Help identifying this train

The cars are all Marx.  Only the engine is Hafner.

The engine is 1010 and it came in a variety of two tone paint schemes - here's the black and silver version.

  One additional item - I just noticed your Hafner is the short sideboard version. My reference indicates the engine was offered in red with gray shroud and sideboard, came with or without handrails, and either a chrome or gilt boiler front.

Ok thanks Makes sense as there is a Marx engine in the box. The cars have no markings on them. About when were they made? John

Those cars were made for decades so you won't be able to pin them down the way you can something like Lionel.  None of the cars have a plastic coupler so that would make them pre-1953.  If you have more detail on the coupler assembly (how it is attached to the underside of the car) you could identify a range of time during which they were made.

Tab and slot eyelet rivet - 1936

Tab and slot twisted-tail -1938

Tab and slot punched tail - 1946

Plastic knuckle - 1953

Ok thanks not what I was hoping for. Here is a pic of the underside. John

Ok, so if all of the cars have the same build then that is a tab and slot with a punched tail - earliest would be 1946.

Yes all are the same. Thanks for the help. These will get cleaned up and put on the display shelf. Still a cool fathers day gift. John

Are those plastic wheels?

No they are metal ones.

@Radioman77 posted:

No they are metal ones.

You might look at them again, more closely. The car you show the underside of has plastic wheels.

I looked at all the cars. Two have plastic wheels and three have metal wheels. There is another box car not shown. John