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Selling Marx trains

Dave Farquhar Toy trains April 29, 2016January 19, 2023american flyer, collectibles, greenberg, HO, lionel, marx, marx trains, o gauge, o27, old trains, receipt, tin, toy train

Since my advice on selling other makes of trains was popular, I thought I would give similar advice on selling Marx trains. Marx never got the respect that its competitors got, but its trains have built up a following over the years, and in the last decade as I’ve watched prices on competing trains slide, Marx has held its value.

Don’t expect to get rich selling off your Marx trains, but if you keep your expectations realistic, you’ll find an eager buyer, or ideally, at least two interested buyers so you’ll realize a good price at auction.

Dave Farquhar

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.

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Attach Marx lighted accessories and hide wiring in one step

Dave Farquhar Toy trains April 22, 2016November 26, 2018home depot, marx, network cables, Spare Parts, tin

A frequent question I read is how to attach tin accessories, such as Marx light posts and light towers, to a layout in a semi-permanent but reversible manner. I have found a way to do this, and as a bonus, it also makes it easy to hide the wires that are feeding the lights and makes the wiring simpler.

Dave Farquhar

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Restoring lithographed train cars

Dave Farquhar Toy trains April 15, 2016January 27, 2022american flyer, Bing, clearcoat, ives, lionel, marx, Pledge Floor Care, tin

If you have vintage tin lithographed train cars made by American Flyer, Bing, Dorfan, Ives, Lionel, Marx, or another make I’m forgetting and some of them are worse for wear, there are a few things you can do to improve their appearance.

Keep in mind these won’t make them new, and they won’t fool anyone. One reason collectors like lithography is because they can easily recognize a touchup. But you can make beat-up cars look better, and that’s what I’m going to talk about today.

Dave Farquhar

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Repair a Marx 1209 transformer

Dave Farquhar Toy trains March 22, 2016March 12, 2023marx, marx trains, power cord, tin

Want to repair a Marx 1209 transformer? There are two schools of thought. One is that small, sub-75 watt transformers from starter sets aren’t worth fixing because they are so cheap. The other is that since they are so cheap, you have nothing to lose by trying.

Marx didn’t design its transformers to be fixed, but the design is extremely simple. The hardest part really is getting the case apart and then getting it back together. If Marx had designed them to be serviced, like its competitors did, they would have cost more, so we wouldn’t have as many Marx trains to enjoy today. So it’s easy enough to forgive Marx for this.

Let’s dive in.

Dave Farquhar

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Sakai trains: The “Japanese Marx”

Dave Farquhar Toy trains March 21, 2016November 20, 20221:64 scale, 1950s, american flyer, Australia, HO, Japan, lionel, Lionel 675, marx, New York, New York Central, o gauge, o27, sakai, tin

Sakai trains were made in HO and O gauge by a Tokyo-based manufacturer and sold abroad, particularly in the United States and Australia after World War II. Sakai’s O gauge product bore a curious resemblance to Marx. I have read speculation that Marx once used Sakai as a subcontractor, and Sakai used the tooling to make its own trains rather than returning it to Marx, but there are enough differences that I don’t think that’s the case.

What I do know is that Sakai’s O gauge product was a curious blend of cues from Lionel and Marx and the trains worked pretty well. They’re hard to find today, but not especially valuable since few people know what they are. They turn up on Ebay occasionally.

Dave Farquhar

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“Super utility” tinplate train cars

Dave Farquhar Toy trains March 18, 2016January 27, 20221940s, american flyer, ives, lionel, marx, o27, tin, vintage trains

Tin train cars had a variety of methods to couple them together, but by far the most common method was a coupler commonly called tab-in-slot. The tab from one car mated with a slot in the next. All of the train manufacturers used a variant of this method at one point or another, and all of them would be able to couple together, if not for one nagging detail: height.

Dave Farquhar

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How to install American Flyer track locks

Dave Farquhar Toy trains March 14, 2016September 7, 2016american flyer, conductivity, s gauge, tin

To held tracks hold together without nailing them down permanently, AC Gilbert marketed its #694 track locks. Sometimes people also call these track clips. The locks are u-shaped pieces of tin that came in a brown envelope with instructions on the front. If you’ve lost the instructions, or bought the clips secondhand and never got them, here’s how to install American Flyer track locks.

These track locks are indispensable for setting up a layout on the floor.

Dave Farquhar

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Marx train sizes

Dave Farquhar Toy trains March 4, 2016May 19, 20231:64 scale, 1950s, 1980s, HO, ho scale, Japan, Joy Line, lionel, marx, marx trains, Model Power, o gauge, o27, s scale, sakai, tin, WWII

Over the years, Marx made electric and clockwork trains in no fewer than seven sizes and two gauges. Depending on how you count Marx train sizes, you can say it was more than that. Here’s an overview of what they made.

If you go to sell Marx trains, correctly identifying the size definitely makes them attract more bids.

Dave Farquhar

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Marx vs. Lionel

Dave Farquhar Toy trains March 3, 2016March 2, 20231:64 scale, 1950s, 1960s, 1980s, 1990s, boxcars, christmas, electric trains, HO, ho scale, Korea, lionel, Louis Marx, marx, marx trains, Model Power, New Jersey, New York, New York City, o gauge, o scale, old trains, postwar lionel, Quaker Oats, sears, tin

In the 1950s, Marx and Lionel took turns being the biggest toy company in the world, largely riding on the popularity of O gauge trains. Neither company particularly liked the other, but both owed some degree of their success to being compatible with one another. Because of their interoperability, the two makes of trains are frequently compared and contrasted even today. Let’s take a look at Marx vs Lionel.

Dave Farquhar

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Estimating the value of a Marx train

Dave Farquhar Toy trains February 23, 2016November 25, 20181950s, american flyer, Baby Boomers, Joy Line, Kansas City, lionel, Louis Marx, marx, marx trains, New York, New York Central, pbs, Quaker Oats, tin, Union Pacific

One of the most frequent questions I see or receive directly about Marx trains is what a Marx train is worth, or the value of a Marx train. Of course without seeing the train, it’s nearly impossible to give a good estimate, but there are some general rules that you can follow, either to protect yourself as a buyer, or to keep your expectations realistic as a seller.

Dave Farquhar

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