Marx 15000P Set Circa 1938

beautuful Steve! that's the next Marx locomotive I'm getting.

What a great find - lucky man!

Very well done documentary video, Thanks for the whole story!

Is it somewhat unusual to have passenger and freight cars in the same set? A deluxe set?

I have 4-wheel versions of otherwise identical tank and hopper cars. The hopper car had a major dent but I took the pieces apart and straightened it.

What a nice gesture to give them to someone who will appreciate them! I assume that the "automatic couplers" are the scissors type. I have some cars in a box, will have to get them out and see what condition they are in. It almost looks like a "Happi-Tyme" set, with a passenger and a freight train. Very nicely spiffed up! Enjoy it!

To answer a couple of questions above, no, for Marx, mixed train sets of freight and passenger cars were not common but not unknown, for the early six inch series and later 3/16 and "deluxe plastic" series with the tilt/fork couplers.  And the circa 1938, later thirties, automatic couplers on the six inch sets were not the tilt/fork/scissors couplers, but "one-way" couplers, where the cars had to be all facing the same direction to couple, with a "hand" clutching a post, a little like the Chicago Flyer standard guage couplers.

I looked at the set I have with the automatic couplers, it has a tank car, Northern Pacific hopper and a C&S reefer, along with a 556 caboose; since these are pre WWII I think, it has a red Mercury loco with the two piece copper pickup. It isn't as nice as what you got, although the cars are pretty nice, the loco must have been in the bottom of the box. Still works well, though. 

Here are pictures of the one way  auto couplers. First picture is two female couplers, one open, one closed. The second picture shows the male end. The one on the left is steel and is the later version as cast material was already getting critical due to the pending war. The right version is the cast style which this set came with.

Steve

Those were really oddball couplers. Could they couple easily by backing a train into a loose car?

Then AF had those short-lived "Q" couplers.

These were costly to make, but as usual, Marx was not going to pay any of the other makers a royalty so they did their own thing. They only came in the more expensive deluxe sets. If in the opened position, they do couple nicely when backed in. There is a special uncoupler for them.

Quite complex, but they work very well when clean & straight.

Steve

Very nice Steve. Nice to see it has a good home and out and running for all to see and enjoy!

since this set not only came with the two trains, both a freight and a passenger consist, but also switches and the uncoupler track, i believe what Marx had in mind was to run the two trains separately with the unused part parked on a siding; the challenge being to uncouple the engine and recouple to the alternate consist.

just a thought...gary