Marx toy train - help me indentify the make and model

[sadlerfan21]

Hey guys! So the other day I was helping clean out my grandmother's house and came across this train set. It included a 490 Penn Central steam train with matching caboose and a Missouri Pacific System diesel with matching caboose. I found out some information about the steam train but searched for a couple hours trying to find anything about the diesel. I found nothing. So if any of you guys could tell me the name and when it was in service would be nice. Little facts would be cool too. Thanks!

[CNJ999]

Hey guys! So the other day I was helping clean out my grandmother's house and came across this train set. It included a 490 Penn Central steam train with matching caboose and a Missouri Pacific System diesel with matching caboose. I found out some information about the steam train but searched for a couple hours trying to find anything about the diesel. I found nothing. So if any of you guys could tell me the name and when it was in service would be nice. Little facts would be cool too. Thanks!

Sadlerfan21 - I'm pretty well familiar with a wide range of the pre-2000 HO models that have come and gone in the hobby, but I don't recognize this one. My initial impression is that the item is simply a "toy train" of some nature and likely to be pretty much unidentifiable unless perhaps someone on the forums happens to have also owned an example at one time or another. The locomotive's appearance is similar to other inexpensive, perhaps imported, "Christmastime" toy train sets, sold during holiday seasons of years ago when similar-sized HO scale trains (and model trains in general) were widely popular with the general public. I say this because of the obviously crude execution of the locomotive's body, the fully exposed screw holding the body to the frame, the representation of the handrails without stanchions and many other such aspects.

If you truly wish to embark on an identity search for this loco's origins, I'd suggest perusing the "toys" section(s) of eBay. Over time everything seems to show up in its pages.

CNJ999

[sadlerfan21]

Thanks for letting me know! It is O scale by the way. Yeah had no idea what it was besides it being built by MARX. Assumed it has modeled after a real train but it is still pretty cool anyways. Thanks!

[Backshophoss]

The model seems to be a crude version of a switcher type loco,SW-1001 made by EMD.
Was the track found 2-rail or 3-rail??

[sadlerfan21]

3 rail.

[Earle Baldwin]

Sadlerfan21:

Your trains were manufactured by Marx and are O gauge. The Missouri Pacific diesel is a representation of a General Electric 70 ton locomotive. Marx first issued the 70 ton unit during the late 50s and production continued into the 70s.

Here's a link to a webpage which I've found to be one of the most informative with regard to Marx equipment:

http://www.thortrains.net/marstart.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope this helps.

Bob

[sadlerfan21]

Sadlerfan21:

Your trains were manufactured by Marx and are O gauge. The Missouri Pacific diesel is a representation of a General Electric 70 ton locomotive. Marx first issued the 70 ton unit during the late 50s and production continued into the 70s.

Here's a link to a webpage which I've found to be one of the most informative with regard to Marx equipment:

http://www.thortrains.net/marstart.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope this helps.

Bob

Thanks a lot man!

[ApproachMedium]

I would actually be interested to see what the underside of that switcher looks like.

[sadlerfan21]

I would actually be interested to see what the underside of that switcher looks like.

Here it is.

[ApproachMedium]

Ok cool. its the earlier one i guess. There were later ones that had the same middle drive, but had a pony and pilot truck on them so they actually had 4 axles where 4 axles should be.

[RS112556]

Coming in a little late on this but there are two different diesel switchers made by Marx. As mentioned this is the 70 ton model with a one-way motor while the other unit represents an ALCO S-2 or similar. The ALCO shell tooling was later used by K-Line and, more recently, RMT with some alterations.

Jim McClenin

[Aa3rt]

This is the Marx model #588 switcher. It came in both AC and DC versions and was produced near the end of the Marx production run in the mid/late 1960s and early 1970s. Check this link for some different versions, I have the Lehigh Valley unit in my collection.

http://www.toyandtrainguides.com/marxti ... l/588s.htm

A side view of the New York Central varations:

http://www.toyandtrainguides.com/marxtin/4wheel/588.htm