I am new to this forum, but I just had to share my story, and eventually some pics too.
When I was 1 year old, my Dad got me a Santa Fe train set from Marx, Diesel set with the #1095 on the (A) unit, then the dummy (B) unit, brown Erie flat car #4528, blue car hauler SOU. #51100, green NYC box car with sliding doors, yellow-gray-red A.T. & S.F. #1977 Caboose. I must have had a 1/2 mile of track, because the picture my Mom took of me & Pop, showed the track, with an outside loop, and the two switches, that ran all the way around the room on the floor, with me and my Dad in the middle of the track. Well, at some point in time, during one of our moves, not long after that photo was taken, my train set box got dropped. My Santa Fe diesel #1095 that I had loved so much, as my mom put it, was destroyed. The car hauler also destroyed, and several missing parts. Including all of that track, which the movers and my Mom said, just disappeared.
Needless to say, my heart was broken. I kept my old train in the closet now, for the past 42 years, only stoping by to look at the smashed cab, the missing parts and thinking back in time, to remember seeing it run, and playing with my Dad when he was home from work. Then it dawned on me, just recently, as I was building an O-gauge set for my two nephews, that I still had my old train in the top of that closet. I ran, not walked to that closet and jerked open that door one last time to take a good long look at my old friend. I gently took it down, removed the New Lionel Polar Express Set from the track, and very nervously placed my old friend on the track, after 42 long years. I made sure every wheel was on track, every coupler tight, then... "with the rise of that Lionel handle on that transformer" I watched my old friend stard hauling the load again. Oh yeah, "I cried for at least 30 minutes" but it was worth it for me to see it run, after all these years, just sitting there, with a piece of my broken heart, right on that top shelf in the hall closet.
The cab is still smashed, the parts from the cars still missing, but "then is dawned on me again" like a bright light, "I got a computer and there's a thing called e-bay" So I went looking for parts, replacement cars, the whole 9 yards, and finally, after long day's and nights spent searching, " I found an identical set to my set, only "not-broken" just missing the box and the track, everything else is there, exept the tiny toy automobiles that go on the hauler, but hey, who knows, maybe I can find those too. There's nothing in the world like "genuine OEM parts" and now I got them, and I will fix my old friend, whom I had missed all these years. I got video's of my old friend, and pictures, but this is my first post, and if all goes well, I will try to update it soon. But for now, I hope you all enjoy my story, I am sure to add more someday soon.......Dave.
would love to see the video when you get it up. not sure if your aware but you need to goto www.photobucket.com or www.shutterfly.com or another hosting site to post your video or pics here. We do a thing here called Sunday photo fun some weeks theres a lot some very little like last as it was Easter Sunday and most where with there families.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
I got the vids and some pics posted on photo bucket, but I don't know what to do next. I haven't ever used that before, so I don't know how to share them here or anywhere else yet. Any suggestions would help a lot.....Dave.
I think This is the link to my pics and vids for the train set in this article, I think? I will try to test it out and see if it will take me there where I put the stuff. I haven't ever used this before, so I just have to wing it. A.O.K. it appears to work for me to copy and paste this link anyway, so someone let me know how it works. I will be glad to add pics along the process of the repair job of the damaged (A) unit, which will be a simple body on-off-on-again procedure. However to repair and salvage my broken (A) unit body after the swap out will require some doing. I think the hardest part for me will be the paint job after the body work. Here is the link ... http://s1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc441/magnum2230b/
Neat story, I have a NIB 1095 A unit powered and 1095D dummy but I had no idea when they were made. Was 1969 the only year? I also just started back into the hobby now that I have retired and tested these in Jan and I don’t think they were ever run since my dad picked them up. Most of my collection is Lionel but I do have some nice Marx stuff WILLIAMS CROOKS 4-4-0 - STEAM LOCO With Smoke Set Marx # 1829 Santa Fe Pass set I have about 126 Total Rolling Stock and Engines and have run them all since the first of the year and am now working on a 16x12 layout in the basement. Keep up the good work. Tks, Kev. Here are some pictures
Neat story, I have a NIB 1095 A unit powered and 1095D dummy but I had no idea when they were made. Was 1969 the only year? I also just started back into the hobby now that I have retired and tested these in Jan and I don’t think they were ever run since my dad picked them up.
Most of my collection is Lionel but I do have some nice Marx stuff
WILLIAMS CROOKS 4-4-0 - STEAM LOCO With Smoke Set
Marx # 1829 Santa Fe Pass set
I have about 126 Total Rolling Stock and Engines and have run them all since the first of the year and am now working on a 16x12 layout in the basement.
Keep up the good work.
Tks,
Kev.
Here are some pictures
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
Thanks for adding the pics and for the great reply. I am not sure how many years they made those #1095 diesels with the Santa Fe line, but I do know when I got mine. There are still several out there in good shape, at resonible prices sometimes. But seldom have I ever noticed a set just like mine for sale. I guess most folks just keep passing them down the family tree. I do not have my box, nor did the guy I got my replacement from. So I don't know what the box number, model numbers, or paperwork looks like for my set. I was too young to remeber all that in my head, and I never wrote it down. 42 years later, I really wish I had.
If anyone reading this post has those numbers, or box photo's from the set that I have listed here then please feel free to add the info Thanks... Dave
Great story, magnum. And welcome aboard.
Many of us like you found ourselves resurrecting the trains from our childhood, taken out of decades-long less than perfect storage, and bringing them back to life.
My trains date back to 1950, sat in storage for a few decades, and needed some TLC to bring them back to life. The story began one Christmas when I was four, and the cost of my trains must have broken the parents' bank. The resurrection of these same trains took place at Christmas about 35 years later when my son was a tyke, though I was smart enough to buy him his own train with a starter set. My Dad and Mom were pleased that their Christmas and birthday gifts from so many years earlier still had legs.
My wife was not initially pleased when "da boyz" took over the precious space under "her" Christmas tree.....but she relented then. Every year since she has expected a layout around the tree, complete with her treasured lighted village motiff. She's into tradition, and here was one taken right out of the pages of postwar Americana. I was shocked when she seemed pleased with the more realistic look of the Fastrack I bought a few years back for the Christmas layout......wisely, I had neglected to tell her what the track cost per piece. Now she insists I spend more time running the trains with the granddaughters! Family and friends alike enjoy watching these timeless pieces operate during the holidays. Memerized might be a better word.
And like you, my pieces were in need of some serious "help." Some help came from the folks at my local train shop, and some from the folks on this forum when I started working on some of the pieces myself.
My stuff shows the wear and tear one might expect from the ravages of a four year old (me); but at the sage advice of some on this forum, I have resisted repainting anything. Each boo boo has a story and a fond memory behind it. And the trains still run like the first day they first came out of the box.
Good luck on your R&R project. Take your time. And don't be a stranger here.
Jack
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
Hummmm, Dave,
Now you have me thinking about a B unit
Here should be my shutterfly page, it has more pics and vids and I like the looks of it better than I did the photobucket. Anyway feel free to check it out and let me know if this link don't work, I will try something different if it don't. I think I have more MARX stuff on my shutterfly anyway...... http://magnum2230b.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5
Nice stuff and pictures, I guess your right about your 1095 having some damage.
Keep up the good work,
I fixed My Old Friend This week. I have posted a few pics on the shutterfly page to show the updates. I have decided since my Dad's brother worked with L&N way back before my time, that I would paint the old train in his glory day colors. I think it turned out good for my first try, so if you all see it, just let me know what you think about my handy work........Dave.
It's all fixed up now, got the pics on my shutterfly. They are low res, but look fair. The only camera I had those day's I was working on it was my cell phone. It really don't have a good high res pic taking at all.
Anyway, check it out, let me know what you think........Dave.
I think the paint job looks really sharp! Now all you need is a matching caboose. Neat mod on the pilot, too!
Thank you for your input and reply, and I just got a new caboose, but I can't make myself paint it yet, it's so darn good looking like it is. It's a big (NS) Red caboose from Atlas, Man it looks good. Not as good as the Lionel Counterpart, but it only cost halsf as much too, so I sacrificed the extreme detail of a few added hand rails and a guy sitting up in the top window with a cup of coffee. But another additional $40.00 wasn't in my budget this trip. I will eventually use the L&N paint scheme on it, with the correct road numbers that I saw online. The only downside is, I have to keep looking, it's not a bay window caboose like most of the L&N stock photo's show. As soon as I find one that isn't a bay window, I should continue my matching rolling stock from there. I may also try to match one of my (B) Units up as well, but I can't find any good photo's of the (B) units that have a visible road number and good graphics, like they do on the (A) Units. I also am having trouble finding a light buld for one of my Marx engines, actually the L&N that I just did. Nobody around here seems to have any of those older screw in bulbs for the old Marx headlights. I do still have the two little AT&SF caboose units from the Marx sets that I have, but they are tiny by comparrisonto the new NS. The AT&SF cabooses have no ladders, no hand rails, and no detail at all to speak of. Hey, Now that I think of it, I will try to shutterfly some caboose pics too, that way we can see a before and after on that When I get started. Thanks again for the input........Dave.
Nice story, even nicer set!
Great story. Enjoyed reading it.
Mike Spanier
PS I am a Marx collector of many years and recently started to sell, BUT, I just struggle to do it. Just too many fond memories. And still have almost all. Just too nice to part with. And yes, have several sets of the type you have.
Thanks for your reply, and glad to see another Marx collector. Just as a side note, Yesturday while I was looking at my new NS caboose, I wondered if I could put together a make-shift coupler out of something, that would hook to the Atlas Auto coupler and then slide down into the Marx fork slot, similar to how the Marx (A)-(B) Units hook up. Well, I did it and it works well. I used an old curtain rod hanger to do it. I just bend the hanger hooks off, and was left with a thin flat metal part with a small nail hole in each end. That tiny nail hole will hook right under the spring loaded Atlas auto coupler and the lock pin will drop right in that hole to hold it. Next I came just a little forward of the Auto coupler for clearence and bent it up, then bent it back torwards where it would begin to catch the Marx fork slot. Next I just bent it down. I had to file a bit of a bevel into that tip that I bent down, so it would just slide in and out. Then I hooked it up to the rear of the Marx double frieght set and hauled it around the track. I didn't have to buy any parts at all, and no special tools were needed. I had it all right here around the house. I will get some pics and vids up on shutterfly today if I can. Hope this will help "everyone else" who has often wondered how to run our Marx with our other train sets........Dave.
Got the new pics and vids up today... The coupler adapter project that I did, for MARX to ATLAS AUTO COUPLER, and the Vids of the new Norfolk Southern Caboose by Atlas running behind my MARX at about 3/4 Speed on the Fast-Track............Enjoy..............Dave.
http://magnum2230b.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5
FINISHED WATERFALL PROJECT, I think it turned out good for my first waterfall. I built it using only a part of a bottle of Water effects, some heat-glue, and my Mom's no-stick pan. it turned out better than I ever immagined it. Take a look here: http://magnum2230b.shutterfly.com/pictures/156
Let me know what you all think.......Dave.
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