Ah, yes. Depends on what war, I suppose

[ScaleCraft]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Marx-prewar-E- ... 4852079752


Uh, no. Sorta reminds me of the brouhaha over the Walthers ad in MR all those decades ago showing a PC steamer.

Plastic diesels. And Penn Central to boot.

I do believe a grand is out of line, but who knows.
Looks like a 901 series, found a nice WP A set for $69 at a dealer.
But this is a very late PC 4000, not a NYC 4000. Rare? Depends. But we do know from the literature shown it is post 1963, because there is a zip code!

[chuck]

PC wasn't incorporated until 1968? Instruction sheet may be from 1963 but that's about it.

Pre-War? War on Terror?

BTW, that same set keeps popping up on a bunch of auction sites. Haw "rare" can it be.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Pre-War?

The next one.......

[G3750]

Eeeewwwooooooooooooooo!

That was painful. Godawful teal (not even the correct alien, toxic dump shade of green), Penn Central (the Marie Celeste of railroads), and those marvelous cast on ladders and details for the steal of a price. $995. Seriously?

The problem is once you've see something like that, how do you unsee it?

George

[chuck]

I was only marginally aware of Louis B Marx's foray into O gauge trains after I got back into the hobby in the early 90's. I never saw any Marx equipment as a child growing up in the New York Metropolitan area including north east New Jersey except maybe track?. I distinctly remember Lionel and American Flyer. I suspect that the reason for this was Marx trains were "toys". They tended to be sold in early versions of "discount stores" that weren't that common at that time in the areas I lived (rent was pretty high). The five and dimes were too small to cary this kind of stuff and the speciality stores or chain based department stores (Sears, Macy's, Gimbals) tended to cary "specialty" sets by the real train makers (aka Lionel, American Flyer). Marx was a mega toy company and produced a lot of dubious stuff across the entire toy line, much of it was flimsy/cheap but still fun to play with even if it was "dangerous" (you really could shoot your eye out).

I find it hard to accept that a company that mass produced toy trains ever produced anything of sufficient quality and insufficient quantity to create anything that is truly "rare" or even "valuable".

"Pre War"? Are these just labels that vendors have latched on to or do they really believe that the buying public is that stupid?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I find it hard to accept that a company that mass produced toy trains ever produced anything of sufficient quality and insufficient quantity to create anything that is truly "rare" or even "valuable".

Only if 99.99% were destroyed and then there were 5 guys who wanted the remaining .01%,

[ScaleCraft]

PC wasn't incorporated until 1968? Instruction sheet may be from 1963 but that's about it.

Pre-War? War on Terror?

BTW, that same set keeps popping up on a bunch of auction sites. Haw "rare" can it be.

I was careful to say POST 1963 in my initial itemization of this travesty.

[chuck]

I was careful to say POST 1963 in my initial itemization of this travesty.

Well past 1963. I was looking at the photo with the "owners manual" and I zoomed in and the date on the sheet is 1971! Maybe that was the last one made and that's why it's so rare

I can understand that the tinplate lithographed stuff could be considered could be considered collectible/rare.

BTW, Marx shut down toy train operations in 1975. Some of the tooling wound up in Maury Kleins hands when Marx went under in 1978 and that was the beginning of K-Line as a toy train producer.

[G3750]

I was only marginally aware of Louis B Marx's foray into O gauge trains after I got back into the hobby in the early 90's. I never saw any Marx equipment as a child growing up in the New York Metropolitan area including north east New Jersey except maybe track?. I distinctly remember Lionel and American Flyer. I suspect that the reason for this was Marx trains were "toys". They tended to be sold in early versions of "discount stores" that weren't that common at that time in the areas I lived (rent was pretty high). The five and dimes were too small to cary this kind of stuff and the speciality stores or chain based department stores (Sears, Macy's, Gimbals) tended to cary "specialty" sets by the real train makers (aka Lionel, American Flyer). Marx was a mega toy company and produced a lot of dubious stuff across the entire toy line, much of it was flimsy/cheap but still fun to play with even if it was "dangerous" (you really could shoot your eye out).

Well Chuck, my first train was a Marx. My father bought it at Sears. It was labeled as "Allstate" (Sears' automotive parts brand) and was a 9-piece set with track and a transformer.

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0BGWZuqDTKI0S

I believe Marx 3-rail track was O34. I loved it and still have it. It does annual pulling duties around the Christmas tree.

Marx had a factory in Glendale, WV (near Wheeling, WV) which was about 30 miles south of us.

Yeah, it was a toy. And some day I hope to run on the C&P River Route (aka the kids' loop) of the Panhandle.

George

[chuck]

New York City was literally Lionel's front and back yards. Even our Sears stores carried Lionel.

Now that I think about it we did have an outlier of a store, a "Western Auto". It made no sense to me because a) we were no where near "the west" and b) they didn't sell much in the way of automobile supplies. I think they may have had a couple of Marx set's that were marked up as whatever their private label was.

Store was in a weird location, off of a main east west road through town on a side road and was sandwiched between a Barber Shop and a Dry Cleaner? There was a large "hardware" store on the other side of the main drag with a bowling alley and a Dunkin Donut's Shop and another more impressive Dry Cleaner. Western Auto wasn't around very long.

[G3750]

New York City was literally Lionel's front and back yards. Even our Sears stores carried Lionel.

Now that I think about it we did have an outlier of a store, a "Western Auto". It made no sense to me because a) we were no where near "the west" and b) they didn't sell much in the way of automobile supplies. I think they may have had a couple of Marx set's that were marked up as whatever their private label was.

Store was in a weird location, off of a main east west road through town on a side road and was sandwiched between a Barber Shop and a Dry Cleaner? There was a large "hardware" store on the other side of the main drag with a bowling alley and a Dunkin Donut's Shop and another more impressive Dry Cleaner. Western Auto wasn't around very long.

The Sears in Steubenville (on 4th near the river) carried Lionel as well. Remember, Roger? Nearby was Federal Paperboard. Next door was a Kroger's. You went in the side door of the Sears and entered the toy department. There was a large layout, which I can barely recall. Tons of Lionel stuff.

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Now that I think about it we did have an outlier of a store, a "Western Auto".

Had one of those in the old Hostetter building in Greencastle - 3+ floors chock full of stuff and carried just about anything and everything. Going there with my grandfather was a treat and an adventure every time. Been maybe 15(?) years since I was there last to get a battery for the tractor.

[chuck]

Our's was way smaller, one store, not very large. Looking/thinking back it seems more like a Sally Army resale store only all the stuff was new. I think the limit of their auto supplies would be like what you would find at a modern ACE, aka minimal. There was a real auto supply store across the street and the little strip mall had a "modern" hardware store complete with a full basement. They closed down and now the basement is a gun range and the main floor is a Dollar Store. Bowling alley is now a fitness store/gym. Dunkin Donuts and the dry cleaner are still there but there is now a pizza shop and a "party store". I think it used to be a bakery?

No train shops in Pearl River at that time. You had to drive over to Spring Valley or New City (two towns over) to find a store that dealt with trains. If you were seriously looking for trains it was a 7-10 mile drive over to Route 17 in Jersey to HiWay Hobby. They survived for quite a while. Up until the owners decided to retire. They kept reinventing the store to accommodate whatever was of interest. Originally they were big in trains, particularly HO and they stoked a lot of imports, Hornby and Maerklin. When slot cars were hot they put in a race track. Then RC, then role playing games and even comics along with the best selection of model kits/science sets. I really miss that place!