Hello fellow enthusiasts…i am new to the model railroading and am looking for any advice or helpfull hints that any of you might offer a new starter. I recently aquired a marx train from my mother who aquired it from the basement of my grandmothers house. the train belonged to my three uncles who are now wellinto there 50’s. My yngst uncle i believe would have been 50 if still alive. So, you can see the train has some age to it. I believe form the research that i am doing on it that it is an O scale train, it has several pieces of track with it that i believe are k-line since that is what it says on the cross members. The engine is a marx 666 steamer, with several cars. I was unable to aquire the buildings that were with the train. My grand father had but together quite a dispaly.
Does anyone know where i might find replacement parts for marx trains as one of the engines i have is missing the copper contact fromt he bottom of the train? Also, i am unsure of the type of coupler that the cars have, lets see if i can describe them. They kind of snap together but you need to squeeze either side of them to release them. Also, any website for good track layouts and scenery or do people just kind of make them up as they go?
I am looking to set this up for my two sons, one 6yrs and the other 8 months. I know the second is two young but hoping that they will both enjoy it, if not i will. Any info that you all can share with me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and look forward to hearing form you all.
While this forum is more for the outdoors G scale folk, there are some indoor and some O people around. I would suggest you go over to the general forum and look at the sticky thread labelled beginners start here.
An awful lot can be learned just by perusing the old threads.
Given the history of the equipment you have I would not let it get out of the family if at all possible. Even if some does not work.
You may eventually want to get into some other scale, and that too is ok; but like I said, because of the history, hang on to the old stuff! I didn’t and my teenage grandson has complained that he surely would have liked to have been able to have my old American Flyer stuff that I gave away in the 1970’s!
You should be able to get a pickup shoe for your Marx 666 at http://trainpartsformarx.com. Marx trains tend to be pretty reliable, so it probably won’t take much else to get it running again. Feel free to ask us more questions if you need more help.
The Marx coupler is sometimes called a “handshake” or “scissor” coupler. It’s simple, but pretty reliable and easy to fix. If a coupler is weak, stretching the spring a little usually fixes that.
For track plans, you can check out http://thortrains.net. There are also numerous books on track planning. It’s hard to know what’s in print and what’s not now, but believe it or not most libraries have quite a few books. Look for a book with Lionel track plans and you’ll be set.
[#welcome] lildoc, welcome to the forum… the Robert Grossman Co… can help you at www.trainpartsformarx.com There are few others that can be found by running a search under toy train parts…
Again, welcome to the forum, and feel free to “bomb away” at us with questions…BDT