This appears to be close to O gauge, with sheet metal couples, dark red . It has sliding slatted doors on each side, with a white “Union Pacific 59” white square badge on each side, with image of a cow. One end has a round logo with “MAR toys” in a circle with an “X”, and circular surround of “United States of America New York”.
Can anybody tell me about this item, its vintage or the company?
Your cattle car is made by Marx. Because the X in the logo is behind the Mar many people can mistakenly think that Mar is the company name. Marx was a company that was started by Louis Marx. Louis Marx started out in the toy industry by selling toys by the Girard Model Works, which manufactured Joy Line tinplate toy trains. In 1928 Girard went bankrupt and Marx bought the company and manufactured toys on his own. In 1934 Marx stopped making Joy line trains and came out with different trains. Marx toys were generally intended for the lower end of the market and Marx tried to make their toys as inexpensive as possible. The company continued to grow and was at one time the largest toy manufacturer in the world. In it’s heyday Marx had factories in the US, Canada, Britain, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong and Brazil. By the 1970’s Marx was in decline and in 1972 the company was sold to Quaker Oats. This may seem strange, but in fact Quaker Oats owned Fisher Price. In 1976 the company was shut down and it’s assets were liquidated. Although Marx made all kinds of toys, they are probably best known for their toy trains, which they made a huge variety of. Marx made O and HO gauge trains in both tinplate and plastic. In 1993 James and Debbie Flynn formed Marx Trains which currently manufactures trains simmilar to those originally made by Marx for collectors. The cattle car you have is a six-inch type Marx car. Marx made a great variety of tinplate train cars which all used the same bases that were all six inches long. Six-inch trains were made without very much change to the basic design from 1934-1972. Your cattle car dates from the 1950’s. If the doors have slots in them it is worth $30-$50 depending on the condition. If it has solid doors it is worth $15-$25. I hope this information helps.
Bob,
It’s “Marx”–the “X” is part of the name. The company was owned by Louis and Dave Marx from around 1930 to 1972 and went bankrupt in 1980. They were known for the cheapest trains around, which were, however, surprisingly well-made for the price. I am particulary fond of Marx switches, their wide-radius (O34) track, and their semaphores and target signals.
My reference doesn’t say when your car was made. It was manufactured with 4 and with 8 wheels and with the slots punched out and not. You might post these details in case anyone else has more information about it. It is not worth much, even in perfect condition, no more than $10 or $20.
Bob Nelson
Mitchell, you beat me to it while I was looking it up. Prices may have risen since my book was published in 1991.
Bob Nelson, the prices have risen since then. The prices I got were from the 2002 Greenberg Marx guide. Thanks for pointing out that there’s an 8-wheel variation, I forgot about that when I wrote my reply.
Bob Wilkins, there is also a version of your cattle car with 8-wheels from the late 1930’s-early 40’s. The values I gave were for the 4-wheeled version. You didn’t specify whether it had 4 or 8 wheels. The 8-wheel version is worth $35-$60 for a slotted door and $20-$35 for a solid door.
Thanks so much for your helpful info! Great capsule history, and just what I was looking for. Yesterday bought a Marx “Girard” station with what appears to be a whistle inside. $35, and don’t yet know if it works. Do you think that was a fair price, if it works?
Thanks again.
Bob
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by Sask_Tinplater
Your cattle car is made by Marx. Because the X in the logo is behind the Mar many people can mistakenly think that Mar is the company name. Marx was a company that was started by Louis Marx. Louis Marx started out in the toy industry by selling toys by the Girard Model Works, which manufactured Joy Line tinplate toy trains. In 1928 Girard went bankrupt and Marx bought the company and manufactured toys on his own. In 1934 Marx stopped making Joy line trains and came out with different trains. Marx toys were generally intended for the lower end of the market and Marx tried to make their toys as inexpensive as possible. The company continued to grow and was at one time the largest toy manufacturer in the world. In it’s heyday Marx had factories in the US, Canada, Britain, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong and Brazil. By the 1970’s Marx was in decline and in 1972 the company was sold to Quaker Oats. This may seem strange, but in fact Quaker Oats owned Fisher Price. In 1976 the company was shut down and it’s assets were liquidated. Although Marx made all kinds of toys, they are probably best known for their toy trains, which they made a huge variety of. Marx made O and HO gauge trains in both tinplate and plastic. In 1993 James and Debbie Flynn formed Marx Trains which currently manufactures trains simmilar to those originally made by Marx for collectors. The cattle car you have is a six-inch type Marx car. Marx made a great variety of tinplate train cars which all used the same bases that were all six inches long. Six-inch trains were made without very much change to the basic design from 1934-1972. Your cattle ca
You paid a fair price on the Girard station. It’s value is listed at $25-$40. There is also a lighted version (this would have the windows cut out with plastic behind) that is worth $30-$45. There have been some extremely rare examples that have surfaced with a roof or base that is painted plain red or grey instead of being lithographed, but the chances of finding one are one in a billion. You are right about it having a whistle. Whether or not the whistle works won’t hardly affect the value. If it doesn’t work it would be easily repairable. The important thing is that the outside is OK (no scrathes, rust, dents, etc.). I have one of these stations on my layout and it’s a really neat accessory. Marx trains are really great and if you start buying more Marx items you will find them relatively plentiful. The extremely mass-produced common Marx items aren’t worth a lot, but some of the harder to find items can get quite expensive.
It’s always fun to read about Marx, I had a set in the mid-50’s, before switching to H0.
I read somewhere years ago that Marx trains were actually closer to S ‘scale’, but on 0 gauge chassis. Any comment ? I refer to prewar stuff, like a 2-4-2 that looked as good as a lot of Lionel did back then.
regards / Mike
Yes. To the extent that Marx made their models to scale, they were frankly 3/16" to the foot. American Flyer did the same thing, then switched to the proper 7/8" gauge after WW2, while dropping the middle rail. Marx stayed with 1 1/4" gauge.
Lionel was also guilty of cheating on scale. They have always vacillated between O scale and something about halfway between O and S. Compare a Lionel Alco with an F3: The prototypes were very nearly the same size, yet the models are markedly different in size.
Bob:
I have a Lionel 44 Ton Switcher which I inherited from my father. Saying that Lionel played fast & loose with scale on this engine is no understatement. The engine is markedly larger than the prototype relative to the size of the cars in the set.
Tony
I recently aquired a few Marx trains and I believe them to be HO scale (if memory serves). There are a couple of tin cabooses …ATSF and SP (where my son works) . They are 6 inch with 8 wheels but a cattle car I have is plastic, slotted sides and doors but it 8 inches. I’m assuming the plastic car is newer? I’m planning on listing them on Ebay but wondered about the value.
I’m learning a lot just from reading earlier posts as I also thought the name was Mar.
Your Marx cars are actually O gauge, HO is half the size. You mention ATSF and SP cabooses in tinplate. They are actually 7 inch Marx cars, Marx made tin trains in a 6 and 7-inch style (not as much variety in the 7-inch). There was never a 6-inch caboose in ATSF or SP. If I’m thinking of the right cars that you have, the ATSF caboose should be red with a black roof and have the number 1951. It is worth $10 good, $15 excellent. I find it unusual that you say the SP caboose has 8 wheels, it was only produced with 4. However, it is very simple to switch the body to an 8 wheel frame. It should be orange and silver with the number 1235. It is worth $15 good, $20 excellent. (This could be less with the frame not being original). The cattle car is of the 8-wheel plastic variety (Marx made many plastic trains with both 4 and 8 wheels). I would bet that it is Missouri Pacific #54099. It actually isn’t much newer than the others. Marx first made plastic trains in the early 50’s and didn’t stop making tin until 1972, so tin and plastic were both produced for many years. There several variations of this car. If it is red it is worth $20 good, $35 excellent. If it is orange it it worth $125 good, $200 excellent. If it’s green it’s worth $115 good, $180 excellent. If it’s yellow with brown doors it’s worth $115, $200 excellent. Good luck selling them on ebay.
Sask_Tinplater
Ha Caught ya [:D]
CONGRADULATIONS ON YOUR 100 TH POST [:p] AND YOUR SECOND STAR [:)] [:D] [8D]
I don’t know if this link will work or not but I’ll give it a try. This is what I have.
Well, it didn’t make a link but if you could copy and paste it to your browser window it should come up. I really appreciate your help.
Nancy
I wonder whether those are all Marx. I think I might see a Lionel Lehigh Valley hopper car in the back. Nancy, do they all have the Marx couplers, flat with a V-shaped notch; or do any of them have Janney (knuckle) couplers, shaped like a fist?
The Southern Pacific caboose has had Lionel trucks put on it and since it has been tampered with would be worth much less than the price I said. The two Santa Fe cattle cars are also Marx and are worth $10 good, $15 excellent each. The red plastic caboose should be a Marx ATSF #4427 is worth $15 god, $25 excellent. The silver three dome tank car should be Marx UTLX #284 and is worth $10 good, $15 excellent. The green Cities Service tank car is worth $5 good, $10 excellent. The Pacemaker boxcar and C&O gondola car are both of the Marx 3/16" variety. The boxcar is worth $15 good, $25 excellent if it has rivet detail on the sides and $20 good, $30 excellent without. The gondola car is worth $10-$15. The other cars I have not mentioned are all made by Lionel. They are quite common and worth apporx. $10-$15 each. When listing them on ebay I would definetly list the Lionel and Marx cars seperately. One thing to keep in mind is that the values I gave you are for cars in good or excellent condition. Any cracks, chips, rust, missing parts or tampering will lower the value. In your picture it is hard to see the condition of some of the cars because they are sitting behind others and are not clearly visible. Also being that they’re quite dirty, I would dust them off so they look nice before listing them on ebay.
Now that I look more closely, I can see “Lionel Lines” on a caboose and “Airex” (the Lionel brand of fishing equipment) on the blue boxcar. At first, I thought the 3-dome tank car was a Lionel 6415; but now I’m sure you’re right, Mitchell.
Nancy, I like to use a (clean, dry) paintbrush for dusting, especially when there is hard-to-reach detail.
Thank you both for all the information…you’re a blessing.
You’re right about them being dirty…I have no idea where they were stored but they have built up fuzz balls all over.
The paint brush idea is great, I was wondering how I could gently clean them.
There are two boxes of track and 3 transformers that I’m not sure are worth anything…don’t know if they work or not.
I’m also thinking when listing them that I should use MAR and MARX in the title since most rookies like me don’t know about the X in the logo thing.
Sask…when you say the caboose has had Lionel trucks put on it, do you mean that they have taken the caboose itself off the original bed/flatcar (?) and wheels and put it on a Lionel set? I don’t want to misrepresent the cars to anyone.
I hate to be a pest but I have another question. If you were selling them…after keeping the Lionel and the Marx cars seperate, would you list them individually, or group like cars…or mix them up?
