My experience with old MARX is simply that MARX will run when you flush the mud out from a flooded basement, LIONEL will run out of a dry basement (at least one direction, seldom two) and Flyer will click IF you are lucky, after being stored in the best of conditions. A C G really screwed up when he chose to stay with A/C power. Plan on running them all & HO too, on the NEW PVMR layout. Jim Lyle In a message dated 2/15/2011 9:30:41 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
________________________________ Des: Kieth Wills writes the Collectors Consist column for Railroad Model Craftsman. As I recall, a few years back he credited Marx with inventing O-27 as a way of marketing smaller and less expensive O-gauge electric trains to the masses. That would have been just before World War Two. Marx came up with the notion of fitting S scale superstructures to O gauge running gear and reducing the track diameter from from 31 to 27 inches...hence O-27. So Marx trains not only cost less than Lionel, but took up less room. Kieth writes that the number 999 2-4-2 locomotive was a styling triumph, and that the so-called 7-inch cars were perfectly proportioned. Thus for a short while, Marx actually was an industry leader among the big three (Lionel, AF, Marx) as far as realistic looking trains was concerned. Marx is an underdog in the collectors market, but I always admired the company for doing a lot with a little and putting affordable trains under the Christmas trees of less prosperous families. I got a Marx 2-4-2 set with the Pacemaker box car and caboose when I was 8 years old. I later sold the set in my teens, but about ten years ago went scouring the flea markets to replicate it. That train then sat on a display case for most of those years, likely not having turned a wheel for 30 or 40 years before that. A few years ago I got the notion it should run under the Christmas tree. I cleaned the commutator and brushes and oiled the axles, and it has run like a champ ever since. Way to go Louis Marx! Jim -------------- Any Idea when 0-27 came out? Best wishes J. Des Browne ________________________________ From: Don Thompson <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, 15 February, 2011 0:54:04 Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Promotion of S When were quality AF trains cheaper than Lionel? I think one of the problems that AC Gilbert had was that there trains were not cheaper, but more expensive. Don On Feb 14, 2011, at 3:05 PM, J BROWNE wrote: > You are "spot on" Richard, as usual. > > AF was originally trying to compete with Lionel O gauge and offering > a lower > priced but quality product. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
