Marx Train pictures

Really simple design,but impressive for a unit from 1969( although that's new compared to my pre and postwar Lionel and Marx). I believe Marx was the first to offer electronic sound in an O guage train. I may in the future hunt down a diesel roar Marx engine someday.

At last week's chapter gathering, one of my fellow TCAers brought me a magazine article showing some 3D printed model cars and asked me if I could make up some replica Marx vehicles for him. I decided to start with this model, the prewar Marx "critter" tank for the 6" operating ramp car. I dug up some photos, made some educated guesses on dimensions and printed up some prototypes!

The originals had a stamped metal body and a turned wooden turret. My replicas are made of pure ABS plastic that's a bit thicker and perhaps a little lighter than the originals. The turret is a separate piece that pops into the hull the same way the originals would have, it even rotates once it's in place. I'm not sure if Marx ever put a different turret on the Critters; it seems a waste to have a revolving turret with no main gun sticking out.

I'm experimenting with different wheels and axles. I don't have any suitable axle stock so I've been using the next best thing, escutcheon pins and clippings of rubber tubing. The red 3D printed wheels fit better and are easy to make but the black fiber washer ones look better. I think some black printed wheels are in order for these the next time I switch the filament reel on my printer.

I read an article that suggested these came in several different colors including red and olive drab. I have some extra red filament on hand so I'm going to make up a couple more for myself. Definitely have to make some OD ones too, I think they'll look really sharp in that. These little vehicles are fun to work with, I've got to design some more!

@Donnie Kennedy posted:

Really simple design,but impressive for a unit from 1969( although that's new compared to my pre and postwar Lionel and Marx). I believe Marx was the first to offer electronic sound in an O guage train. I may in the future hunt down a diesel roar Marx engine someday.

The Marx Sound of Power was a year before the Lionel Mighty Sound of Steam. Both worked on white noise generators.

Steve

@Trainguy Ken posted:

At last week's chapter gathering, one of my fellow TCAers brought me a magazine article showing some 3D printed model cars and asked me if I could make up some replica Marx vehicles for him. I decided to start with this model, the prewar Marx "critter" tank for the 6" operating ramp car. I dug up some photos, made some educated guesses on dimensions and printed up some prototypes!

The originals had a stamped metal body and a turned wooden turret. My replicas are made of pure ABS plastic that's a bit thicker and perhaps a little lighter than the originals. The turret is a separate piece that pops into the hull the same way the originals would have, it even rotates once it's in place. I'm not sure if Marx ever put a different turret on the Critters; it seems a waste to have a revolving turret with no main gun sticking out.

I'm experimenting with different wheels and axles. I don't have any suitable axle stock so I've been using the next best thing, escutcheon pins and clippings of rubber tubing. The red 3D printed wheels fit better and are easy to make but the black fiber washer ones look better. I think some black printed wheels are in order for these the next time I switch the filament reel on my printer.

I read an article that suggested these came in several different colors including red and olive drab. I have some extra red filament on hand so I'm going to make up a couple more for myself. Definitely have to make some OD ones too, I think they'll look really sharp in that. These little vehicles are fun to work with, I've got to design some more!

I have an old resin repro. Don’t know who made it.

Steve

A Marx set a freind gave me.

@Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:

I have an old resin repro. Don’t know who made it.

Steve

I read something about resin Critters in my research. Couldn't find any details but the one photo I saw showed an OD hull with a red turret.

@taycotrains posted:

A Marx set a freind gave me.

That's a really nice Marx M10000 set. I think it's an early one-- looks like it has a manual reverse and the hard to find illuminated rear section. That "Official Union Pacific" box is pretty awesome!

I have one of these sets too but mine is in tough shape, is missing a car and barely runs. I pulled it off the shelf to take a picture for you. I just remembered that I wanted to rebuild the motor and see if I could get it running any better. Sounds like I have a new project for today!

@taycotrains:  Nice set and what a super gift.

Don

Bob T:

LOVE your little M1000 set!

All:

Thanks for the input about the "Sound Of Power"!

Also:

To me, this is one of the funnest threads here at OGR.

Andre

Andre,

Here is a close up of the contact wheel on the tender. Notice the break on the wheel that simulates the chuffing. This thread is very enjoyable. I caught the Marx bug a few months ago, and am enjoying it!

@Don McErlean posted:

.... I thought I might post one of mine.  Its nearly complete although it lacks the cardboard "village" that came with it...an item I am sure I am unlikely to ever find.  Nonetheless, here is Marx set 4353 from their 1965 catalog.  The set does still have the "telephone poles" that were originally part of the content.

Note that the figure 8 cross over is packed under the trains.  This matches the layout pictured on the cover.  Even after 57 years, the 490 loco runs fine!

Glad this thread is back

Don

That's the set my brother and I got for Christmas...I guess it must have been in 1965... 🙂 ...cool beans.

Mark in Oregon

@Strummer /Mark in Oregon :  Great story and it makes the set so much more "real" to know that one like it really brought joy to some folks.  Many of us were thrilled with that first Marx (or Lionel or American Flyer) set that was under the tree.  Its an experience we never forget.  Thanks for posting.

Best Wishes

Don

And finally here’s another Marx set that was given to me. I believe it dates back to 1938.

Bob: WOW!! That military set is one of the most sought after Marx pieces. I was especially intrigued by the tag - wondering if t was perhaps a factory sample or from the Marx archives in Erie. What a find!!!

Best wishes

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

I was especially intrigued by the tag - wondering if t was perhaps a factory sample or from the Marx archives in Erie.

Don

The story goes this way…the set belonged to my friends much older cousin who gave him the set sometime in the early 50s…his father owned a small hotel in Baltimore and a lot of salesmen stayed there and he supposedly got it from a novelty salesman that would be a regular guest there.

BT

Bob:  Just for fun, I tried looking up your set in Greenberg's Guide to Marx Trains, Vol III sets and found one very close to yours.  I could not find the 5950 from the tag number but did find the 5951 set which seems almost identical to yours in content.  This is very common with Marx who made endless varieties of set contents, often changing them just to suit an individual buyer.  This is reinforced by what I think I see on that tag which is a reference to "your number" meaning that this set was configured for a specific customer.

Just for fun the set 5950 contains:

Locomotive 500 CP-type 2-4-2 olive drab

Tender 500 CP-type "Army Supply Train" olive

Flatcar olive with a Tank

Flatcar olive with a field gun

Flatcar olive with a siege gun (5/8" dia bore)  Note the siege gun can fire the shells contained in the ordinance gondola.

Flatcar olive with a machine gun

Flatcar olive with a canopy truck

Gondola ordinance olive with shells

Searchlight Car

Coach Radio Car with Antenna

Observation Car official car

18 pieces of 0-27 track

Type IS-15 transformer

Cars are six-inch four wheel metal cars with olive frames and tab / slot couplers

This looks exactly like the set you have.  Congratulations, this is perhaps one of the most sought after collector's sets that were ever made by Marx.  You also have a great back story which makes it even more interesting.

Best wishes and enjoy your wonderful gift

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

Bob:  Just for fun, I tried looking up your set in Greenberg's Guide to Marx Trains, Vol III sets and found one very close to yours.  I could not find the 5950 from the tag number but did find the 5951 set which seems almost identical to yours in content.  This is very common with Marx who made endless varieties of set contents, often changing them just to suit an individual buyer.  This is reinforced by what I think I see on that tag which is a reference to "your number" meaning that this set was configured for a specific customer.

Just for fun the set 5950 contains:

Locomotive 500 CP-type 2-4-2 olive drab

Tender 500 CP-type "Army Supply Train" olive

Flatcar olive with a Tank

Flatcar olive with a field gun

Flatcar olive with a siege gun (5/8" dia bore)  Note the siege gun can fire the shells contained in the ordinance gondola.

Flatcar olive with a machine gun

Flatcar olive with a canopy truck

Gondola ordinance olive with shells

Searchlight Car

Coach Radio Car with Antenna

Observation Car official car

18 pieces of 0-27 track

Type IS-15 transformer

Cars are six-inch four wheel metal cars with olive frames and tab / slot couplers

This looks exactly like the set you have.  Congratulations, this is perhaps one of the most sought after collector's sets that were ever made by Marx.  You also have a great back story which makes it even more interesting.

Best wishes and enjoy your wonderful gift

Don

Don

Thank you for this great information !

I really appreciate you going through the trouble finding this info out !

Thanks again Bob

Marx H0 New Haven Switcher set 17470, 1962.

Steve

OK Marx fans, I can't participate in the HO area so I will focus on my 0 gauge.  Yesterday via post I got a very anticipated package in the mail, a MoPac Cattle car from Marx, the # 54099 from 1956 and this is the operating version at least in the terminology used by Mr. Marx which was a long way from how it was done with Lionel and American Flyer but also far less expensive.

Here is a side view of the car, not very different from the non-operating version.

The ID end of the car along with the car number.

The RR logo end of the car, Missouri Pacific (MoPac) plus car data and built dates

OK here is the cool part.  You roll up to the ramp and a track trip moves a mechanical lever under the door to the car.  The door slides open and .... what should appear??  A COW ready to load onto the ramp.  Here he is, ready to off load.  I suspect if he knew what was coming next he might be more reluctant to get off but that's the way it goes.

Well I admit to being easily entertained, but I think this is cool.  Yes it was just one COW unlike the cattle cars of Lionel and Flyer but If you ever messed with their loading ramps, car passages, vibrator, alignment of ramps. and the cost (especially in the day) you might appreciate the non-electrical, nearly fail safe Marx mechanism and his one cow

Best wishes

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

Well I admit to being easily entertained, but I think this is cool.  Yes it was just one COW unlike the cattle cars of Lionel and Flyer but If you ever messed with their loading ramps, car passages, vibrator, alignment of ramps. and the cost (especially in the day) you might appreciate the non-electrical, nearly fail safe Marx mechanism and his one cow

Best wishes

Don

That's a really cool car there! I didn't know that Marx had their own operating cattle car, although I'm sure they had something of everything. I really like operating accessories, especially ones with clever mechanical features.

Here's a Marx accessory that I've got to set up on my Marx layout sometime this summer. It's a prewar dumping mechanism for Marx's operating dump cars. No UCS section required, just a regular pushbutton with AC power. The Masonite "claws" on the dump mechanism are tied to a solenoid so they swing out and tip the car's bin to the other side.

Beautiful car, Don!

There was a set that was sold with that MoPac stock car:  a ramp with fences and a track trip.  A very nice example (C-8 or better, w/box) recent sold you-know-where for the better part of a Benjamin.  Definitely on my wish list!

Marx also made a 5595 Dairy Car. Has a blue man with a crate on his shoulder that pops out.

In H0, there is a New Haven boxcar with the man that pos out.

Steve

Trainguy Ken :  Neat unloader, I have seen such a thing at auction but wondered how it worked.  Really looks neat.  Thanks for your comment on the cattle car, I admit I think its neat!

Palallin :  Thank you for your comment.  I knew about the ramp and fences, I saw just the ramp recently on evil bay but they wanted quite a bit more for that than I paid for the car!  So the ramp will have to wait.  I suspect that cow does not mind (LOL)!

Steve :  I did not know about the 5595 Dairy car.  However I do have the #249319 Marlines box car which has a man pop out as if unloading.  Same mechanism as the cow but with a "blue" man.

Thanks a lot fellows, I was really thrilled to find the car with a functioning mechanism AND still having the COW!  The cow is free standing so can be removed from the car thus is easily lost over the years.  Candidly as a design engineer (during my working days) I am always impressed with how Marx kept to his philosophy of "low price / high volume" and found ingenious ways of providing similar action to the expensive trains but at a fraction of the price and normally with much higher reliability.

Best wishes

Don

It’s alive. Marx F7 designed to run on a 4.5 V battery box, on and off only. I’m using a Bachmann transformer being careful not to give too much power. I added 3 extra boxcars and am very surprised how easily it pulls them.

Steve

@Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:

It’s alive. Marx F7 designed to run on a 4.5 V battery box, on and off only. I’m using a Bachmann transformer being careful not to give too much power. I added 3 extra boxcars and am very surprised how easily it pulls them.

Steve

Gotta say you got one nice collection, A retired USAF joe I got to know gave me a couple items.

@Sitka :  Neat 10005. The Silver and Blue #791 articulated streamliner can date as early as 1940 if it has the large die cast wheels.  Small rear die cast wheels and front stamped steel wheels date from 1952-1958.  The signs in their original box is just amazing.  How anything can stay so complete for as long as it has is really something.  I found the # 1282 " Right - O- Way" 12 sign set in the 1954 Marx catalog but it could have been earlier than that as they made other 12 piece sign sets with different numbers, perhaps your set has a number on the box and you might post it.   I have many of the signs, come to me as individual items over the years, and I use them on my layout.  Seeing the entire array, in the original box, is quite unique.

@Steve "Papa" Eastman :  Neat HO set.  I am sure you know but its interesting that Marx made the 0 gauge plastic NYC E 7 A unit in the same black and white color scheme 3 times '53-'55, '59-'69, '71-'74.  You would think that with all that production, 0 scale NYC E7's would be common but in my experience they are not.

Best Wishes

Don

Don just came in from cutting trees from the past storm here is a couple more Marx and no numbers on the box Thank You for the info God Speed Mark

Sitka:  Nice assembly of Marx trains.  Like many of Marx trains its sometimes hard to tell when they were made.  For instance the two tenders are both Type 51 and were made for many years both before and after the war.  The caboose was also available over a long period.  The CRI&P gondola however was pre-war only.  The CV again is hard to date without a closer look.  If the side plates on the motor are black, then it is most likely post war...if they are plated, shinny, then it could be either post or prewar as the switch to black took place sometime after the war.

Sorry we don't have a set number on the signs, but we can go with the fact that the catalog listed the sign set as "Right - O -Way"  with 12 pieces in the '54 catalog.

Great Stuff...really neat, I hope you have fun running them

Don

Picked this item 5 minutes into the York show in the blue hall. I never seen this accessory before today.

Its a HO lighted sanding tower !

Paid 5 dollars for it.

(please excuse the truck camper pics there ain’t much room in here)

@taycotrains posted:

Picked this item 5 minutes into the York show in the blue hall. I never seen this accessory before today.

Its a HO lighted sanding tower !

Paid 5 dollars for it.

(please excuse the truck camper pics there ain’t much room in here)

One of a couple of boxed H0 accessories I don’t have.

Steve

Wow, that's very cool...👍

Mark in Oregon

VERY cool on the sand tower!! And only 5 measly bucks!

'Ya done good!

Andre

@taycotrains posted:

Picked this item 5 minutes into the York show in the blue hall. I never seen this accessory before today.

Its a HO lighted sanding tower !

Paid 5 dollars for it.

(please excuse the truck camper pics there ain’t much room in here)

Wow!  That would look good on a highly detailed HO railroad.

Rusty

Some more Marx added to the fleet. A nice 333, 1998 switcher I brought back from the dead, found a horn and added a light to the cab! Bought some freight cars,caboose, and work caboose!

Donnie: Nice trains.  IMHO the 333 was the finest steamer that Marx made, top notch.  Did you get the special die cast tender with her?  If not, they sometimes come up on e-bay and are worth the investment, that tender was designed especially for the 333 and is unique to that engine.  Marx never made another like it.  The string of cars you showed is neat, the "yellow" Santa Fe stock car is unusual and scarce (its hard to use "rare" with Marx he made so many of everything) and has a collector value about 5 or 6X that of the brown one.  There is also a red one which is sort of in the middle in value but in my experience even harder to find. The work caboose's were always listed as "deluxe" cars and Marx made what is basically the same car for several railroads besides SF (WP for example), he also made some with a searchlight.   The 1998 is a great engine, good on ya for bringing her back.   I hope you enjoy your Marx trains, they are a great value and should bring you lots of pleasure.

Don

Have a bridge with box and a 666 2-4-2 that smokes, someday my grandson can add to his PW Lionel collection when he is done chasing leg and Hockey.

Donnie,

Nice to see that you run a tinplate car train and a traditional plug-car freight train on the same layout.

I thought that I was the only one!

Mannyrock

Thought I’d share pictures of the innards of two types of Marx H0 999’s. One has rubber band drive, the other has a spring worm. Both are powered by 4.5V battery boxes.

Steve

@Don McErlean posted:

Donnie: Nice trains.  IMHO the 333 was the finest steamer that Marx made, top notch.  Did you get the special die cast tender with her?  If not, they sometimes come up on e-bay and are worth the investment, that tender was designed especially for the 333 and is unique to that engine.  Marx never made another like it.  The string of cars you showed is neat, the "yellow" Santa Fe stock car is unusual and scarce (its hard to use "rare" with Marx he made so many of everything) and has a collector value about 5 or 6X that of the brown one.  There is also a red one which is sort of in the middle in value but in my experience even harder to find. The work caboose's were always listed as "deluxe" cars and Marx made what is basically the same car for several railroads besides SF (WP for example), he also made some with a searchlight.   The 1998 is a great engine, good on ya for bringing her back.   I hope you enjoy your Marx trains, they are a great value and should bring you lots of pleasure.

Don

I was curious when those box cars were made. Solid plastic with no opening doors,but I like them. The yellow and brown are at sf. The red one is Baltimore and Ohio. I think they look great! I haven't found the diecast tender,but have been keeping an eye out for it! I do enjoy Marx. The only one I havent liked is the Santa Fe aa 1095. Trying to sell those. Just not a fan.

@Mannyrock posted:

Donnie,

Nice to see that you run a tinplate car train and a traditional plug-car freight train on the same layout.

I thought that I was the only one!

Mannyrock

Well, don't tell anyone, but sometimes I'll even run my Lionel tinplate with my Marx as well. I kinda like watching my 333 Marx run with my Lionel 224e passenger set.

Only a fraction of the 333 locomotives made came with the diecast tender. The majority of the 333 line came with a plastic 3/16" coal tender that was usually lettered for Southern Pacific, even though the SP ran mostly oil tenders. Some 333 locos came with the wedge tender with scale trucks and tilt couplers.

There are WAY more 333 locos out there than there are diecast tenders.