The Magic of Marx

Marx is/was interesting.  8-wheel deluxe was close to S scale size, but are great cars!  Plus the Marx smoke in the WICKED green bottle has a great smell!  If you are Pepe LePew!

Rusty, I absolutely share your passion for Marx.  Big Rail Work Train was my first set too!  Still have it and it runs like a champ.  Go to YouTube and search "Big Rail Work Train".  You'll see the commercial that ran continuously during the holidays that made every kid want one.  The first year I asked for one the stores actually sold out.  That was 1970.  I finally got mine Christmas 1971.  I remember the order sheet that came with it.  We ordered stuff for years until one day the order came back undeliverable.  I had no idea what happened to Marx until years later.  Anyway, you found the right place to share your story.  Have fun.  Big Rail

That explains why there are so many of those "Big Rail Work Train" sets out there!  And I thought the #25000 3/16th sets were the ones that were everywhere.  In 1970/1 I was off on entirely different tangents than my Marx 0-27, not returning until the 1980's.  I never saw a Marx commercial that I remember.  

Marx certainly had a variety of different train items: six-inch tin, 7-inch tin, 3/16 scale O-gauge, larger plastic cars to rival postwar Lionel ...

I really like the title of this thread    The Magic of Marx .

 When I started collecting trains in the very late 60s I like most of the people I knew into trains I was postwar Lionel Crazy 6464s, Hudson's ,F3s ,that was I I thought about .Sure I herd of Marx but , they didn't even look like trains , Just toys for kids , not for real railroad collectors.

 Then it happened just like being struck by lightning  I was attending  a TCA meet in Indianapolis Indiana somewhere about 1972 That day I saw my first Marx military train . WOW it hit me like a round form the sedge cannon  . Boom .

 It was just a engine and tender , a searchlight car and a tail car , and I was warned about the other cars and how I would soon be looking for them . I guess the seller could see I was dazed . The more I looked at it the more it was like one of the cartoons from the past a Merry Melodie  or maybe a Silly Symphony i don't know  but I was hooked . for the next 40 years I would spend poking around under the tables at meets in the back rooms of Hobby Shops being laughed at because i liked Marx. 

Well to blazes with the big L I like Marx .

So now I have that off my chest I guess I will go run my Bunny Train.

PS ask me about the day I found my first flat car with a wind up sparking tank. Man the hair still stands up on the back of my neck.

Gary

You guys stop buying Marx, your running the prices up on things I want to buy...

My first was a 999 freight set, I ignored Marx for years then started collecting the tinplate. I'm not into the plastic ones but there are some nice diesels.

Jim 1939 posted:

My first was a 999 freight set, I ignored Marx for years then started collecting the tinplate. I'm not into the plastic ones but there are some nice diesels.

My first Marx was/is a 999 locomotive that I bought on a whim at a train show in March.  I like it so much that I've started searching out the 3/16 freight cars, and hopefully the NYC 3/16 Meteor passenger cars.

I think what I find most appealing about Marx is the ingenuity of its simple design.  I find it very impressive that Marx was able to turn out such nice equipment at such low prices.