Marx Windup Train sets from 1950s

I believe the last year of production for the windup CV was 1948, although it is very likely that leftover sets might have been for sale new into the early 50's.  When I have time later tonight, I'll look through my catalog pages and see what sets were available in the time frame that are similar to what you are describing.

My first set was a Marx #526 windup set, which I still have.  It would have been at about the end of the 6" tin cars, Marx soon went to the #530 sets with plastic cars, and then went out of production soon afterwards.  

When I started collecting windups in my adult years, I incorrectly assumed that there would only be a handful of variations and models from Marx... boy was I wrong!  The old saying, "Lionel made trains by the thousands, Marx by the tens of thousands" certainly rings true.  Thankfully, there are many windups still available for reasonable prices, and lots of variety to pursue.

There is something very satisfying to me about running windups... a few turns of the key, and the train goes speeding off for 100 feet or more, often able to pull quite a few cars along with it.  No wiring, no control, just releasing stored energy in a controlled manner from the mainspring - very cool indeed!

@WindupGuy posted:

I believe the last year of production for the windup CV was 1948, although it is very likely that leftover sets might have been for sale new into the early 50's.  When I have time later tonight, I'll look through my catalog pages and see what sets were available in the time frame that are similar to what you are describing.

My first set was a Marx #526 windup set, which I still have.  It would have been at about the end of the 6" tin cars, Marx soon went to the #530 sets with plastic cars, and then went out of production soon afterwards.  

When I started collecting windups in my adult years, I incorrectly assumed that there would only be a handful of variations and models from Marx... boy was I wrong!  The old saying, "Lionel made trains by the thousands, Marx by the tens of thousands" certainly rings true.  Thankfully, there are many windups still available for reasonable prices, and lots of variety to pursue.

There is something very satisfying to me about running windups... a few turns of the key, and the train goes speeding off for 100 feet or more, often able to pull quite a few cars along with it.  No wiring, no control, just releasing stored energy in a controlled manner from the mainspring - very cool indeed!

Wow, James, you have a whole elaborate layout for your windups! I never would have imagined such a layout for windups. Thank you so much for sharing it.

My windup set was definitely all metal, nothing was plastic. I believe the black windup locomotive was die-cast and all the train cars were sheet metal. That's why I put this topic in the Tinplate Forum. I saw a set on ebay identical or very similar to mine that looked like it was very clean and in excellent condition for $160. If I had a very young grandson, I would buy it for him in a heartbeat. Maybe down the road I might buy such a set for myself for the nostalgia.

I already have a lot of O Gauge Postwar and modern trains, a good sized O Gauge layout in the basement with tubular track abd many 022 switches, and a lot of 027 track and switches in storage.

The thought just occurred to me that the windup set may be very nice under the Christmas tree: very cute, simple, no wires, no transformer; my wife would definitely prefer it to electric trains under the tree.

Maybe I will get a windup set for next Christmas.

Arnold

I got my first Lionel train a 2026 freight set in 1948. Loved it more than any other toy I ever got. But sometime in the very early 50's my grandmother bought me for Christmas a Marx windup set that would run on the Lionel three rail track. Its the middle set in this Marx add. Notice the tender is turned around on the first set. My Grandmother who I seldom saw only knew I liked trains. What made it special? It's the only gift she ever got me for birthdays or Christmas. She wasn't cheap but just grew up hard and there was no money for such things like that in her life. Hard to believe $3.98 was a lot of money for a train set when you can't buy a cup of Starbucks coffee for that now. I'm sure she thought long and hard to spend that kind of money then. I have no idea what happened to it but sometime in one of the moves with my family it got dumped. Mothers do things like that. Don

Don: SORRY about your loss! :-(

Hi Arnold , I am very much a guy in the same mould as James ... I think of clockwork locos in very much the same manner  , the awesome simplicity/complexity of a machine relying solely on stored energy to propel it fascinates me ... Originally I came from a model aircraft background, and in the early 80's was super into electric aircraft, and of course the technology then was nothing like it is now, and design and weight was a huge factor in creating something that could compete with Glow engines, of course now technology has come so far that electric aircraft out perform their Glow brothers, but back then we had a saying " If you strap a big enough Glow engine to a housebrick you can make it fly " inferring that our electric cousins actually "Flew" where their bigger noisier cousins just beat the air into submission !!! LOL !

Clockwork is kinda like that .....what you put in you get out... nothing more, nothing less, you are hands on with your little train ( or big one) rather than a spectator ( Am I making any sense , I dont know ?)

The English have a name for it ... "Fettling" ... meaning fiddling with something to get it "just so" usually something mechanical ( tuning a motorcycle for example is "Fettling it" )

There is just something magical about taking a clockwork mechanism, cleaning it, oiling it ... and Fettling !

If it performs badly , there is no "Cranking up the throttle!" to overcome its shortcomings... once wound you can put no more energy into it , there is no "brick with a motor" happening

Kids ( and a lot of adults) today just EXPECT that something has batteries or is electrically driven and that's that ... and when you break out the clockwork loco it captures their minds and hearts .. they can SEE it happening and watch the spring drive the cogs and wheels ... its somehow magical I guess?

Of course I collect all sorts of locos, battery, electrical and even Live Steam ... but Clockwork captures my heart , and it comes in soooo many packages , and especially in the older locos (pre-war etc) you are never far away from the fact that a mans hand created them from fire and coal using skills that have been relegated to museums and folk fairs ... No matter what your age , you become a kid again "playing"

I guess serious Model Railway guys " Operate" ... but us clockwork guys "PLAY!!!" and we love it ...

From English Hornby

British Marx!

Lionel !

Right to the Marx of which you speak ... they all have a pedigree right back to the earliest days of model trains

Merry Marxmas and a Happy New Year!

@Fatman posted:

Hi Arnold , I am very much a guy in the same mould as James ... I think of clockwork locos in very much the same manner  , the awesome simplicity/complexity of a machine relying solely on stored energy to propel it fascinates me ... Originally I came from a model aircraft background, and in the early 80's was super into electric aircraft, and of course the technology then was nothing like it is now, and design and weight was a huge factor in creating something that could compete with Glow engines, of course now technology has come so far that electric aircraft out perform their Glow brothers, but back then we had a saying " If you strap a big enough Glow engine to a housebrick you can make it fly " inferring that our electric cousins actually "Flew" where their bigger noisier cousins just beat the air into submission !!! LOL !

Clockwork is kinda like that .....what you put in you get out... nothing more, nothing less, you are hands on with your little train ( or big one) rather than a spectator ( Am I making any sense , I dont know ?)

The English have a name for it ... "Fettling" ... meaning fiddling with something to get it "just so" usually something mechanical ( tuning a motorcycle for example is "Fettling it" )

There is just something magical about taking a clockwork mechanism, cleaning it, oiling it ... and Fettling !

If it performs badly , there is no "Cranking up the throttle!" to overcome its shortcomings... once wound you can put no more energy into it , there is no "brick with a motor" happening

Kids ( and a lot of adults) today just EXPECT that something has batteries or is electrically driven and that's that ... and when you break out the clockwork loco it captures their minds and hearts .. they can SEE it happening and watch the spring drive the cogs and wheels ... its somehow magical I guess?

Of course I collect all sorts of locos, battery, electrical and even Live Steam ... but Clockwork captures my heart , and it comes in soooo many packages , and especially in the older locos (pre-war etc) you are never far away from the fact that a mans hand created them from fire and coal using skills that have been relegated to museums and folk fairs ... No matter what your age , you become a kid again "playing"

I guess serious Model Railway guys " Operate" ... but us clockwork guys "PLAY!!!" and we love it ...

From English Hornby

British Marx!

Lionel !

Right to the Marx of which you speak ... they all have a pedigree right back to the earliest days of model trains

Merry Marxmas and a Happy New Year!

Fascinating, thanks so much for sharing.

My recollection, which is ancient, is that the Marx Commodore Vanderbuilt windup loco I believe I had 65+ years ago may have gone a few feet, at most, so when it was said (I think by Windup Guy) that they can go 100 feet, that was very surprising to me.

At this point, my interest relates to nostalgia, and I'm beginning to see the charm these toys have, and I certainly know they can be enjoyed by very young children, which was my experience long ago. Arnold

Arnold: Hope you git your treasure going! :-)

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Fascinating, thanks so much for sharing.

My recollection, which is ancient, is that the Marx Commodore Vanderbuilt windup loco I believe I had 65+ years ago may have gone a few feet, at most, so when it was said (I think by Windup Guy) that they can go 100 feet, that was very surprising to me.

At this point, my interest relates to nostalgia, and I'm beginning to see the charm these toys have, and I certainly know they can be enjoyed by very young children, which was my experience long ago. Arnold

A Marx windup pulling a small train (with everything in good running condition) can usually cover anywhere from 90-100 feet, sometimes further.

Of course, for some of us, that isn't far enough... 

@Fatman posted:

I like George V !  Handsome devil.