Marx train set 45225 was an electric train set from Marx from 1951-1953, and possibly into 1954. Arguably the last hurrah for Marx’s tinplate trains, it featured Marx’s #21 tinplate diesels in the Santa Fe Warbonnet livery pulling tin freight cars on high trucks.
Marx diesel electrical train 45225
Santa Fe’s Warbonnet livery was an instant favorite, and Marx provided the least expensive way to bring that iconic look to your electric train layout. Allied featured it in its 1951 and 1952 catalogs. Its presence in Marx’s own 1952 and 1953 catalogs means other retailers also carried it those years. And Marx even gave it top billing, featuring it on the cover of the 1952 catalog.
Marx lettered this set for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (ATSF, or Santa Fe) railroad, teaming up its #21 Santa Fe diesels with tin 8-wheel tin cars. Marx never made cars appropriately sized for the #21 diesels, so they put taller trucks on freight cars from the 3/16 line and a caboose from the 7-inch line to make their height more closely match the diesels. The result was a long way from finescale modeling, but for its intended audience, it worked fine.
The set consisted of the following:
- #21, Santa Fe diesel locomotives, AA-units, silver and red, metal
- 1950, GAEX boxcar, green, “DF” on stripe or
174580 NYC boxcar, red and gray - 44572 C & O gondola, black
- 652 Shell tank car, yellow
- 1951 Santa Fe caboose, red.
It was an attractive and colorful consist. The green boxcar provided contrast with the Santa Fe diesels and caboose. And the Shell tank car complemented the yellow in Santa Fe’s livery.
The set came with wide-diameter O34 track and a a 50-watt transformer, model 1249. Robert Whitacre documented this set on page 64 of Greenberg’s Guide to Marx Trains, Vol. 3: Sets.
If you have one of these sets and want to get it running again, I have some tips for setting up Marx trains.
What was the ATSF railroad?
The ATSF, or Santa Fe, was a Class 1 railroad in the western half of the United States. Founded in 1859, many of its tracks were laid directly over the wagon ruts of the Santa Fe trail. It reached the states of California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Illinois, eventually operating 13,115 miles of track.
In 1983, the Santa Fe attempted unsuccessfully to merge with the Southern Pacific, but the Interstate Commerce Commission denied it on the basis it would create too many duplicate routes. The Santa Fe ended up merging with the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1995, forming what we now call the BNSF Railway.
Marx also produced other sets lettered for the Santa Fe, including 26259 for Montgomery Ward, 55950 for Spiegel and W.T. Grant, 9640 set for Sears, set# 52844 from 1955, and the treasured 25760 Allegheny and its fellow 1974 set, the 4362 Cannonball.
Who was Allied?
Marx may have given Allied an exclusive on set 45225 in 1951, before offering it to other retailers the following year. Allied was a large retail chain in the United States from 1935 to 1988, similar in concept to Sears, Montgomery Ward, and JCPenney, but pricing itself slightly upmarket from them. By the 1980s, it operated more than 600 stores. In 1988, it merged with Federated, the operators of Macy’s.
Positioning
Marx positioned this set as a high-end but value-oriented set, pricing it at $27.95, which is $329 in 2024 dollars. In the Sears 1952 Christmas catalog, the Lionel Santa Fe diesels alone cost $47.50, so for nearly $20 less, Marx gave you a full set.
Value
I frequently get questions about the value of old Marx train sets. As for the value of set 45225 today, I would estimate it at over $200 if it’s complete and in nice condition. The Shell tank car is probably the most difficult piece in the set to find, and the ATSF diesels, while not rare, are iconic and popular with collectors and operators.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.