Marx Christmas Layout in Run 254

Marx ls great. l really like the 3/16" stuff. the litho ls beatuflul.

I agree, and was happy to see this article in OGR. I also have some Marx...a #333 and a #999 and 3/16" passenger and freight cars, and its great stuff. I also like the tin litho buildings, and have a bunch of those, also.

If you liked my OGR article then you might like to see the video I made of the layout from last Christmas.

http://youtu.be/RQgr3AP-YlQ

David
Near the end of the video, is that a Marx windup hand car ?

I thought I saw the name Lionel on it ? Do you have any pictures of just it ?

Robert

Hi David. Love the layout in run 254 I would like to try it next year with Fastrack. The video is is wonderful. Thank you.

The video is wonderful. How hard was it to find that dumping station and cars? I especially like the etch-a-sketch and other toys dotting the landscape. Well done and thanks for sharing it online and in print!

Here area few more photos of my layout that didn't appear in the January 2012 OGR Magazine article.

quote:

Originally posted by RJ Davis:
How hard was it to find that dumping station and cars?

I purchased both the a Marx 567 Side Dump Car and 1614 Coal Dump Station off of Ebay. The second dump car I found at a train show.
I have seen a few Side Dump Cars at train shows and on Ebay and if you're lucky you might pick one up for about $20 or less. The Coal Dump Station is much more rare. I have never seen one at a train show and they show up occasionally on Ebay and can sell for a lot of money. I looked for mine for a couple of years before getting a good deal on Ebay for about $50. It was well worth it and has been a fun accessory to use with the old Marx 6" tinplate trains. I love to operate it and little kids get a lot of enjoyment out of loading and dumping all sorts of objects.

quote:

Originally posted by MOPAC:
David
Near the end of the video, is that a Marx windup hand car ?

I thought I saw the name Lionel on it ? Do you have any pictures of just it ?

Robert

This is the Lionel Handcar that celebrates 100 years of Lionel. It was made by Schylling in 2000. They are easy to find on Ebay or occasionally at train shows.

John Paddle made this graet little video a few years ago. Towards the end, you will see a dump station in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAh3rajiMnE

Steve

Great video David! Thanks for sharing.

Jeff Davis

david,

that was great! i look forward to seeing you in next month's magazine.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by David from Dearborn:
If you liked my OGR article then you might like to see the video I made of the layout from last Christmas.

That's a great video, David; thanks for posting it! I got a kick out of seeing the dump mechanism work...it looks like a couple of arms, with hands, dumping the car. Ingenious and whimsical at the same time!

David, where did you get the design for the paper church on the layout?

quote:

Originally posted by Steve "Papa" Eastman:
John Paddle made this graet little video a few years ago. Towards the end, you will see a dump station in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAh3rajiMnE

Steve

Steve, yes, I agree, John Paddle's video is great! The "Easter Bunny Surpise" is the video that inspired me to purchase my Marx dump cars and station. It is a very creative video.
Also, if you view my video, at 1:25, you will see my dump cars in action too.

http://youtu.be/RQgr3AP-YlQ

quote:

Originally posted by jay jay:
David, where did you get the design for the paper church on the layout?

Ed "Ice" Berg has posted files for the church and tons of other buildings on the Marx Trains YahooGroup list. Here is a link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/...=61&count=20&dir=asc

Thanks, David!

quote:

I like that picture! Nothing says "Merry Christmas" more than an electric train and a Daisy BB gun!

That is a beautiful Christmas layout David. Really nice video. Thought that dump car accessory was pretty neat along with the wind-ups.

Thanks for sharing. I'll be checking out the article in OGR.

I collect 6 inch tin marx and i always run them at Christmas

David,
Absolutely fantastic Christmas layout, congrats on everything.
Great engineering work sir!
PCRR

You might have noticed that on my Christmas Layout there are two 45-degree crossings. Marx never made a 45 degree crossing. The fat gears of many of the Marx engines will cause derailment on Lionel crossings. I have successfully used Lionel 45 and 90 degree crossings with Marx engines with the huge drive gears by cutting and filing down certain areas of the crossings. Using an Xacto knife cut slivers out of certain areas and then finished up by smoothing with a small file. I have had no problems with the 90 degree crossings. The 45 degree crossings have a longer "dead" area and occasionally certain engines will kick into reverse. The "dead" area is caused by the outside rails loosing power and not the center rail as the engine travels through the crossing. One way to reduce this is to make sure that the tender or car that is right behind the engine has very clean coupler connections with a very clean engine coupler connection. This allows electricity to flow from the outside rails of the tender, through the couplers to the engine as it passes the "dead" area. On one of my Commodore Vanderbilts I ran a wire from the tender frame to the engine frame and have had no problems going through the 45 degree crossing. I have another Commodore Vanderbilt with no modification that has no problem going through the crossing so perhaps the clean coupler connections have solved this one. I also have Marx engines without reverse units and the momentary loss of power through the crossing isn't enough to stall the engine on the track.

Here are the photos that should explain which areas that need to be cut out.

Lionel origional 45 degree crossing.





Lionel 45 degree crossing with cut aways for Marx large gear engines.





Lionel origional 90 degree crossing.





Lionel 90 degree crossing for Marx large gear engines.