Marx Marketing Practices, Back Then

I grew up in a small Midwestern city and the only place I ever saw Marx was in one of the Christmas catalogs like Sears or Montgomery Wards.  It always looked interesting because of it's prices, but I never knew anyone that ever had any of them.  Now I see a lot them every month for sale at the DuPage show and find it interesting.

Art

Our local 5 & 10 stores like Woolworths carried them year round. But my sights were on Lionel and now I think back as we all do about how many times I passed a Marx counter without even looking at them. Even though my first electric train was a 999 3/16 set.

As a kid I was impressed with the sheer scope of Marx from eyeing the Christmas catalogs. In comparison everyone else was a one trick pony. The play sets seemed so complete with so many pieces, they were at the top of my list and many of the train sets had great play value. 

As a kid, I could care less about realism and from time to time, I would see their train sets on display in our dime stores at Christmas and believe it or not, the brand new American Flyer Frontiersman was on display at the local post office (?) Another unexpected place was the grocery store that carried the Unique Trains circus sets.  Then there were the cereal box promotions on top of the television commercials.

It was a different world back then...and toy trains along with real trains were more embedded in everyday life, so one hand sort of washed the other. I grew up in Chicago and later my parents moved to just South of the Wisconsin border and no matter where I lived, there were trains toy and otherwise seemingly everywhere. 

I had a lot of Marx stuff.  It was lower cost than Lionel and that was important to my parents.  I think they were the WBB of their day.  

I recall where I lived it was sold at a Western Auto or some store like that -- we went to it a lot.  My Dad would be at the parts counter getting whatever he needed for the cars, and I would look at the trains.  

I grew up in Logan, Utah and both State Hardware and Western Auto kept some cars and track on hand and State Hardware would try to order what you wanted, especially track and accessories.  They also had a lot of Plasticville and sold plaster of Paris in bulk.  Scoop it into a paper bag, weigh it out, pay your pennies, and go build a mountain.

  My first ever train set was a Marx.   The cars were the plastic ones with four metal wheels.  THe set had a steam locomotive with tender, hopper, green Cities Service tank car, and an orange New York Central caboose.   It's long gone now.

   I did find a Marx twin train set at an antique mall about two years ago. I has a steam locomotive and a diesel switcher. It also had the plastic 4-wheel cars.  I later purchased some additional plastic 4-wheel cars from a Forum member.   

Wow..I forgot about Western Auto! 

If you live in the midwest and want to see one of the largest Marx collections east of the Mississippi, come to one of our FREE open houses.  It is all on display there.

In addition, you will see one pretty impressive Hi-Rail layout and a bunch of great guys.

Here is info about our club.  The open house dates/times are also listed.

http://www.hirailmodulartrainclub.com/

Both of the 5&10s in my small central Pennsylvania town carried a lot of Marx around Christmastime.  I was always into Lionel as a kid, and didn't pay the trains themselves much attention, but the various Marx accessories did manage to catch my eye.  I still have a Marx water tower, Marx floodlight tower and Marx bubbling water tank (now with a flashing LED light on top) on my layout to this day.  The Marx 027 track was also a bargain, and a lot easier to find than the equivalent Lionel track.  The manual 027 switches were significantly cheaper, too.

Sears & Roebuck always had Marx equipment in their Christmas catalogs, too.  But I'm not so sure where we would have gone to find Marx train products during the rest of the year.  Or Lionel, for that matter. 

Electoliner,

i too had forgotten about the Western Auto store.

Growing up in the mountains of eastern Kentucky I also had two hardware stores down at Hazard.

Excellent selection of Marx toys and trains to wish for.

Miss those days.

Phil

Jim is right.  If you haven't seen this layout, you need to make a trip there.  Super, hi-rail layout and a great bunch of guys.  You won't be disappointed.

Art

If you're ever around Moundsville, West Virginia, stop by the Marx Toy Museum:

http://www.marxtoymuseum.com

You can take the virtual tour if you like.

It's not all trains, but there will indeed be trains running--and there's a whole table of Marx toys you can play with. We found the staff friendly and knowledgeable. Every year they have areunion of former employees. We can't get Tom to go because he's too shy, but he did work in QC at Glendale not long before the plant closed.

Moundsville?  There was a Marx Museum in an old church building on the east side of

Wheeling, that I visited once during a summer open house....did it move?  There was

a tour in which we walked around the outside of, only, the old Glendale plant, when

the museum held a summer open house.   Have not been back down to Glendale since then.  Western Auto catalogs and stores were a source for Marx, for sure, but I didn't frequent Western Auto until I was driving,  which was later, so I missed a great source.  I actually found some old Marx cheapie sets on the shelves of a Western Auto that was closing in a small town, probably longer ago than I think, but after they had disappeared from everywhere else.  Last Western Auto I remember seeing was on the east side of New Oxford, on U.S. 30, west of York.  It, like the model RR shop and tinplate shop there that I once visited  (never stopped at the Western Auto) has been gone for several years.

It's a long story, but there are two local museums with Marx stuff. The Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum is the one you're thinking of. It's in an old school with what looks like a steeple. The Marx Toy Museum really is in Moundsville, in a former grocery store. They're both worth a look. We're just closer to the Moundsville one and found more Marx content.

A lot of the old Marx plant in Glendale is in use again as a plastic molding facility. They're also doing something for oilfield business, don't know what exactly.

Growing up as kids, in the late 60's, my sister and I had Marx, but not trains.

She had a Marx metal dollhouse.  I had a Marx metal garage and a Cape Canaveral set.

I think that most of our toys came from Sears.  I remember sitting down with the Sears catalog and looking for toys that I wanted for Christmas.

LOL, I remember Mom being in the kitchen and me playing with rocket launcher in the family room of our finished basement (below the kitchen) and firing the rocket into the ceiling and Mom yelling down the stairs to stop doing that!

Wish I still had the Cape Canaveral set!

Jim

Becky, Tom and Gabe, thanks for the information on the three locations.  A nice event at the Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum is the Marx Convention every year in June.

If it's held next year I plan on going. I was planning to a year ago and got diverted..

Well, first I had heard of two Marx museums in that area.  I just made it to the

Kruger Street convention one time.  Glad to hear the old Marx plant is still standing

and in use.  I thought I had heard it was going to be torn down, so I was glad to have

gotten the walk around it.  (it did not look to be in use then.....water tower still

had a newer Marx logo on it).  What about the old plant in Girard now...I have not

driven around it since the 1980's?  I had heard that Marx made toys at Glendale,

trains at Girard, and I don't know what at a plant in Erie?  They made so much stuff

it is hard to believe that the plant in Glendale could have turned out all their toys.

I'm less than an hour from Wheeling, and Moundsville, and I'm ashamed to say I have yet to make to Kruger St or the Marx Museum. Gotta get down there! And I'm always working the weekend of the Marx Convention.