Model Railroading > Marx HO train set

At age 10 in the 1960s I recevied my first electric train set. I was an Army dependent and my brother and sister had noticed my interest in it at the local PX and told my mom about it. It ended up under the Christmas tree Christmas morning. <G> My set had a green industrial four wheel switcher, a red and gray NYC pacemaker box car, a coal hopper (either Lehigh Valley or Virginian, I can't remember now) and either a Western Pacifc or Southern Pacific bay window caboose. The track was two rail and hollow, with fiber ties. The transformer had round wheels with teeth for the throttle and reverse. (It seemed to smell like a Lionel transformer.) The detail on the cars and locos weren't bad. There might have been another car but I can't remember now. A few years later, after drilling the headlight out and painting the wheels on the cars silver, I gave it to a younger neighbor boy.

​I've been looking at Marx HO sets up for sale and at trains shows, it appears that no two sets were alike as to what cars and loco were included. Was this typical of train sets of the era? I would have thought that Lionel would have been more standardized in comparison. It seems that Marx made quite a push into HO with the variety of cars and locos they offered in that short time period.

Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/17 16:51 by wabash2800.

My cousins had a Marx HO set. I remember it had a New York Central Hudson and the tracks were installed on sort of a vacuum formed layout, maybe 3x5 feet. Looking at a photo of a Marx Hudson on eBay, the tender had EMD trucks, which I think powered the locomotive. I also had a Marx version of the Hustler 4-wheel switcher that had 1:1 gear ratio (i.e., NO gear reduction) and had two speeds: stop and Warp Drive.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/17 11:22 by CPR_4000.

Yup, my industrial switcher didn't have much of a speed range either. I seem to recall the wheels were brass too.

Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

My first trainset was a Marx as well.  It had an ATSF Alco switcher, a crane car, gondola car and a crane tender/caboose.  I added a CPR boxcar to it which turned out to be very rare.  Years later a collector friend acquired the CPR caboose from me.  I still have the set and until the last few years I'd get it out at Christmas and set it up on the basement floor.

KG

Add me to the list of Marx train first set recipients.  Mine at an ATSF "E" unit, that never ran very well after
that first Christmas Morning.  I eventually got a Linoel 2-4-2 steam engine.  Not very prototypical but it did
run well.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

We didn't have a Marx trainset but did have at least a green Great Northern HO 40' box car which I still have.  I think we had a small 50-ton type covered hopper.  Red or orange for some cement company I think.  That one is long gone.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/17 21:01 by MILW16.

I still have my MARX train set that I received in 1945. New York Central engines, a boxcar, a side tipping V shaped car for haulin rock and a caboose. Might have been another car or two. That was 71 years ago. After a time, I took the bodies off of the cars to make flatcars so I could haul models of heavy equipment on them. Have no idea what happened to the car bodies, but have a few flatcars and the engine and the dummy yet.  upkpfan

A Marx passenger set got me started around 1941 or 42 - steam engine, three cars, none of it scale, but I was bitten! My cousins got me going in HO with a Varney Docksider,
I've still got some scale HO but N is what I do because I like passenger trains and I can run relatively long trains.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA