Anyone collect marx trains if so post what you have and what you think about marx
Lots of fun to collect. Reasonably priced. very colorful.
Some of mine -
Edit - Oops this is American Flyer
Heres a Hafner - Really colorful with great litho - cheap too!
I collect American Flyer but have picked up a lot of O along the way including a small variaty of Marx trains. Will have to dig them out of storage and take some pics. I have a plastic windup steamer with cars missing one piece of track(2-rail plastic O gauge) I have a batery operated steamer and tender and a hopper I think and I have a #999 loco with cars one of my favorite old trains oh and a plastic set from the 60-70’s???
Hi all, this is my first post on this forum . I have been collecting Marx trains for the past five years. I am not sure but I must have a few hundred Marx trains mostly the 4 wheel 6 inch tin. This is just a fraction of my collection and I really enjoy sharing it with my two year old Grandson Aidan. I will try and round up more pictures latter.
I found a few more older pictures of part of my collection. I even run some of my rarer pieces because they look better on the track than sitting on the shelf. Here is one more picture of my little protoge Aidan Grey.
Wow nice collection Glad to see anouther marx collector
While I collect primary Lionel postwar, I have a soft spot for Marx. Here’s a few of mine (some custom painted):
Dr. John,
I’m GREEN with envy!! Love those locos!
Jim
Jim, thanks! If I ever decide to sell, you’ve got first dibs. [:)]
I have a fair bit of Marx, probably more 6-inch tin than anything else, although my last purchase was a late postwar 3/16 scale set headed up by a CP locomotive.
I like Marx a lot because it’s relatively easy to find, most of it is very affordable, and the Marx motor is extremely reliable and easy to work on. Plus it has a lot of charm and character.
I love Marx trains! There is really something special about them. I collect prewar and postwar trains from a wide variety of manufacturers, but Marx is probably the company whose products I own the most of. My very first O gauge train was a Marx 4-wheel plastic set with a 490 steam engine. I haven’t stopped acquiring Marx since. I now have 6-inch four-wheel, 6-inch eight-wheel, 7-inch, 3/16" scale, four-wheel plastic, eight-wheel plastic, Joy Line, Marx HO, Plastimarx (Mexican) and British Marx. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to post.
marx3railer, Welcome to the forum! It’s always great to have another tinplate guy! I must say that your collection is simply fabulous! You have a lot of really great pieces there. The one item that really stood out for me, though, was the very rare Canadian signal tower on your layout.
I have a few pieces of Marx. Got the 2002 handcar and some accessories as well as a set of passenger cars and loco set. While there are a few guys really into Marx on this site, I don’t think it would be a stretch to suggest that most have at least a piece or two. They really are whimsical. I believe it was 2005 that CTT had a great article on a Marx layout that was very well done. Also, I have seen an episode of “I Love Toy Trains” that has a whole layout on Marx and they also have a Christmas layout of the owners of the Marx tooling.
Dennis
Thats the thing about marx trains you can paint them any color you like because they are very reasonable to buy. I enjoy restoring marx tinplate seems you never have to worry if they will run or not motors where very well made
I own a ton of Marx trains but my favorite marx stuff is the accessories they have. I have an automated switch tower a hand car, A train station with a whistle and every train set they have ever made in complete sets. I almost have every accessory they ever put out. I love my Marx trains but I love Lionel too! I would post some pictures but my digital camera crapped out on me after I dropped it in a snow bank. Rotten New York state anyway[|(] When I get another camera I will post some pics…If I could stop buying trains long enough to save some money to buy one [:-^]
marx3railer,
Welcome to the forum! Great pictures. I have a soft spot for Marx also.
Jim H
My first set was a Marx received on my first Christmas, and I still have it, and the thing is still a speed demon. It’s a plastic 490 with plastic, 8-wheel cars, and plastic handshake couplers. It rules the rails every year for a short time at Christmas, sharing only with the MPC set I recieved seven years later.
Amazing. How old are you? I received a Marx set, battery powered (I still have some of the cars only) when I was four. When I was six, in 1973, I received my MPC set, which I still have. I am 39, incidentally.
- The Marx set is from '64; the MPC set from '72. Both came from Sears. In fact, the Marx set was bought on 12/26 since the HO set that Grandpa had put under the tree failed to run but smoked too well on Christmas morning. Naturally, I have the story from my mom because, at only 7 months of age, I was pretty oblivious to most of the morning’s festivities.
As a footnote, many years later my mom wanted a train under her tree. I happened to find a boxed Marx set just like mine (my box hadn’t survived all the intervening moves) and gave it to her. She was delighted, and I added an oval on a board with a bridge to it and then more cars and some buildings over the years. It all came back to me, of course, when she died.
So many memories tied up with my trains. . . .
My MPC set was a Sears set, too. The Nickel Plate Road 2-4-0 with the CN hopper, Wheaties (!) box car, Republic Steel (blue) gondola, and Union Pacific flat car, tailed by a NP caboose. Still have them all and use them regularly, though the engine is a little beat.
I really enjoy all these photos. I’d rather look at these than photos of the latest new scale innovations. It’s amazing how MARX did so much to capture the look, feel, and detail of real trains on flat tin without having any real detail and without being to scale proportions. I still admire the artisan workmanship that went into their lithography.
My personal preference is towards newer 027 over the older tin lithographed trains. Maybe if the litho trains were as available and practically priced… who knows. I do really like the early K-Line stuff, much of which had origins with the MARX tooling. I love the K-Line shorty box cars and the K-Line Alco S-2 is my favorite loco. I do have a number of actual MARX items that I got as beaters or in junk boxes, and have fixed them up and repainted them. The MARX 2-tier auto carrier is one of my favorites.
Despite the name association in the hobby with Lionel, countless times I have read stories in the train mags and talked with hobbiests who say their first set was a MARX one. Sometimes the little guy, who gets no respect, is the one who makes the biggest impact. MARX may have the appearance of being cheap, and yet MARX used simplicity and elevated it to an artform without ever losing quality - considering the price.
Put that into current terms, RMT may be the little guy on the block - but I think RMT products like the “Beep” and “Buddy” stand a very good chance of making a big impact on the hobby. In some ways, they already have. And more is on the way, which looks good to me. Affordable products like MARX in their day and RMT today, will have the biggest long term, long lasting benefits for this hobby.