Marx error or possible prototype ?

Tin train makers weren't about to waste good metal because of poor paint, redesign, etc.. They would often just flip the metal, print again, then bend.

Companies like Wyandotte even used other companies scrap metal. No telling what you'd see in those; a bad sign, a can label, etc etc 

That said, I'd still wait for one of our walking encyclopedias of tin to chime in before I "wrecked" a possible rariety.  (Which I did to a smoking 30s CV out of ignorance..... before the net   )

I've read Marx and others even used food and sundry product tin for track.

I won't change or alter,just hope somebody can make a better analogy than I can.

Adriatic is correct, Marx took parts that were incorrectly printed and reused.  I too was surprised the first time I saw it on one of my refurbishes.

Was it at Ives or American Flyer that there is a fable of the final quality inspector throwing rejects out the window into a river that ran next to the plant?

I too, have bought Marx tin years ago that were painted inside for another road name or a different toy altogether.  There was very little waste at the Marx plant.

A fellow TCA Divison member has a Hafner locomotive that has a beer bottle cap in the stamping.  Very interesting variation!

GG1 4877 posted:

A fellow TCA Divison member has a Hafner locomotive that has a beer bottle cap in the stamping.  Very interesting variation!

I'd love to know the brand of beer.  I'm gonna guess Pabst or Stroh's because Wyandotte is just south of Detroit. (Wyandotte/Hafner is the same basically….a buyout and "evolution")

(and coincidentally Pabst owns Stroh's now and is going to be brewing Stroh's in Detroit again at a local brew house with the original 1850 recepie. I haven't had one since they left us.)

Actually manufacturers used to sell excess litho tinplate to others. I have 

seen bottle caps inside, I have Mechanicraft tinplate that uses tinplate

from one of their other sets inside another. I have AF prewar streamliners

with odd things inside. It was a common practice to use whatever you

had or could buy cheap, especially small firms like Hafner.

One has to remember this was immediate postwar, any kind of 

raw material was in short supply. 

I was just really more curious because Marx never made this particular car in that color.

Hence was it a mistake,a trial run or maybe a prototype  ?

Anyone have something similar that was deemed as one of the above as to solve my question more thoroughly. 

Perhaps the green was part of the process to produce the final red tone? I have seen some lithography where different colors are "stacked" to achieve the desired tone. Blems sometimes show where they weren't properly lined up between dye runs. 

Non Pareil balloon wheels

Hafner loco recycled sideboard

I've worked in a litho plant for 20 years...never seen green used to get a red.

I would conclude it to be a Marx Error.  The numbering of NYC 174580 was the number of their “Pacemaker” box car. Marx did use different shades of green litho on various items.  If you think it’s a Prototype, live with it, but it is definitely MARX Tin.  The key is the number which is a MARX number.

Besides the odd color combination the thing I find most interesting is the way the reverse stamping lines up with the car sides.  Like the others I've seen Marx, Hafner and Flyer cars with scrap litho treatments on the inside of the car but with one lone, deliberate, exception I don't recall seeing this kind of alignment.  The exception is the car below which was the result of a production error.

New Marx Production

Here are some pictures of two Mechanicraft passenger cars with reused 

litho stock. The ends inside the cars show red, blue and silver litho. The

pattern on the litho is from an identical passenger set they made in these

colors. I guess they had an excess of that color litho stock.

A layering of colors to shade or tone is often far less effective in litho printing because the pigment count is usually very high.  That is a primary difference between a paint and an ink; pigment count.  At some point a topcoat(s) opacity will block any color bleed you see.(between total opacity and total transparency, you may count on some light penetration of the top coat and reflection off a color layer or material under it, back through the topcoat to your eyes)

All that said green under red may add a brown or grey tint to a red.It just isn't as likely with printing ink as paint.

  (Dyes and liquid inks attack coloring in a different way, relying more on penetration therefore distribution is wider and layered use is closer to mixing pigment directly before an application)

This is a decent explaination of dye vs ink/paint for anyone interested.

https://thebluebottletree.com/...-vs-dyes-difference/