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@Bill Swatos thanks for the kind words on my pre-war caboose discussion.  Patrick and Sitka - neat pictures as always, thanks for posting.

My contribution today stems from a day when Marx, always the business man, continued to explore how to bring electric trains to the most financially challenged component of his customer base.  He hit upon the idea of designing a line of trains  which he could sell without undermining his normal line.  Note - Lionel did this with the "Winner" line trains pre war as did American Flyer with their "Hummer" line.  So in about 1950-51 Marx brings forward his line of "Marlines" trains.  Basic plastic freight cars and a 400 type plastic boiler steam locomotive. No railroad livery or names just a generic "Marlines" lettering.  So here is a look at that line of trains.

Here is the T.E.T. view of the train, the "Marlines" red caboose.

Marx Marlines train caboose

Here is the whole train showing the tender, gondola, and caboose.  Marx also did make a "Marlines" boxcar, which was a simple 4 wheel shell with non-opening doors - similar to the "lightweight" cars in the regular line.  It came in red, yellow, and blue and I cannot find any of them!!  But I keep looking.

Marx Marlines train engine, tender, gondola, and caboose

Happy Tuesday everyone.

Don

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  • Marx Marlines train caboose
  • Marx Marlines train engine, tender, gondola, and caboose

Well I guess its me who's starting off this fine Tuesday, which is OK as I have some new cabooses.  I was at a train show last Saturday and found two really nice, near O scale cabooses for a very low price.  They both have illumination and the PRR caboose even has smoke.  Since they were from some of my favorite RR's I just had to buy them.  So here they are:

This is the Lionel Southern #17601 Standard O, wood side caboose from 1988.  This will look great behind my new (1979) Southern U36b although its likely of an earlier era.  It is 8 1/2" long (or 36 scale ft).

Lionel 17601 SRR caboose side

I really liked the added hand rails on top of the cupola and the ladder detail

Lionel 17601 SRR caboose top

The end platforms contain the brake wheel and the chain guard for added realism

Lionel 17601 SRR caboose non coupla end

Finally the cupola view shows the curved as opposed to peaked roof and the end platform detail.

Lionel 17601 SRR caboose coupla end

Here is the Lionel Pennsylvania RR #19807, also from 1988.  It is an "extended vision" type caboose and is also in the Standard O line (closer to scale).  It is 9 1/2 " long or 40 scale feet so, some 4 scale feet longer than the SRR caboose above.  Its also obviously a steel sided car of a much later era than the SRR caboose above.  This car has lights and smoke from the chimney!   The price was $2 so I could hardly resist.

Lionel 19807 PRR caboose sideLionel 19807 PRR caboose top

I really liked the end platform detail, in this case the brake wheel connecting chain is even shown as well as ladder detail.

Lionel 19807 PRR caboose non coupla endLionel 19807 PRR caboose coupla end

Both of these cars have automatic couplers on both ends so should work well in my simple trains.  Well that is it for me this Tuesday, hope we can gather up some more input later on today.  Best wishes for a good and healthy week to all.

Don

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Images (8)
  • Lionel 17601 SRR caboose side
  • Lionel 17601 SRR caboose top
  • Lionel 17601 SRR caboose non coupla end
  • Lionel 17601 SRR caboose coupla end
  • Lionel 19807 PRR caboose side
  • Lionel 19807 PRR caboose top
  • Lionel 19807 PRR caboose non coupla end
  • Lionel 19807 PRR caboose coupla end

Well I guess its me who's starting off this fine Tuesday, which is OK as I have some new cabooses.  I was at a train show last Saturday and found two really nice, near O scale cabooses for a very low price.  They both have illumination and the PRR caboose even has smoke.  Since they were from some of my favorite RR's I just had to buy them.  So here they are:

This is the Lionel Southern #17601 Standard O, wood side caboose from 1988.  This will look great behind my new (1979) Southern U36b although its likely of an earlier era.  It is 8 1/2" long (or 36 scale ft).

Lionel 17601 SRR caboose side

I really liked the added hand rails on top of the cupola and the ladder detail

Lionel 17601 SRR caboose top

The end platforms contain the brake wheel and the chain guard for added realism

Lionel 17601 SRR caboose non coupla end

Finally the cupola view shows the curved as opposed to peaked roof and the end platform detail.

Lionel 17601 SRR caboose coupla end

Here is the Lionel Pennsylvania RR #19807, also from 1988.  It is an "extended vision" type caboose and is also in the Standard O line (closer to scale).  It is 9 1/2 " long or 40 scale feet so, some 4 scale feet longer than the SRR caboose above.  Its also obviously a steel sided car of a much later era than the SRR caboose above.  This car has lights and smoke from the chimney!   The price was $2 so I could hardly resist.

Lionel 19807 PRR caboose sideLionel 19807 PRR caboose top

I really liked the end platform detail, in this case the brake wheel connecting chain is even shown as well as ladder detail.

Lionel 19807 PRR caboose non coupla endLionel 19807 PRR caboose coupla end

Both of these cars have automatic couplers on both ends so should work well in my simple trains.  Well that is it for me this Tuesday, hope we can gather up some more input later on today.  Best wishes for a good and healthy week to all.

Don

2 dollars? Wanna double your money and sell it to me for 4 bucks? Seriously, hope to see it in action , perhaps next TET. I'd never even heard of a smoking caboose until I got into O-gauge.

@Bill Swatos thanks for the kind words on my pre-war caboose discussion.  Patrick and Sitka - neat pictures as always, thanks for posting.

My contribution today stems from a day when Marx, always the business man, continued to explore how to bring electric trains to the most financially challenged component of his customer base.  He hit upon the idea of designing a line of trains  which he could sell without undermining his normal line.  Note - Lionel did this with the "Winner" line trains pre war as did American Flyer with their "Hummer" line.  So in about 1950-51 Marx brings forward his line of "Marlines" trains.  Basic plastic freight cars and a 400 type plastic boiler steam locomotive. No railroad livery or names just a generic "Marlines" lettering.  So here is a look at that line of trains.

Here is the T.E.T. view of the train, the "Marlines" red caboose.

Marx Marlines train caboose

Here is the whole train showing the tender, gondola, and caboose.  Marx also did make a "Marlines" boxcar, which was a simple 4 wheel shell with non-opening doors - similar to the "lightweight" cars in the regular line.  It came in red, yellow, and blue and I cannot find any of them!!  But I keep looking.

Marx Marlines train engine, tender, gondola, and caboose

Happy Tuesday everyone.

Don

Don, I meant to compliment you on your "Marlines" set last week. It's amazing you have this set in this condition. I believe these were molded in straight polystyrene and so were very brittle resulting in very few surviving in ANY condition, let alone fully intact like yours. Thanks for sharing the history AND photos of this unique set with us. I hope you find that boxcar. You can show it off on Boxcar Sunday!

@Sitka - Hey Mate, really come to enjoy your "nightime" pictures. Thanks for your mention.  @leapinlarry - Thanks Larry for your comment.  Those observation cars are really nice when lit up and that B&O locomotive (4-6-0 or 4-8-0 ?) looks like one that might even work with my tight curves, love the lights on the tender @Bill Swatos - thanks for the comments on my new cabooses' and sorry the PRR is not for sale...yet!  I will see if I can get her smok'in for next T.E.T.  Thanks also for the comment on the Marlines Marx set.  I was very thrilled to find it so intact.   You are very correct, sometimes the cheapest thing in a line of toys is the most difficult to find 70+ years later.  They are more cheaply made as you pointed out and hence less durable and unlike Lionel's that represented a fair piece of most families modest Christmas budget, these Marx trains were often victim of Mom's "clean up" initiatives and thrown away.  @trumptrain - Patrick, if I have not done so before, let me compliment you on both your photography and your imaginative ways of "setting the scene",  great posts.

Best wishes everyone, hope you are having a great week.

Don

Well fans of T.E.T. it looks like its a slow start this week.  I am posting on the end of my last weeks post so I hope I can inspire some others to join in...I guess its that first day back to work after a 3 day weekend.  Well, I have posted before that I am working to collect some "Chessie" rolling stock to run behind a Chessie System steamer I have.  I posted several different cars so far and this one is my latest.  Since its a caboose, it fits in with T.E.T.  So here it is.

The Lionel (MPC) #9167 C&O Chessie System N5c caboose from 1974-1976

Lionel 9167 C&O caboose sideLionel 9167 C&O caboose platform end

Best wishes for everyone to have a great week.

Don

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Images (2)
  • Lionel 9167 C&O caboose side
  • Lionel 9167 C&O caboose platform end

Here is the Lionel Pennsylvania RR #19807, also from 1988.  It is an "extended vision" type caboose and is also in the Standard O line (closer to scale).  It is 9 1/2 " long or 40 scale feet so, some 4 scale feet longer than the SRR caboose above.  Its also obviously a steel sided car of a much later era than the SRR caboose above.  This car has lights and smoke from the chimney!   The price was $2 so I could hardly resist.

Lionel 19807 PRR caboose sideLionel 19807 PRR caboose top

I really liked the end platform detail, in this case the brake wheel connecting chain is even shown as well as ladder detail.

Lionel 19807 PRR caboose non coupla endLionel 19807 PRR caboose coupla end

Both of these cars have automatic couplers on both ends so should work well in my simple trains.  Well that is it for me this Tuesday, hope we can gather up some more input later on today.  Best wishes for a good and healthy week to all.

Don

Don - noticed this error on Lionel Bay Window cabooses on one of your posts from way back, and, that error is that the brake wheel is external to the caboose walkway, instead of accessible from the walkway. I hadn’t noticed on any Lionel EV cabooses before this post!

@Mark V. Spadaro - Mark, although I hadn't noticed it , you are correct.  The placement of the brake wheel does seem wrong at least in accordance with prototype practice.  I looked up the car in Greenbergs "Lionel Trains, 1987-1996, Motive Power and Rolling Stock, The Richard Kughn Era" by Michael Solly.  The reference has the entire line of extended vision cabooses pictured and ALL of them have the brake wheel to the outside.  Why???  Who knows, someone at Lionel (LTI) thought they looked better that way or just drew the assembly drawing wrong.  Likely we will never know.  Thanks for the comment and taking the time to post me on what you found.

Best Wishes

Don

Don - noticed this error on Lionel Bay Window cabooses on one of your posts from way back, and, that error is that the brake wheel is external to the caboose walkway, instead of accessible from the walkway. I hadn’t noticed on any Lionel EV cabooses before this post!

Mark, Lionel missed the boat in a bigger way.  The Pennsy never rostered any wide vision cabin cars.  At least not that had even seen.

Ron

Don I don't know if any other railroads beside the Pennsy (PC) ran N5c caboose but it sure does look good in other liveries like your Chessie.  As for the EV caboose break wheel t was probably easier to put on that way.  I'll have to check one of mine to see if it's an easy fix.

As for PRR never running an EV caboose I think we all know that Lionel, as well as other manufacturers and importers, take liberties with paint schemes to appeal to broader markets and boost sales to make tooling investments worth while. 

Well I am off to Fort Worth tomorrow for my wife's chemo so I will be out of the house early.  Thought I might post a new acquisition for Tuesday a little early.  This is the Marx 7" line caboose for Kansas City Southern.  While it may not look unique the KCS caboose is by far about the most scarce of the 7" rolling stock.  Marx only used it on one set, with the #54 AA at the head end, set number was 8965.  The KCS caboose can carry any number from 966 through 980.  Why?  Only Mr. Marx knows.  Piece of advice, this car is so scarce that collecting an example of all of those numbers would be a life's work.  OBTW this set carried another scarce car, the C&O brown gondola. So one set with at least 2 very scarce cars included.  I will post some pictures of the total consist on either the Marx thread or tinplate thread later in the week.

Marx KCS 7 inch caboose

Best Wishes All

Don

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  • Marx KCS 7 inch caboose

@coach joe - Thanks Joe for all your comments on my Chessie caboose.  I agree that the Pennsy EV caboose is likely a fantasy scheme as far as the prototype RR is concerned...but it looks good on MY PRR trains!   Thanks again for your comments.

Best Regards

Don

And I'll still give you 4 bucks for it! Hope to see it smokin' away soon! I also hope all goes well with your wife's chemotherapy treatment tomorrow.

WOW.........already TET again.

Here's a rear of the MTH Premier CSX that sat for a year on the shelf.

  It only ran forward with no lights or sound until I turned it on it's back and hooked up power with the  clips and kept running it.  It took some time ,but then started to respond .

I'm glad it wasn't a board that went bad.

Dallas sounds like you need to get in that train room more, Nice looking engine

Well I am off to Fort Worth tomorrow for my wife's chemo so I will be out of the house early.  Thought I might post a new acquisition for Tuesday a little early.  This is the Marx 7" line caboose for Kansas City Southern.  While it may not look unique the KCS caboose is by far about the most scarce of the 7" rolling stock.  Marx only used it on one set, with the #54 AA at the head end, set number was 8965.  The KCS caboose can carry any number from 966 through 980.  Why?  Only Mr. Marx knows.  Piece of advice, this car is so scarce that collecting an example of all of those numbers would be a life's work.  OBTW this set carried another scarce car, the C&O brown gondola. So one set with at least 2 very scarce cars included.  I will post some pictures of the total consist on either the Marx thread or tinplate thread later in the week.

Marx KCS 7 inch caboose

Best Wishes All

Don

All will work out for your wife Don God Speed!! Mark

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