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Here's a question for the history buffs and Postwar and Prewar fans.

Typical story, boy plays with train set around Christmas time - ahh, what wonderful memories; hooking up the frayed wires, smell of ozone, sparks fly, train runs yet again! Was my Marx O-gauge 3-rail track (sadly I no longer have it) the first track system with casted in roadbed? I could not find an internet picture! The usual history is that I grew up with a Marx train set - UP diesel switcher & cars purchased by my father either in late 1950s or early 1960s - and it had neat-looking track with roadbed - black roadbed as I recall...though the color could've been oils soaked in over many years of use.

Was Marx the first company to offer such a neat track system?

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Lionel made 3-rail roadbed track for their OO gauge line pre-war. It wasn't very successful, the biggest issue being that the bakelite plastic roadbed had a tendency to warp along the length. As far as I'm aware Marx's roadbed track was the first of its kind in O gauge. From memory, it started in 1961 as an exclusive to sets sold at Sears and was only made in 0-27, and never in Marx's 0-34. I'm sure some Marx collectors on here can give you more details.

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