I have a few Lionel trains (got one for Christmas in 1980) but the majority of my collection is Marx, which used to belong to my dad (he got them from his brother - my uncle Fred - when he died in 1973). They had been in my mom’s basement for years and I never really paid much attention to them (or my Lionel set) for years. I didn’t really know anything about them except that they were old and maybe worth money. Then four years ago, my work wanted to have a train going around the office Christmas tree. I decided to bring my Lionel set for that purpose (because I had used it more, but not for years). I went over to my mom’s and grabbed the James Gang set and decided to grab Uncle Fred’s trains as well. Once I had all the trains out and was setting them up, I started to look at Uncle Fred’s trains more closely (at this point, I didn’t even know they were Marx or didn’t even know about the Marx toy company at all). Well, four years later and I’m hooked. Unfortunately, I live in an apartment and don’t have room to set them up, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t stopped collecting. I just collect for the day I have a house with room for the trains.
Once I found out that Uncle Fred’s sets were Marx, I did a lot of online searching to find out more about Marx. All of Uncle Fred’s trains have the tilt coupler. That being said, those are the trains I prefer. I regularly go to local train shows now with a friend and am always on the lookout for Marx trains. If I see a Marx car without a tilt coupler, I have no interest in making a purchase. I’ll definitely pick it up and look at it, but I prefer the tilt coupler cars. I guess because my first introduction to Marx was tilt coupler, that’s what I prefer (even though my Lionel cars are the knuckle couplers). I love the tinplate postwar Marx cars and am always on the lookout for them. Being that Marx is more of a niche collector’s market, I’ve found that works well for me (probably for folks here too). While that means I don’t find nearly as many as the other brands at train shows, it also means that I’m likely to be one of the only folks looking for them and always walk away with some nice finds. Once I started buying engines and cars and my collection was growing, I took all of Uncle Fred’s trains and silver sharpied “FF” (his initials) on the bottom of them so I would always know which were his.
For you Marx collectors here, do you have specific types of Marx you collect, or are you into any Marx train you see?