First off, I'd like to say hello to everyone and introduce myself. I'm Adam, and I live in East TN, Greeneville to be exact. My story starts with my Father getting a Marx 666 train when he was a child in the 50s. He kept the engine and cars all these years, for their sentimental value and he fondly mentioned them from time to time. The track and transformer had been lost sometime through the years. A few years ago we started looking for a decent set, but due to being rather poor we never found a set we felt comfortable buying.(Dad makes less than $12,000 a year and I'm disabled, but unable to draw anything.) Fast forward to a month ago, we were at a local antique store and there it was! A nice Marx 666 engine with a sound tender, 3 boxcars and a caboose. Also in the box was enough track to make a large oval and a 50 watt transformer. It was only $75 and looked like it was almost new. We discussed it for 2 days before going back to buy it. Once set up, it ran great, but it doesn't smoke very well. Dad got out his old train and cleaned up all his cars and I read up online about where to grease, oil, and clean everything in the engine. His beat up old one is faster and smokes better than the one we bought! Now we had 2 running engines, 2 tenders 11 cars and one caboose and one rolling frame, since his caboose had been damaged. We turned the frame into a small wooden high-sided gondola. It's nothing fancy, but it's another car. We both got hooked on running the train, so we found some more track on a popular auction site and bought it along with a Marx 100 watt transformer. Then after a third trip to the antique store, we came back with a Lionel 8800 engine, complete with tender, 4 cars, caboose, track and 50 watt transformer. Then I found an illuminated caboose at auction really cheap (less than $10 including shipping). I've been doing a lot of research online, but I'm having trouble finding answers to a lot of the questions Dad and I have, so I joined the forum in hopes of getting answers from some of the veteran "engineers". So, that's my story, sorry it was so long, but I'm really excited to have people to tell, since none of my friends care about trains.
Like I mentioned, dad and I are poor, but the idea is to just spend a little here and there, to slowly work toward a nice layout. We've set aside my old bedroom at dad's house for the layout. Right now it's looking like it will be 4x8 on opposite walls, connected at the end of the room by two 24 inch bridges. One of the 4x8s will have a smaller track running inside the large track so we can run two trains at once.
Now, for a few questions...
When it comes to different brands of cars, such as Lionel, MTH, etc., will most knuckle couplers work with each other, or would it be best to stick with only one brand's cars? The illuminated caboose is larger than all my other Lionel and Marx cars. I know Marx trains aren't really to scale, but are there differences in the Lionel O's? What about the other manufacturers? Also, which brand can usually be found for the least amount of money?
My second question in about power and number of cars. The Marx 666 can pull quite a few cars at once with no problems, but the Lionel 8800 isn't as strong, even though it seems to be the same size engine. I'm interested in a steamer that can pull 10 or more cars easily, can anyone recommend one from any company that has that kind of power and can be bought used or new for $100 or so? I know trains are expensive now, so I'm not expecting a lot of options. I've been looking at the Marx 333 and the lionel turbine engines with the 6-8-6 configuration. I also like the torpedo trains and I like smoke, but it's not a necessity. So, can anyone point me toward anything that might fit that? Dad is interested in diesels, but he wants one that looks like the Norfolk Southern trains that come through here (I forgot to mention, both our homes are within 150 yards or so of tracks). So, I'm open to one of those too.
Next question, Other an ease of setup and looks, is there any real advantage to the newer track systems from Lionel or MTH? We have quite a lot of vintage 027, so unless there's a reason, I probably won't upgrade to modern track any time soon. I do intend to make a layout at my house in the near future and have considered modern track for that, if there's an advantage.
My last question for today is, Do we need to invest in a better transformer or are the older ones OK for now? If so, what's a good modern option that will reliably run the older trains?
Any help on these questions is greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone!
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You don't have to be rich to have fun 
. The big 100w Marx seems weaker than 90w 1033s to me.
A power strip with a built in breaker is a good idea too.
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