The Marx 4338 was a low end train set that was the result of a long time collaboration between two companies who were nearing the end of the line. It was an inexpensive electric train set exclusive to W.T. Grant, which was still the third fastest growing retailer 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.
Set contents:
- 490 loco with chug-chug unit
- 1951 Southern Pacific tender
- 131000 Seaboard Coast Line gondola
- 4556 Southern Pacific caboose, light orange
- 8 O27 curves, 2 O27 straight
- 329 transformer, 25 watt
- 6 telephone poles
- 34-piece cardboard village
The caboose has a short chimney. It came from the factory this way, it’s not a broken-off chimney. The top of the chimney should be smooth, flat, and blunt.
The set cost $14.97 and sometimes went on sale for around $2 less. That’s around $100 in today’s money.
How old is Marx train set 4338?
I’ve heard from an original owner of this set that it dates to 1972, but it’s possible Grant may have sold the set more years than that. The presence of the SCL gondola in the set means it dates no earlier than 1967 or 1968, since the SCL came into being in 1967. I have some evidence Grant and Marx were selling the 4318 set in 1967, so that would further suggest the 4338 debuted in 1968 or later.
The 4338 set may very well have also sold in 1973, before giving way to set number 4336, which proved to be Grant’s and Marx’s swan song together. Grant went bankrupt in 1976, and Marx stopped producing trains in 1974.
Grant advertised the 4338 set, but the advertisements don’t help much to pinpoint the dates specifically. The 1972 ad I found from the week before Christmas in 1972 looked enough like set number 4338 that it probably wouldn’t upset anyone, but it showed a boxcar rather than a gondola, so it seems they reused set artwork without much regard for the exact catalog number or configuration of the set.
How rare is Marx train set 4338?
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 50s, and for the equivalent of about $100 in today’s money, there was enough in the box to keep me 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.
The problem for Marx was that American railroads weren’t exactly having their finest hour in the 1970s. The Penn Central railroad was the largest bankruptcy in US history and was still a fresh memory, having happened in 1970. I liked trains, but my cousin who is about 9 months older than me was in different to them. I had some friends with train sets, but certainly not all of them did. Notably, the kid who had everything–we all knew one of that type– didn’t have one.
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 started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.