MarX size vs. Lionel...

[Jim Duda]

I have a confession - on that Christmas morning in 1948 I had no clue that my precious, new MarX 333 was smaller than my neighbor Jimmy Boston's Lionel. In fact, even when I got my very first Lionel a few years ago, I didn't realize it. My first Lionel was a 675 "prarie" type Pennsy K4 with a 2466WX tender off ebay, which is not a large loco - so I thought my MarX was just like the Lionels.

Then I learned about "scale size" and got a few cars and one scale size locomotive. To me, they both look just fine and I don't even mind mixing up the consist. Other opinions may vary and that's OK. I'm tellin' ya, I smile just as much when my "way outa scale" MarX is running than when the bigger stuff is on the track.

Here's a comparison of how small my MarX caboose is to a "scale sized" one. And it does just fine on O gauge rails...even though it is an O27 size...

[Dave Farquhar]

Jim, actually the Marx wheels on that particular caboose are close to scale. O27 is supposed to be 1/64 scale. Compare the wheel size on that Marx to a postwar American Flyer, or a 1939-42 "Tru-Scale" O gauge Flyer, and they're pretty close. Lionel's O27 used the same trucks as the 1:48 O scale cars. Not long after the war, Marx started using oversize trucks too. I've taken common Lionel gondolas and replaced one truck with a Marx truck to allow me to use Marx and Lionel together. The resulting car looks and runs fine.

Frightening, isn't it, that Marx, which made no bones about being toy company, actually paid more attention to scale in the early postwar years than Lionel?

[Jim Duda]

Bingo! I love it! Never thought about making an "adapter" car so I can intermix MarX and other brands of knuckle coupler stuff...brilliant!

Thanks Dave!

[spankybird]

It just wasn’t Marx that made small cabooses, so did Lionel. Here is the caboose that came with my 671.



It is the standard caboose that Lionel has made for many years. In fact the set that my wife bought my in 96 when I re-entered the hobby had the same size caboose.

Here is a Scale Lionel NYC caboose


and side by side



remember real cabooses started out as converted box cars.

tom

[Dave Farquhar]

You're very welcome, Jim. I have a car that converts Flyer link couplers to Marx, a couple that do Lionel knuckles to Marx, and now I'm starting on some cars that will let me mix prewar. By the time I'm done I'll probably do at least one that lets me mix prewar and postwar too.

Dave

[thor CNJ]

Let me explain:

In 1938, Gilbert had the idea of a mass-produced "scale" train for O gauge. In his vision, he would use standard O31 track, but make the cars and loco at a 1/64 - 3/16" scale. It was innovative at the time, and Flyer, Lionel and Marx investigated the idea. In the Postwar Era, Marx's "scale' cars were 3/16" made to run on O27 track. Much of Lionel's O27 was also scaled close to 1/64, with the width being altered to look good on O track. Marx made "scale" cars in both tin and plastic. The main concession to O27 track was making some items wider, such as their E7 shells.

I love the Marx stuff and have a nice collection of it. BUT I am NOT a collector so much as an operator.

[thor CNJ]

I forgot to mention: most of the Marx plastic buildings that are comparable to Plasticville have 1/64 dimensions, most notable being doorways. However, their trackside people were a full 1/48 size, with figures of men running 1 1/2" tall as opposed to 1 1/8 for S gauge. Marx's plastic cars were of nebulous scale, with the Volkswagen being pretty big compared to the sedans.

On operatign accessories, Marx tended to use larger figures, many as big as 1/32! K-Line reissued many such accessories with people sized for O.

With Marx, scale was either scrupulous or capricious. There was no middle ground.