February CTT, 2006 -----Marx

[lionelsuperotrack]

In my most humble opinion, being a collector of Marx, amongst other things, I LOVED the February issue. Not only did the good old die cast 666 come out as a winner but that HiRail scale layout "is beyond the pale".

To bad they did not mention the 666 die cast "steam chest smoker". Much harder to find and when double headed they are powerful too.

Have you seen that layout? Is that clever or what. This forum is primarily operators and it doesn't get any more "toy train" then this. Did you notice how everything fits together like in a real town? The auto race track, the trolley, streets, light poles, CUSTOM Marx track. I liked it!

Ok, enough.............................<G>

Have a Happy Holiday Season & a Healthy New Year.

Very best, Mike Spanier

The History of Lionel "Super O" Track
( http://www.tcamembers.org/articles/operating/supero/index.html )

Lionel_SuperO_Track Yahoo Group
( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lionel_SuperO_Track/ )

JEP_Trains_Toys Yahoo Group
( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JEP_Trains_Toys/ )

[Anonymous]

I liked the article alot.I must admit that the article made me look at my 666`s in a different light.I think im going to clean them up oil them and let them get there fair share of rail time
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[dwiemer]

I have not purchased a 666, perhaps its just the number. I will certainly take a second look at them if I come across one. I did like the article, even though I don't collect Marx, it is good to see what is out there and perhaps apply ideas to my own layout. I think CTT has done a good job of showing most of the different makes/scales of trains. Keep up the good work,
Dennis

[prewardude]

Yep, that is an interesting article. It's always cool to see something different like that in the magazine.

[ChiefEagles]

Helped educate me more about Marx. Never was famaliar with them.

[lionelsuperotrack]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ChiefEagles

Helped educate me more about Marx. Never was famaliar with them.

Marx is fun. Some items are quite expensive but to develope a railroad like Ray Cox did in CTT is not that expensive. You can find a 666 with tender for $25 to $30 and they run for ever with smoke. The 666 is die cast and comes in a variation with white trip and one with steamchest smoke as well as from the stack. Also, the 1666 is an almost identical version that is plastic. It comes in sevaral different variations. All, inexpensive and when you see what Ray did it gives hope without $$$$ to spare with lots of fun.

There is a very friendly Marx Yahoo Group which is linked below. It focus's upon operation:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarxTrain/

Here are a couple more layouts you may enjoy:

http://www.train99.com/layouts/layout3.html

Have a great Holiday Season & a Healthy New Year.

Mike Spanier

[Dave Farquhar]

I have quite a bit of Marx because it fits my small budget and it's pretty easy to find in the area where I live. The price makes it nice for operating (you can build up a sizeable collection without spending a lot of money) and there are enough variations to collect to keep it interesting. Even the cheap, common pieces usually have some variations, so there's some challenge in collecting them. It'll take some time to accumulate all of the variations of the cheap-as-dirt 552 gondola, but that project won't cost a lot of money to complete. The same goes for the 556 caboose, but an armada of gondolas makes for more interesting operations than cabooses.

Some Marx rarities aren't cheap, but their prices aren't any more out of line than Lionel or Flyer rarities.

[Anonymous]

I don't have any of the original Marx, aside from a few accessories, but I have a whole lot of New Marx that is sitting, still boxed-up, awaiting the day when I can give it a layout of its own (along with some decent display space along the wall for the items that aren't operating on the layout). There's something about that lithographed tinplate that very much appeals to me, and slowly but surely I've been accumulating new tinplate accessories of all types to use with those trains once they have a decent and fitting home of their own.

I definitely look forward to seeing the Marx article in the Feb. issue.

[Jumijo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dwiemer

I have not purchased a 666, perhaps its just the number. . . . Keep up the good work,
Dennis

The number creeps me out as well. Same goes for the 1666. I've always liked the locomotive, but don't like to see three 6's in a row. Boogah boogah [}:)]!

Jim

[Anonymous]

It was great to see some Marx in CTT! There was the layout, the 666 in the Sleepers and Duds article and also the Marx State of Maine boxcars. Wow! I myself collect Marx and was very pleased with this. Overall, a fantastic issue. I really did a double-take on that blue Cities Service tank car! I had no idea that such a variation existed. I've never heard about it before and it isn't listed in the Greenberg Marx priceguide. Good job guys!

QUOTE: Originally posted by jaabat

QUOTE: Originally posted by dwiemer

I have not purchased a 666, perhaps its just the number. . . . Keep up the good work,
Dennis

The number creeps me out as well. Same goes for the 1666. I've always liked the locomotive, but don't like to see three 6's in a row. Boogah boogah [}:)]!

There's the rumour that they gave it that number because it "smoked like the devil". In reality, though, I'm quite sure that the reason was because Marx's previous diecast steamers also had three-digit numbers that were multiples of three. There was the 333 4-6-2 and the 999 2-4-2. The 333 was Marx's largest diecast steamer and the 999 was their smallest. The 666 was was in between the two when it came to size, so when put into context, that number doesn't seem unusual. 333, 666, 999.

[Jumijo]

I have an old Marx rotary beacon, still in its original box, that someone gave me last summer. It's nice. Growing up, I had many Marx toys that I played with endlessly. Marx toy guns, Marx General Custer, Billy West, Marx toy cowboys (Fort Apache) etc. Never had a Marx train set though.

It was a real treat to see all those Marx trains in the current CTT.

Jim

[palallin]

My first set was a plastic, 8-wheele set: NYC #490 0-4-0, slope-back tender, red Pennsy gon, blue Erie log-dump flatcat, white Pacemaker caboose. I was seven months old: Grandpa got me an HO set fo Christmas (1964), but it was DOA, so he went to Sears the day after and bought last 027 set in the store. It still runs, though it has sufered a few cracks over the years.

[pbjwilson]

I break out the old Marx sets for Christmas.

They're fun for a little SHAKE, RATTLE, and ROLL.

[JamesPH1966]

Haven't seen the issue yet but I've been salivating since I saw the "coming next month" ad in the last CTT (having been a Marx collector since 1980 or so). Glad to hear it'll be worth the wait...

[tjsprague]

I thought that article really put the "classic" in the February issue of Classic Toy Trains.

I know the money comes from new trains and such, but these types of articles keep me on the subscription silt.

Tim

[tjsprague]

That would be "list", -subscription list.

Tim

[lionelsuperotrack]