Not directly by myself, but a neighbor who does a fair bit of fixing up other folks' discards, found a discarded Scout set and a bunch of old Marx track/switches, and after word got to me through another neighbor, showed it to me:
I was able to identify the set with a short Google search, but since he had no way of dealing with the set, he let me have the train and the other stuff he found with it, gratis. Unfortunately all of it had been exposed to rain (water was running out of the tender when I picked it up) and had a fair bit of surface rust, but I was able to turn the 1130's wheels by hand, leading to some hope that it'll run once cleaned and lubed. The 6034 PRR/ "Baby Ruth" boxcar suffered breaks in the shell around the screw and tab, but should remain on its chassis via friction fit. The 6037 caboose is of course dirty, but as with the other pieces, some soap+water should fix up the shells, and some judicious wire-wheeling should clean up the castings and sheet metal (I am open to other suggestions regarding light rust removal). Interestingly enough three of the four couplers managed to spring open when I pulled down their uncoupling plates, and the fourth was able to be opened even though it had little or no spring action.
I'm guessing this set was stored when the original owner 'outgrew' them, and they simply gathered dust in an attic or basement till they became the victim of a clean-out operation. Owing to the ethnic makeup of my neighborhood, I imagine the original owners departed (oneway or another), possibly decades ago and left stuff for the next owner to deal with, perhaps surviving in an out-of-sight, out-of-mind fashion till someone decided to do something about some clutter.
As for the track, I didn't photograph that, as most everyone here knows what Marx track looks like, although there appears to be one 90-degree crossing, an uncoupling track and four switches, the latter a considerable distance (de-rusting and parts replacement) from trains being able to operate over them, although even if they were pristine I wouldn't be able to use them due to their 031 curvature.
---PCJ
