The Marx 4318 was a low end train set that was the result of a long time collaboration between two large companies while times were still good for both of them. It was an inexpensive electric train set exclusive to W.T. Grant, which was one of the fastest growing retailers in the United States at the time.
The formula for the Marx train sets sold at W.T. Grant after 1962 was simple but effective. Grant had Marx bundle together an inexpensive steam locomotive and an assortment of 4-wheel plastic cars to make a four or five unit set with an oval of track and a paper village to provide scenic interest. The packaging proclaimed it as a complete setup with nothing more to buy. The 4318 set was a five-unit set.
Set contents:
- 490 loco with chug-chug unit
- 1951 New York Central or Penn Central tender
- 3280 ATSF box car or 467110 B&O box car
- 715100 NYC gondola
- New York Central or Penn Central caboose, light orange
- 8 O27 curves, 2 O27 straight
- 329 transformer, 25 watt
- 6 telephone poles
- 34-piece cardboard village
The set cost $12.97 or $13.97 depending on the year. That’s around $100 in today’s money.
How old is Marx train set 4318?
The price change indicates Grant sold the set more than just a single year. The existence of New York Central and Penn Central variations provide an important clue. The New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to create Penn Central in 1968. Since both varieties exist, that means Grant and Marx were selling this set in the late 60s. Also, since set 4318 was cheaper than the Grant 4338 set while having more in the box, that really suggests the set probably didn’t extend far into the 1970s. On the other side, Grant sold the similar 4218 set, headed by a 400 locomotive, prior to 1962. Since Marx introduced the 490 in 1962, it’s possible the New York Central version of set 4318 extends as far back as 1962.
Raising the price a full dollar is a strong indication the set was available more than one year, as a $1 price increase in the 1960s works out to the equivalent of a $10 price increase in the 2020s.
I think I found a 1967 newspaper ad offering set 4318 at a heavy discount. Like most ads, it didn’t do us any favors and mention a set number. But the description and image match set 4318, indicating that sets just like it were being sold in the late 1960s.
Unintentional significance of Marx train set 4318
In an odd twist of fate, Penn Central and W.T. Grant were the two biggest corporate bankruptcies of the 1970s. Penn Central declared bankruptcy in June 1970. It was the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history until Enron eclipsed it in 2001. W.T. Grant went bankrupt five years later in 1975. At that time, Grant’s bankruptcy was the second largest in U.S. history.
Both bankruptcies had far-reaching effects we still feel five decades later. Penn Central’s bankruptcy led to deregulation of the railroad industry. Grant’s bankruptcy opened the door for activist investors and corporate raiders.
How rare is Marx train set 4318?
I was born after this set came onto the market, but I was exactly the target audience for this set, the young child whose father had an electric train set growing up in the 40s, or couldn’t get one because of World War II, and for the equivalent of about $100 in today’s money, there was enough in the box to keep a child interested for a while. But the entire business model of an electric train set was to sell add-ons for a few years to come. The words “nothing else to buy” were just there to help make that initial sale.
At one time, these sets appeared extremely common, suggesting Marx and Grant sold a lot of them. But I don’t see nearly as many of them today as I did 20 years ago, and prices are higher than they were 20 years ago, so maybe these sets didn’t so as well as we once thought. The pipeline was drying up for Marx.
While I wouldn’t call these sets rare, they’ve gotten harder to find as time goes by. Anymore, when one of these comes up, it typically sells for around $50 if it’s in its original box and reasonably complete.
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.