Still on the prowl for Marx prewar. Just grabbed this open spoke 999 for 10 bucks. Can’t wait to strip it down, media blast the shell, spray paint, polish the hardware, and go through the motor. Should look good next to my embossed spoke 999. (See avatar)
Nice buy! I thought the open spoke 999’s were highly sought after by collectors. If so, are you sure about stripping off the original paint?
Robert
Oh, you bet. I seek out and restore all Marx engines that are in the rough. Cheaper to find a C-1 and restore it than fight over one that has never seen the tracks. I do it, not for other ‘purist’ collectors, but for my own satisfaction. That’s where all the fun is. Making them look and run like new again. Here’s a link to a Marx 333 shell I restored with parts from a (trashed) plastic 1829. http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/56110/705820.aspx#705820 And this thread was started with the redo of a 391. Good, no great therapy!
Really enjoyed the photographs as another fellow Marxist. I did the same for some accessories that were rust buckets. There was a guy who did wraps for the six inch cars…I don’t know what happened to him.Right now I have the early UP articulated set that has a paint glob on the cab. It’s been sitting and running with this paint on it. I am afraid to destroy the lithograph underneath. Any ideas for removal…I suspect it’s oil based.
My brother, a lionel freak, and I were just emailing back and forth today about the Marx M1005. He remembers having one back in the '40’s when he was a kid. I have yet to tackle any litho paint schemes as of yet, but if I do I will be sure to post the results… I remember the custom wraps, but he has closed shop. Shame, too. His site is still up. Maybe just waiting for interest to spark enough to justify gearing up again. http://fauxtoys.com/
OK after reading this I wont feel so bad about restoring any older stuff I find.
Last weekend I pick up.an older (but not too old) battery powered Marx train set thats complete, still in the original box (it still has the $5 pricetag from Gemco on it) and looks to be in very good shape. The plastic battery engine is a cheeser to look at for sure but the 3 litho cars are in great shape, and look almost brand new so I’m happy about that. Considering that these litho cars in poor shape still garner $5-$10 a pop I’m pretty happy with what I payed for the set, any other stuff I pick up will be all Marx, litho era stuff, no Lionel. Starting to look for a wind up commodore vanderbilt to use in lieu of the battery engine and maybe the Marx streamliner if I can find one in good condition.
I did the same thing with a wind up Hafner locomotive that was in rough shape with no regrets.and with a little fiddling around in modifying the slot and tab couplers, the “wind up” Hafner cars fit very nicely on a string of Marx cars. I got a kick out of one orange Hafner tank car I found at a rummage sale. It must have been manufactured during world war 2 as when I turned it upside down, on the non lithographed side it was a very clearly labeled blue and white mustard tin! Creative solution to a metal shortage.I think for me personally, it’s fun to be creative without spending an arm and a leg. I saw an article (where I don’t remember) that showed a spring governor that the English had some later models. I looked all over for a reference to it. I thought it would be a fun exercise to retrofit on into one of my spring wound engines. Anybody who has info on this and wants to share it would be helpful and appreciated…
If anyone thinks all Marx is cheap stuff check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280548625299&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
I knew Marx’s had rare items just like the rest. Actually I would think more of Marx’s items would be getting up there as they were a lot of times just thrown in the toy box where usually Lionel’s were put up. just my thought.
I have a set of Marx’s freight set had to replace the fixed knuckle coupler on a few of them its actually my wifes set she found them at a yard sale and has had them now about 10 years in a plain brown box’s with her name on it and saying trains lol. The engine is a Vanderbilt I have run them for her a few times when we first got them but thats it. I like Marx’s but when I see a set and someone has $100.00 on it and its a common set that I can get on ebay for less than $40. with shipping and all no way hoss
Hi MadMarx,I have a Marx #333 and wanting to repaint it!Did you remove the shell to restore yours?I can not figure out how to get the shell off without removing the rivets from the rocker arms as they are attached to the shell!Which means that i can not remove the hand rails either!Did you mask everything off with tape and what did you use to clean the shell?Also can you give me any help finding the left side driver for the push rod that goes to the rocker arm,the spot where the screw goes to hold the push rod is broken off and the push rod is missing!I used to see the push rods on ebay but no luck right now!I would probably have to buy a rivet tool also!This is my most prized Marx Locomotive,I rescued it out of a old garage along with alot of other Marx trains,I was doing cleaning work for an elderly lady and she told me I could just have them!The 333 had mud daubers nest all over it and it was barely recognizable as a toy train but she cleaned up wonderful!Any help you could give me will be apprieciated!Thanx,John
Don’t forget us with the pictures of your new layout…
I’ll try and post some updated pics on the “Really Old School Layout” thread . I got my Marx M10000, mechanical version no less! Really REALLY fast around the layout, surprised how much of a grin generator these are.
I cannot remember where I saw it but one guy had a circular ( literally) layout just larger than the outside diameter of the track and powered it with a turn table motor underneath…the scenery whizzed by while the train looked like it was in a pacing shot. It was pretty cool and fun to watch… I am looking forward to seeing your layout…I wouldn’t mind doing another mini-me layout…myself…I never thought of the wind-ups!
I don’t want to say just how old I am but I have home movies of my Dad and I playing with a set of Marx trains. Movies are labeled “Christmas 1940” I was three at the time. Thanks to Ebay I have amassed quite a collection of old Marx tin trains mostly the CP steam engine. Only thing about restoring them is that the tabs break very easy when taking them apart. Don’t have an answer for that problem. Repro parts used to be available but I haven’t looked lately. Lots of parts donors on Ebay.
Grandpajd
that 391 looks beautiful. I redid my 999 last winter and it turned out pretty good. need to hunt for a 391 now.
I restored a w/u commie vandy a few years back. It wasn’t much more than a rust bucket so I had no qualms about stripping it to the bare steel. For color I chose Krylon satin black instead of gloss. Since the clockwork vandy didn’t come with nameplates (because of the keyhole) I decided to use self-stick repro Lionel plates from OTTP instead. I also added a repro NYC herald to the pilot, number boards to the cab and polished the stack and domes to a mirror shine using my Dremel. For a tender I decided to go with a Lionel waffle-top which is a better size match for the loco. I installed nickel ladders and a combo latch coupler on the tender so I can run with just about anything. Now I have a customized Vandy that looks even more “tinplate-esque” than the original and it’s spring is strong enough to handle Lionel’s 810 series cars.
I also restored 2 simple clockwork sets last year though I don’t know which engines they were. (The simple 0-4-0’s without the fake pony and trailing trucks. 400?) On one set I did the engine and wedge tender in gloss red, a boxcar in red, white and blue, a white tank on a blue frame, painted a flatcar the same red as the engine, made my own swing-clip from strip brass and added a tootsietoy racecar to the flat, and finished the set with a red caboose. I packed the whole thing with a figure 8 of polished O27 track in a box I bought at Staples and made labels calling it the “J.B. Flyer Racing Train”. J.B. being the initials of a cousin’s 3 year-old son who is now the proud owner of the set! He’s also named after racer Jenson Button so a racing train made sense!
The other set was more basic. Black engine and tender, orange log car, silver tank w/Sunoco decals and a red caboose. That one I kept. I also like to take sheet aluminum and make my own number and name boards for these cars which tend to look “blank” with their lithography removed.&nbs
I love pre war as well as post war Marx. I have several excellent mechanical as well as electric sets. I acquired a 50365 set in mint condition about two years ago from a client of mine. It appears to have never been used. The set has the original box with the shipping label from Marx Girard Factory. A super find!
The quality of Marx was deeeply under rated. Also many of my Marx sets have rolling stock far closer to scale than many of Lionel sets and rolling stock.
I also collect older Flyer and original K-Line.
Hey Dave, for people like me who don’t know sets by numbers (lol), can you tell us the consist?
I agree that Marx made some really neat stuff, I especially love the 6 inch litho cars and litho diesels. Going to 3/16 scale was a good way of keeping Marx competitive. Probably the only thing Marx made that I don’t like was their crazy coupling system (you know the one) largely because it meant you could only couple in one direction. If you have a car with one good side and one not so great side you can’t just turn that one car around so the best side shows at the front of the layout. You have to flip the whole train.
I decided in recent years to populate my O & S bedroom layout with repro Mark 54mm figures during the holiday season. Out of scale to be sure, but they look fine alongside Tonka vehicles and Plasticville buildings. As long as they don’t get too close anyways! lol Since the Lionel 45N Gateman and the Lionel Banjo Signal are also present, scale was pretty much out the window from the get-go! I have firefighters, civil war soldiers and boy scouts around town. The firefighters are fighting the fire at the Plasticville southern mansion and the Boy Scouts are camped out in honor of scouting’s 100th anniversary. However my scouts are at the 1985 75th anniversary Jamboree since I was lucky enough to attend that event. (A 15 year old girl at a Boy Scout Jamboree? Yes boy-o’s it happens!) I also have a set of badly recast repro Marx policemen waiting to be painted that I picked up at a Dollar Tree. But the Chinese firm that did the recast on those did such a bad job that many of the figures are almost flat! Oh well, in the world of 54mm plastic figures (toy soldier sized) civilians are hard to find.
Can’t forget K-Line! I’ve always loved Kline’s products. Over the summer I scored two Santa Fe streamliners mint in their original bl
PIX! We need PIX! I’d like to see a lot of these things.
Becky
The set has a 1666 2-6-2 smoke; reverse; headlight; die-cast metal; tender; boxcar; gondola w/load; cattle car; caboose w/track pair of switches; uncoupler, lock-on and 50W transformer. It has girder bridge; unpainted figures; news stand; water tower; 2 autos; 2 street lamps, 2 bumpers. All boxes, wrappers and even the little bag for the figures. The box is within a box and all accessories are in separate boxes inside. It is a double decker box.
The coupling system is a pain as you stated.
I also enjoyed K-Line when it came out. After Lionel took over it was different, the competion was gone.