A simple restoration of a Marx 591 windup

I recently gave a Marx 591 clockwork locomotive a low key restoration. I thought I would document the process I followed in case it might be helpful to anyone.

A sympathetic restoration of a Marx 591 clockwork engine

A professional restoration would involve a complete disassembly along with removing the original paint from all the parts, then priming and respraying. It would also involve polishing the motor sides and wheels, and tumbling and possibly replating the smokestack.

I didn’t really have time to do that with this project, and for reasons I’ll get into later, it wasn’t an ideal candidate for a full restoration. So here’s how I went about doing what you might call a sympathetic restoration that made it look better, but not necessarily brand spanking new.

Prep work

Prep work is always the key to any paint job. What I did do was remove the motor, which is only held in by two screws and a bracket, and the smokestack. Then I did a cleanup of the existing paint. The existing paint wasn’t flaking off or anything, which is one reason I was comfortable not doing a full restoration. The paint was dull in some places, and small amounts had worn off in a couple of places, but overall the paint job was intact.

So I started by just cleaning the engine. I brushed down the whole surface with a paint brush to remove any dust or dirt that might be on the surface. Then I sprayed the body with contact cleaner. Why contact cleaner? Contact cleaner is basically mineral spirits in a spray can. So a quick spray with it would remove any oils on the surface from people handling it.

Respraying the Marx 591 locomotive

After cleaning the Marx 591, I took it outside. It was a balmy 88° and clear, which makes for great weather for painting. It was also a record high for that day, but that’s another topic. Mineral spirits dry very quickly, so a few seconds in the sun dried whatever remained on the engine.

Since the engine was originally black, I went ahead and painted it black. I would have preferred a satin finish, because I really don’t think the original was super glossy. Unfortunately, my can of black satin paint seemed to be out of propellants. That left semi flat black or gloss black. Semi flat black would be great for a diecast locomotive, but for a pressed tin locomotive, I think gloss is more appropriate.

I probably also put way too much thought into it. Even when proofreading this, when I read that sentence, I debated whether a semi flat black would have been nice for a sympathetic restoration. Regardless, a fresh, clean, and consistent paint job was going to be a big improvement on this engine, even if I didn’t get the sheen quite right.

Technique

I put a wooden stick through the windows of the cab to use to carry the locomotive so I wouldn’t touch the body and deposit oils onto it. I took it outside into the direct sunlight, held it up with the stick, and gave the inside of the engine a couple of sprays to apply a thin coat to the inside. Then I set it down on an old tray to paint the rest of the body. I just applied a couple of thin coats to get even coverage. I didn’t want it to look dripping wet. Thick coats run the risk of runs, which ruins the paint job.

Then I let it sit in the sun for the rest of the day to dry. I used a an infrared thermometer to check the temperature, and found the side facing the sun was reaching 120°, and the side away from the Sun was reaching 103°. Every couple of hours, I spawn the locomotive around so the cooler side could get some heat. As I started losing sunlight later in the day, I moved it to areas where it wasn’t shaded and could still get some sun.

The paint cures enough to handle after 24 hours, assuming room temperature. At the temperatures it was reaching, 7 hours in the sun is close to the equivalent of 35 hours at room temperature, so I had plenty of time for the paint to cure nicely.

Reassembly

Reassembly was simply a matter of putting the smokestack back in, the bracket back onto the motor, hooking the slots in the motor to the plate under the cab of the locomotive, then lining the bracket up with the holes near the front of the locomotive, and securing the bracket with the two screws. Then all I needed to do was put the key back in the windup mechanism and the engine looked and worked like it was almost new.

A truly proper restoration would have been more involved than this. But the goal here was to make a worn out locomotive look a bit more presentable. The front of the engine has one of the marker lights broken off, so realistically, the engine is worth around $5. I can always come back and give it a better restoration if I locate a replacement for the damaged part. But in the meantime, I got the engine looking better, can use it for what I needed, I spent very little on the project, and didn’t really limit my options for the future either.