MARX 4345 steam set

Hi Andrew. First my condolences on your grandfather. I would post this over on the tinplate forum. We have some guy's who know their Marx. "I'm not one of them" but give that a shot it looks like he took good care of them.

Andrew

My condolences on the loss of you grandfather.

Set 4345 in the Greenberg Vol III does not give a date. There is a small chance if you look at the bottom of the box that a date is part of the box manufacturer info, but this in normally seen on earlier sets. Still worth looking. The freight cars in the set are somewhat common and were made for a number of years. The passenger cars are your best clue. The silver NYC 2072 coaches are not real common and don't show up often in the nice condition of yours. The 2072 observation is even harder to find. The silver coaches, with the plastic knuckle couplers were made from about 1954 to 55 time frame. A very nice edition of a less than common set. Treasure it.

 

Steve "Papa" Eastman

Andrew,looks like you are sitting in a Studebaker Lark convertible.

Andrew, in the postwar era, Marx made what they called "Happi-time" sets, they had a freight set and a passenger set in the same box. Although the box isn't labelled as such, it might have been specially made for a retailer, since it is a high content set, compared to the usual Marx three car sets. At any rate, it is very nice, looks very well taken care of. What part of PA was your grandfather residing?

 

BTW, nice Studebaker!

My grandfather lives in Lancaster pa, the 61 studabaker lark belongs to my wifes grandfather.

I tried googling the marx set number and the only hit I came up with was seeing the identical set on some "worthpoints" site... which didn't tell me a whole lot...

The convertible looks nice, well kept. Do you enjoy driving it?

I don't mind driving it, its geared alittle low, 2 speed auto with a 259 V8, it really cries doing 55 on the highway... it doesn't have power steering either, and there's just alittle bit of play in the wheel. It keeps you busy driving it.... my wifes gradfather is up there in age and can no longer safely drive, so my father inlaw picked up the lark for him last year to drive hin to diayasis, and to take him out to the studabaker meets in york, in my opinion I think his health has been getting better since he got the car...

Andrew, have someone check the steering linkage for any loose parts, and if all is OK, find an old time mechanic to take the steering lash in the steering box. You need a little free play, but not much more than an inch. I am jealous, I like the design of the Studebaker Lark, my brother had one before he went to Vietnam, I guess that is why I like them. His had the flathead six, which promptly died (bought it used) so my neighbor put an OHV inline 6 in it, quite a nice ride.