Marx Train pictures

NICE Steve! Super nice!

How do those original Marx flexi-truck Alco's run? Decent slow speed?

Andre

Steve

One of the best sets Marx offered. Great find.

Marx Alcos are good runners.  The biggest issue is that there's no reverse unit lock out.  A power interruption puts the locomotive into reverse.

@milnyc- Great find!  You have some real scarce rolling stock as well plus a great set!

@Steve "Papa" Eastman-Unbelievable that that Seaboard FM can pull all those cars, really looks great.  Thanks for the video.

@cbq9911a- Great post X2 ...Nice looking S-2 and the RI E7's look great.

Best Wishes

Don

Marx to the rescue. This Pride Lines set had a burnt out motor. Replaced with an early Marx with spoked drivers.

Steve

@Steve "Papa" Eastman- Steve with all of your fabulous collection, I can hardly believe we might have some things in common.  I loved your picture of the Pride Lines set with the Marx motor.  In my case, its a Hornby  shell, originally clockwork (like most Hornby) and repowered with a Marx motor to convert it to electric operation.  Repainted as well before completion and it runs really great.

Best Wishes

Don

All these neat photos have rekindled my interest in postwar Marx,

My first train was a Marx #400 pulling a 4 wheel sheet metal tender, gondola, box car, and caboose.

Still run it although I have a huge collection of post war and modern era Lionel which I run constantly.

Question: are there any good sources of postwar Marx?

@Jeff2035- Well Jeff your question is quite an interesting one (source of postwar Marx) and the answer is "almost anywhere", Marx made more trains (in number) than the other 2 major players (Lionel and AF) added together.  In addition, Marx is not as easily divided into pre-war and post war as several of his lines simply carried over...like the 6" 4 wheel lithographed freights which were offered from about 1936 till the end of Marx in about 1970. Some lines, like the 3/16 th inch scale cars only lasted from the late 40's till about the late 50's (S scale but still 0 gauge).  Marx plastic freights were composed of 3 lines (collectors have dubbed them, "light weight",  "middle weights" and "deluxe" but Marx never used those names).  The "deluxe" cars had more features like opening doors on boxcars and were sometimes slightly larger.  The "middle weights" lasted from about 1955  (8 wheel cars) until Marx closed.  The "light weight" cars are all 4 wheel  and consist of a simple decorated plastic casting that is hollow underneath.  Like the other manufacturers, the item which seemed to change most often was the coupler and the higher end cars typically had the fork coupler made in both in plastic and metal.  Other couplers included "one way" (pre-war only), tab / slot & plastic knuckle.  Some are compatible with others and some not, but you can always use a "transition car" - car with one coupler on one end and another on the opposite end..

Remember, Marx started making trains under his own name about 1935 far later than either Lionel or American Flyer.  Prior to that point Louis Marx was an "agent", sort of a middle man distributor for various toy companies and he mostly used the Gerard Model Works of Pennsylvania for trains and they sold under the name of "Joy Line".  Remember also that unlike Lionel or American Flyer, Marx was a TOY company making many, often famous, toys other than trains.  In fact for much of the of the 20th century Marx was the largest toy maker in the world.

So back to your original question.  Where do you find pw Marx ?  Well as I said almost anywhere, except for some rare variations (and there are some), it is generally available in most places you might find collectable antiques (flea markets, swap meets, auction houses, your local newspaper ).  I would also recommend e-bay it has a special listing just for Marx trains and it typically runs around 100 pages.

So good luck and good hunting.

Don

Don, thank you so much for your very informative essay on Marx trains. I appreciate the thought you devoted to writing this. I printed it and will keep it with my reference books on toy trains. I appreciate the information on # of wheels, different couplers, metal and plastic, scale, and now I know what Joy Line is. I took a look at the eBay listings, and they are overwhelming, which is a good thing.

Thank you again. I am ready to start expanding my Marx collection at York, in October.

@Jeff2035-you are welcome. Happy hunting at York.
Don

OK Marx fans...I decided that we had not posted to this thread in nearly a month so I thought I would put something out here for your review.  I recently acquired some interesting plastic Marx freights, cabooses in this case, that while no means "rare" (note- Marx made so many trains - in number- that I hesitate to use the term "rare" for anything except a very few specific items) they are at least somewhat interesting.  These are a white 8 wheel PC #18326 caboose and a red 8 wheel ATSF #1977 caboose.

The white PC is a bit unusual because of its rather stark livery and basic color.  Unlike the very common white NYC caboose that also uses the term "Pacemaker", the PC version omits the horizontal black lines under the logo but otherwise just substitutes PC for NYC and does not eliminate the "Pacemaker" term which is clearly of NYC origin.  The ATSF #1977 is fairly common but not as common as its 4 wheel lightweight cousin that I have pictured here previously.

Both cabooses are 8 wheel yet they have a difference.  The ATSF #1977 uses Type "F" trucks with a plastic truck facade that were available from 1955-1975 (please see comment on type F trucks below) .  While the PC #18326 uses Type "G" trucks, all sheet metal, that were available from 1958 - 1975.  Why the difference??? Only Mr. Marx knows for sure.  Other than this, the plastic mold is obviously the same for both cars only the color of the basic plastic differs as well as the decoration.  To make matters even more confusing, Marx used the #18326 on at least 4 other cabooses of different body color and livery but the same mold - just to confuse us collectors I suppose.

Here they are...the white PC version with type G trucks is shown in the reference material to be from 1973.  The #1977 from about the same time era, perhaps a little later at 1974, gives me a bit of pause as current references do not list a version with type F trucks and clearly the frame/trucks are universally manufactured so could be easily switched.  Both versions have tilt automatic (pickle fork) couplers which is iaw all my reference material.

Note the original Marx company ceased operation March 10,1972 reaching agreement to sell all of Marx domestic toy plants to Quaker Oats Company.  This lasted until September 5, 1975 when Quaker announced it was leaving the business, Marx train production ceased in November 1975.  Thus both these cars would have been produced under the Quaker Oats Corporate label although they were produced with Marx tooling and in Marx facilities.  The Quaker Oats Company had announced an end to anything but plastic toys in 1972.

Best Wishes Marx fans,

Don

On other forums, I was asked about servicing the H0 6096 Hudson so I put this video together.

Steve

https://youtu.be/7GqrqziHprg?si=CVFw5ZQGZyzeBaee

Well Marx Fans, things have really been slow on this thread, not much if anything for over a month.  So I thought I might repeat an input I used for "Tail End Tuesday" over here as its a Marx input.  I just received this Union Pacific Bay Window caboose, it was made by Marx for one year only, 1956 so it is some 67 years old.  It is missing a smoke stack and a radio antenna but both those parts just mount into holes in the roof and the parts themselves are readily available.  In fact, I have them already on the way to my home.  So here are a couple of pictures of my new Bay Window caboose.

Strangely enough, Marx used the same car number #3824 on a UP Work Caboose with searchlight - also in 1956.  The catalog numbers of the items did show a difference using a notation of "/1" after the catalog number.  Why did Marx do this?  I have no idea.

The two ends are different in regard to the railings, one end has a ladder to the roof and the other end does not.

Well Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Enjoy the Holiday

Don