least 2 ways:  As mentioned, the tab-and-slot could then be coupled to it, and it coupled more smoothly than the metal one, as it was not prone to bending out of alignment.  The tongue will snap though, if hit just right and hard enough. 

Here is my 198.  I don't run it much.  Currently it's displayed on a siding "taking on water".

Very nice, I'm fond of the 198's, too.  I have a few in addition to the one in the set I posted earlier.  They are a nice looking little locomotive!

My only 3 rail set as a youngster was a Marx set given to me by a family whose older boy had "outgrown" his toy train set.  (I got my other 3 rail "fix" from a friend that had a Lionel set.) 

 

My Marx was a NYC lithographed set and to this day I recall the NYC Pacemaker boxcar the black NYC gondola and the NYC Pacemaker caboose, and its tinplate steam engine.  (However I can't remember if there was a tank car or not.)  I had a ton of fun with that set!  The fork couplers worked GREAT.  You barely touched them together and they were hooked and ready.  Uncoupling was a bit of a pain, as I recall.

 

Anyway, I played with that set for several years until I "graduated" to a Lindberg HO train set with an SW switch engine.  Loved that set, too!

 

Marx are cool.  Really like those lithograph F units.

Funny how even with all the new stuff I collect.mth,lionel legacy ect. I still find myself looking on the bay once in a while for my uncles old set or thinking of piecing one together. They still some how have that magical appeal even to this day. Even though they were considered dime store trains as apposed to the lionel trains of that era. Plus as some have stated they still run great with a little clean up. Question, did any of the marx steamers have a working smoke unit similar to the puffer type of the lionel's of the day. Plus what about an air whistle in the tender also?