Combining Lionel and Marx cars...

[Guru]

Hi,

I don't know much about trains, but someone referred me to this forum.  I have a Lionel from the mid-90's and my dad gave me his old Marx from the late 50's.  The Marx doesn't have an engine and I wanted to connect the cars to my Lionel but the cuplers(sp?) are not the same.

Is there any way to connect the cars without damaging them?  Thanks!

[DSchmitt]

Repost this question in the "Classic Toy Trains"forum on this web site for the best chance of the very knowledgeable Lionel/ and Marx enthusiasts seeing it. 

[Paul of Covington]

   I looked for your post on the "Classic Toy Trains" forum, but didn't find it, so I'll post my response here.

   I ran a mix of Lionel and Marx cars back in the fifties.  There were two styles of Marx couplers.   The old style was a simple tab and slot; to couple or un-couple you had to lift one car to insert or remove the tab from the slot.   The newer style was a horizontal piece of metal with a V-shaped notch and "hooks" on each side that engage each other.   This allowed automatic coupling and un-coupling by tilting the coupler.   There was also a slot in the new style that the old style tab would fit into to make them compatible.   I found that the tab on the Marx old style would fit into the closed knuckle of the Lionel coupler and run pretty reliably.   Since the Marx cars were lighter than the Lionel, I usually ran them on the rear, with the new Marx cars following the old ones.   If you have only the new-style Marx, I don't see how they could mate with the Lionel.  You might try making a U-shaped metal "double tab" to drop into the two couplers.   Otherwise, you may have to convert one car to use as a transition car.

[vsmith]

Maybe time to use the ultimate "universal coupler", a wire twist tie....?

I have a Marx collection, I made a transition car using a generic gondola car, one that had both the scissor (tilting) coupler and the hook/tab. I simply replaced one truck, giving me a tab on one side and the scissor on the other. Maybe something like this can be done with one car replacing the coupler on one end of a Marx or Lionel car.