Marx Photo Gallery

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Sun Apr 12, 2020 10:14 am

I saw that there were plans to move the collection to a new venue near Elizabethtown. It would be great if it can be preserved in its entirety.

Here's another 6-inch freight I have, this a 553 MSO tank car in almost mint condition. I'm wondering if this is an item reproduced by the Flynns:

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 6:38 am

Another example of the 3-D effects produced by Marx lithography, a 20102 caboose:

: Marx 20102 NYC caboose; Marx 20102.jpg (160.21 KiB) Viewed 37680 times

This is nearly identical to the caboose that was part of the Marx mechanical set I received as a child in the early 1960s, only that one sported a Union Pacific scheme and had plastic wheels. My understanding is plastic-wheeled rolling stock was the norm for the postwar wind-ups, probably intended to reduce weight and taking some strain off the locomotive.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:54 am

Here's a set similar to the Marx outfit I had as a kid:

: Marx set.jpg (30.27 KiB) Viewed 37666 times

This one has a plastic bodied mechanical steamer, but the locomotive in my set had a sheet-metal body. Otherwise similar, featuring Union Pacific livery.

javinda · Post by **javinda** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:37 am

love the oil tanker!

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:16 am

The Marx 3/16" O-gauge stuff is very nice. Here's a 174580 New York Central box car in 3/16":

: Marx 174580 NYC box car.jpg (172.83 KiB) Viewed 37378 times

All metal, this one features opening doors and the Marx automatic "scissors" coupler (couples automatically, but not so sure there was a remote uncoupling capability). Regardless, the 3/16" cars look great behind the 999 with an eight-wheel tender.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 2:09 pm

Another from Marx 3/16", the prototypically more-correct 20102 NYC caboose:

: Marx 3/16-gauge 20102 NYC caboose; Marx 20102 3-16.jpg (144.06 KiB) Viewed 34333 times

This is a really nice car by Marx, featuring a prototypical NYC paint-scheme, the automatic scissor-style couplers, wire handrails, a chimney, nice trucks, and it even had window glazing (but no interior light). Easily superior to the SP-style caboose featured in most Lionel sets of the day (IMHO). You can find these today, some 60-70 years after production, in nice shape for not alot of money.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Sun Oct 23, 2022 9:41 am

Visited the Fall TCA meet at York this past Friday. Attendance still seems to be in decline for numerous reasons, but still a great time. There was nothing on my personal shopping list other than a number of prewar parts and some paint. Still, you walk around and things come to your attention. I found this nicely refurbished prewar Marlines Jubilee for just a few bucks and brought it home:

I don't know much about Marx stuff, but this looked familiar to me. When I showed it to my wife, she said "Isn't that the train that ran around the Christmas tree in the closing scene of The Polar Express", and I think she's right. Never would have occurred to me. I'll need to identify and run down the tender for it.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Fri Dec 01, 2023 9:35 am

A Marx 3553 tank car in 3/16-scale O-gauge, acquired at the November 2023 toy train show/sale:

Nearly perfect after these many years.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Fri Jan 05, 2024 3:21 pm

A good friend, thinning his collection a bit, recently sent me an example of the Marx #597 Commodore Vanderbilt:

I don't know much about Marx, so a bit more research/study required. There's no doubt, however, that the trains Louis Marx produced before and after WWII don't lack for charm. Enough dents, scrapes, and chips to know it's been dearly loved over its 75 years of service, another Streamliner for the collection.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Sat Jan 13, 2024 9:48 am

Some of the folks over on the MarxTrains group offered their opinion regarding the tender I mated to the Commodore Vanderbilt, i.e. it's the wrong one. The "cigar-band" version I have is from the 1950-1952 time-period, and it was made for use with the Marx wind-ups of the time. It had plastic wheels on it, which I swapped out for tin. Plastic wheels are one of the indicators of whether a car was made for an electric or clockwork version, with plastic used extensively for the mechanicals (probably as a way of reducing weight). No worries as I still think it looks good, but wanted to see if I had a better alternative.

So I went hunting for my box of orphaned tenders (I had recently pulled it out looking for a candidate to use with the Lionel 1664E that's languishing on the workbench). I recalled seeing three or four Marx tenders in there and thought maybe a more correct one could be found. I lucked out, as a nice prewar NYC version was in there:

After reviewing a number of photos of the prewar version of the CV, this appears to be the correct tender. I know there aren't any hard and fast rules for Marx tender assignments, but this one looked like a high-percentage shot at being correct. It has the prewar features of tin wheels, a simple black frame, and fixed-swivel tab-n-slot couplers (as opposed to the postwar sliding version). For now, I'm going with it.