mar trains

[Anonymous]

have engine no 333 meteor and three passenger cars marked no 234 new york central and a coal car,just wanting to know what they are worth,bought them at a yard sale.

stamped mar trains made in united states

[Dr. John]

Hi Big John and welcome to the forum!

You have a Marx set from the 1950s or early 1960s. Several factors to consider before determining an approximate value: overall condition, does it run? Any rust? How has the paint and lettering held up? Do you have the original boxes?

The 333 was the largest steam engine made by Marx. While not rare or especially valuable, they are tough and well-made engines that can run for years with moderate care (lubrication, cleaning the wheels, etc.) You can get a good ballpark idea of what these go for by checking Marx trains on Ebay.

[Dave Farquhar]

I'm always hesitant to give values without seeing the items, because condition is everything, but $100 is a fair starting point, value-wise, for a 333 with tender and three 234 passenger cars, assuming they're in fairly good shape. Adjust down if there are missing parts (wheels, couplers and siderods are the most common missing parts I see); adjust upward if the locomotive runs and everything's in really nice shape.

My wife surprised me with some trains she got at a yard sale today. Funny how that happens sometimes. She couldn't call me to ask about them so she kept saying as I was looking at them that she hoped she did OK. She didn't get the deal of the century or anything, and the stuff she got needs a lot of TLC, but she did a lot better than OK.

[Jumijo]

Good to see you posting, Dave. I hope your interest in toy trains is picking back up.

Jim

[lionelsoni]

The Marx trademark is the letters, "MAR", printed on top of a large "X" inside a circle, which was meant to be read as "MARX".  This was obviously not such a great idea, since it is so often misread simply as "MAR".  This can be useful to know when searching for Marx pieces, as on Ebay; and can lead to bargains from auctions that get overlooked because of the spelling error.