Toy trains

The Marx 994 was Marx’s largest tin-bodied locomotive. It dates to 1952. It wasn’t made for very long, but thanks to its size, collectors still like the Marx 994 locomotive.

Marx released the 994 in 1950 to compete with Unique Art, a rival maker of tin toys who had entered the market in 1949. Unique’s trains were priced like Marx’s and ran on the same O gauge track but were slightly larger, which made them appear to be a better value. Marx countered by introducing its own line of trains in a similar size.

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Someone asked me the other day how to remove paint from toy trains without chemicals like paint stripper or oven cleaner. It can be done, but there’s a reason a lot of hobbyists like me use chemicals.

Without using chemicals, you have to use abrasive methods to remove paint. That usually means sandblasting or bead blasting.

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Marx Trains, also variously known as New Marx, Modern Marx, and Ameritrains, was originally the brainchild of Jim and Debby Flynn, a husband and wife who collected Marx trains, especially the tin variants. They produced a line of tinplate trains in the same style of vintage Louis Marx tin trains. Marx stopped making trains out of tinplate in 1972.

Marx Trains had a run of about 15 years, from 1992 to around 2007, with a brief resumption in 2012. The trains had a small, dedicated following but did not achieve the market penetration of larger rivals like MTH.

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The holes in the ties on American Flyer S gauge track are absurdly small, so fastening American Flyer track has been a mystery for ages. What size fasteners can you use?

American Flyer veterans recommend using #17 wire brad nails, 1 inch long. Drilling pilot holes helps if you have a small enough bit, a #56 or smaller.

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If you like long trains, you want them to roll as easily as possible. Lionel figured out a bunch of secrets to lower rolling resistance in the 1970s. If you like tin like me, Lionel’s needlepoint axles and delrin trucks won’t help you. But there are things that can. Here’s how I get lower rolling resistance for tin trains.

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In 1938 and possibly 1939, Marx produced its 6-inch cars with plain tin-plated frames, rather than lithographing or painting them. But these silver frame Marx cars were short lived. As such they provide a challenge for collectors today.

Silver frame Marx cars are a bit difficult to find because of their short production time but are also easy to fake. Don’t pay a heavy premium for a frame that looks too good.

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The Lionel TW transformer is an easy to overlook, easily misunderstood transformer from the postwar era. It was designed for single-train layouts with lots of accessories. It contains two transformers in the case, one for the train and one for the accessories.

The Lionel TW provides 175 watts of power and variable voltage of up to 20 volts on its A-U posts, but its main source of appeal is its large number of fixed voltage circuits at varying levels.

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The Marx 897 was a tin lithographed steam locomotive produced prior to World War II. It depicts a much more common steam locomotive than the Commodore Vanderbilt or Canadian Pacific and came in both clockwork and electric variations.

The Marx 897 looks like what a classic Marx locomotive ought to look like, made of pressed tin with lithographed detail. But it only stayed on the market a few years because of World War II, and the emergence of newer technologies. But if you like tin lithography and you like Marx, you probably like the 897.

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