Marx 45225 Santa Fe

The 21's were made from 1950-54. Virtually unchanged during the run.

Steve

Great set with hardly any wear. How about some more pictures of the set, please?

There was only one major variation in the dummy units. The majority of them had non-tilting tilt couplers coming up under the pilot like yours.

Some of them had a slot in the pilot with a tab/slot coupler poking through the slot. Much harder to find.

Cool, ok! Well here's the rest of the set. I found a slide in Marx connector in the box too but no wire- that's ok.

While you guys digest these, I'm going to wire it up to see if I can get it running on the included 34" circle of track. 

Update - Cleaned the track, serviced the motor and this happened. First time I've run it and except for the little e-unit stutter at the beginning, it did pretty ok.

Very nice! It looks like the first year of production with the short tilt couplers.

I always wondered why Marx made the Santa Fe 21 so much bigger than the rest of the trains he made.

Then I saw one next to a Lionel F3. They are the same size!

How many kids asked Santa for a $50 Lionel and got a $13 Marx Santa Fe 21 instead?

@RoyBoy posted:

Very nice!

I always wondered why Marx made the Santa Fe 21 so much bigger than the rest of the trains he made.

Then I saw one next to a Lionel F3. They are the same size!

How many kids asked Santa for a $50 Lionel and got a $13 Marx Santa Fe 21 instead?

It runs surprisingly well and was very clean on the inside. Did the usual scratchbrush on commutator and shoe, and grease / oil gears and bearings. Also took apart the transformer just for inspection and it looked brand new inside.

My belief and what I read was that Marx was friends with the guy that ran Unique Art and released a more scale size set in response to the Rock Island F7 2000's that were released in the early 50's too.

'Marx saw the development and sale of toy trains by Unique as a betrayal and responded by creating a new line similar in size to Unique's, but with lithography that looked more realistic. As a result, Unique found itself unable to compete, and withdrew its trains from the marketplace by 1951. ' - TCA Western

@RoyBoy posted:

Very nice! It looks like the first year of production with the short tilt couplers.

I always wondered why Marx made the Santa Fe 21 so much bigger than the rest of the trains he made.

Then I saw one next to a Lionel F3. They are the same size!

How many kids asked Santa for a $50 Lionel and got a $13 Marx Santa Fe 21 instead?

Individual sale 21's came with a coupler adapter to allow running with knuckle couplers. I use mine to pull Lionel postwar Santa Fe aluminum cars. Looks great together.

Steve

Gave it something to yank on, seemed to pull the cars it came with pretty well. I could see if benefitting from some very wide radius curves!

The 21’s and early 1095’s were not the best pullers. Later 1095’s we’re very good. Better gearing and better weight over the top of the motor and traction tires really improved them.

Steve

@SteamWolf posted:

This guy showed up in the mail today and I'm just ecstatic. Gorgeous MIB set.

Very nice.  I can just imagine opening this up on a fine Christmas morning in the early 50's.

Everything's exactly as you would expect it -- well almost everything anyway.

Unfortunately bubble wrap didn't exist back then, but I'm glad it's there because it's kept all pieces well protected.

Mike

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Very nice.  I can just imagine opening this up on a fine Christmas morning in the early 50's.

Everything's exactly as you would expect it -- well almost everything anyway.

Unfortunately bubble wrap didn't exist back then, but I'm glad it's there because it's kept all pieces well protected.

Mike

Right? That's exatly how I felt cracking it open for the first time. Not just the set pieces but the cardboard insert too!

Anyone have any idea what the space beside the transformer was for? Going to put it on a loop of 42" diameter O27 tonight after work and see if it runs even better.

@SteamWolf posted:

Right? That's exatly how I felt cracking it open for the first time. Not just the set pieces but the cardboard insert too!

Anyone have any idea what the space beside the transformer was for? Going to put it on a loop of 42" diameter O27 tonight after work and see if it runs even better.

That small area is for the lock on, coils of wire, uncouple here sign and then the coiled up transformer cord.

Steve

I didn't forget! Here's a video of the 21 pulling on 42" diameter curves.

Just like a clockwork, open up the radius and it's a fair amount better.