CV wind up

Dave, there are a lot of variations of windup CV's out there.  The run of the mill, postwar black CV is worth $24 if the motor acts like it will run... release the brake and wind the wheels backward a few revolutions, see if the spring will start to rotate them forward.  If so, it will probably wind and run.  Grossman's has repro stacks and keys.  If it has stamped steel wheels, make sure they are snug on the axles, as they have a tendency to come loose.  Even if it didn't run, I would personally try to talk them down a bit on price and take it home anyway - but the Marx CV is one of my all-time favorites, so take that for what it is worth.

Now, if the CV is a swing-peg or other prewar, or any color other than black, I would say it is worth $24 running or not.  If it is gray, silver or green... don't walk, run back there and get it. 

Gotta love those Marx Mechanical CV's:

Forgot to address the nameplates on the sides... as far as I can tell, those were only applied to the electric CV's.  Some early windup CV's had "Commodore Vanderbilt" rubber stamped on the side.  A lot of prewar windup CV's had a NYC nameplate on the nose of the locomotive, but those went away not too long before production was suspended for the war.

Hope that helps!

thanks James. It was black. I'll look it over when we go back up.

back-winding the wheels is definitely one way to check the locomotive operation, but if it has a motor with the early threaded key post, Marx used a standard 10-32 thread which makes it is easy to fabricate a temporary key by simply putting a 90° bend in a long enough bolt.

good luck...gary