Last Updated on June 6, 2024 by Dave Farquhar
Marx train set 9640 was an electric train set Marx that Sears sold in 1952. You may also hear collectors refer to it as Happi-Time train set 9640, because that’s what Marx printed on the box. It featured Marx’s best locomotive pulling 3/16 scale metal cars. This set marked the farewell for that locomotive, as Marx bundled the set to use up remaining discontinued inventory, to clear the way for its 1953 product refresh.
Happi-Time train set 9640
The Marx Happi-Time 9640 train set was a higher-end Marx electric set in Sears’ 1952 Fall/Winter catalog. Sears priced it at $24.79, or $31.75 with a pair of switches added in, and put it right next to a Lionel set on the same page. The $24.79 price was about $281 in 2023 dollars. This set predates Sears’ use of the Allstate brand on its train sets.
Marx lettered this set for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, teaming up a pair of big tin lithographed diesel engines in the iconic warbonnet scheme with a set of three freight cars and a set of three passenger cars so you could run either type of consist. And to be fair, nothing stopped you from running it all together at once to make a longer train. Sears seemed to encourage it, bragging the set came with more than seven feet of train.
It consisted of the following:
- 21 Santa Fe diesel A unit, powered, with headlight and reverse
- 21 Santa Fe diesel A unit, unpowered
- 1950 GAEX boxcar, green
- 44572 Chesapeake & Ohio high-side gondola
- 1951 Santa Fe caboose
- (2) Santa Fe 3152 passenger coaches
- 3197 Santa Fe observation car
- 18 pieces of O27 track (advertised as 195 inches of track)
- 50-watt transformer
A 50-watt transformer and an oval of 18 pieces of O27 track rounded out the set. Specifically, it included eight O27 curved sections and 10 O27 straight sections. Sears called it 195 inches of track in its catalog description. It makes it sound bigger than calling it a 27-inch x 64-inch oval. Sears also sold extra track at 18 cents apiece for O27, and 22 cents apiece for wide-diameter O34 curves.
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, set# 52844 from 1955, the 45225 diesel set, and the treasured 25760 Allegheny and its 1974 catalogmate, the 4362 Cannonball.
Positioning the Marx Happi-Time 9640 train set
Sears positioned this set as a value-oriented but high-end electric set, and they aggressively put it on the same page next to a mid-level Lionel set priced at $30 that included a steam locomotive and tender with smoke but only three freight cars and 12 sections of track.
The set was a good value because it was essentially a closeout. Marx was transitioning its product line to plastic, and this generous bundle was a way to quickly liquidate inventory. My cynical take is that Marx probably didn’t have enough diesel locomotives to use up all of its freight and passenger cars, so they made this hybrid set.
Value
I frequently get questions about the value of old Marx train sets. As for the value of set 9640 today, I would estimate it at over $300. The freight cars aren’t especially difficult to find, but the diesel engine and unpowered unit and the passenger cars are all worth about $50 each.
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.