My Marx-Tronic "Train with the Brain" is finally up and operating. I believe the set is from about 1959. It has a very cleaver automatic feature that switches, reverses, loads, couples and uncouples. Here is the video.
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Very cool! Where did you find it?
Don
Don
Great stuff! We don' need no steenking computers. Nice piece of engineering. Thanks.
Pete
Pete
quote:Originally posted by dmestan:
Very cool! Where did you find it?
Don
I found mine a few months ago on Ebay. They are fairly rare and appear on Ebay about once a month. It's also difficult to find one with all the pieces. Mine is missing the flagman that turns every time the switches are flipped.
Fun! 
If you don't mind. How much is something like that toy woth on E-Bay? Just courious??
quote:Originally posted by Ed Powers:
If you don't mind. How much is something like that toy woth on E-Bay? Just courious??
They usually sell for around $50 or so if they are mostly complete and include the box.
Just make sure it runs. You will find 3-4 that do not run for every one that does. If the seller won't test it, keep looking.
Steve
Steve
Very, very nice. Thanks for posting and sharing. Quite ingenious, especially considering total lack of electronics. I don't see anything in the current market that comes close to matching this for action and ingenuity, not to mention affordability.
The shell on the locomotive looks like the same one Lionel used for the PRR Midnight Shift set, 6-11708, a very inexpensive DC-powered set from 1988. This is the first example (that I know of) of Lionel using a former Marx mold.
The shell on the locomotive looks like the same one Lionel used for the PRR Midnight Shift set, 6-11708, a very inexpensive DC-powered set from 1988. This is the first example (that I know of) of Lionel using a former Marx mold.
quote:Originally posted by PGentieu:
The shell on the locomotive looks like the same one Lionel used for the PRR Midnight Shift set, 6-11708, a very inexpensive DC-powered set from 1988. This is the first example (that I know of) of Lionel using a former Marx mold.
You are right that the both the Lionel and Marx switcher look very similar. The Lionel small switcher came out first in 1956 as a Navy Yard switcher and has had many roadnames over the years(including the PRR Midnight Shift version). The Marx-Tronic came out first in 1959 to the best of my knowledge.
Even the number and position of the rivets is the same on both.
