Marx Trains

You will find supplies of classic Marx trains on this web page offered by some of the top suppliers of Marx trains and and accessories and loads of information to help you decide which model railroad or toy electric locomotive is right for you.

Marx Trains

The definition of a toy locomotive is that it is a toy that represents a locomotive. It differs from a model train by an emphasis on low cost and sturdiness, rather than on scale modeling. A toy train can be as simple as a toy on a piece of string that does not even run on a track or it might be operated by clockwork or a battery.

However, many toy trains do obscure the line between the two categories by running on electricity and approaching accuracy of scale. Classic toy locomotives are also very collectable and some do indeed end up in a railway museum.

In fact, there have been both model trains and toy trains for as long as there have been real railways. Indeed some early classic toy trains were made first as sales promotional tools for the early railways, even if they later might have become toys or desktop ornaments.

During the Victorian era, toy trains and model trains fell into a number of categories - there were the live steam engines, expensive and only for the wealthy; there were pull along trains in all shapes, sizes and materials; there were penny toys in lead and tin and later clockwork engines.

Some of the steam and clockwork engines were built to run on the floor or on a simple track assembled by the user.

The typical model electric train made in Germany, Britain and France, tended only to be made of the better class of steam engine. There was also a US toy locomotive industry, which made considerable use of cast iron rather than tinplate.

Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer from 1919 to 1978. The Marx trains of the 1930's were a blend of steam locomotives and streamliners. Marx produced its own versions of the popular passenger trains of the day.

These were all stamped steel and tin lithographed toys. One of the first Marx trains was the Mercury, based on a New York Central streamliner. People used model construction supplies to make their model railroad more authentic.

Soon after came the Commodore Vanderbilt streamlined locomotive, a classic design that remained in the Marx catalogue for decades. The M10000 and M10005 streamliners of the Union Pacific Railroad were reproduced in several colour schemes and so too were the streamline-style Canadian Pacific Royal Hudsons.

The railroad cars the Marx trains pulled were bright, attractive toys. There were boxcars, stock cars, gondolas and cabeese. Marx produced operating searchlight and crane cars. For the line side were operating crossing lights and signals, plus tin litho stations and switch towers.

If you have part of one of the old Marx trains sets on a shelf, you can set it up augmented with a K-line semi-scale Streamliner. These O27 passenger cars are the right length and height for the larger original Marx trains streamers and the E7 diesel.

You can use an express boxcar as an idler. Equally good is the Lionel train type O27 Madison cars, known as "baby Madisons." The longer 15-inch Madisons work well as 80' cars, by the way, although they are a bit heavier than the K-line passenger carriages.

You can run three or four K-line passenger carriages behind an E7, and two or maybe three behind the Triple Six steamer.

Did you say that you have an original Marx trains set on the shelf? There are some carriages out there that are compatible with original Marx trains. Among these are the K-Line crane and crane tender caboose, both of which are recast from original Marx trains molds.

K-Line's deluxe cars are mostly Marx trains recasts. The K-Line train 19 caboose is compatible in gauge, as well. Industrial Rail's cars also do well, especially their plain and work cabeese. An ideal stock car is the O27 Lionel animated horse car.

K-Line recasts many Marx trains accessories, including the operating barrel loader, operating diesel fueling station, operating switch tower and operating crossing gate. K-Line street lamps are Marx trains recasts too.

In their line of K-Lineville buildings, you can find Marx has a supermarket, police station, school, fire house, airport hangar, L-shaped farm house, ranch house, colonial house, farm and barn, church, water tower, grade crossing, unpainted people and farm animal figures, cars and telephone poles.

K-Line's S2 switcher and RDC are based on recast Marx trains body shells. The train set 4-6-2 was originally a Marx mold. That mold has been remade.

Marx trains offered the customer an assortment of products at very affordable prices. Marx trains were the budget model railways of the day and one could afford an entire Marx trains toy railway set for the cost of just one Lionel train set.

In the early days, many enthusiasts combined their hobby & model construction. These days most people buy accessories, but there are model construction supplies.

Nowadays many of these classic electric locomotives belong in a museum or a special model railway museum.