Tinplate
- Thread starter Ray Marinaccio
- Start date
coolRay Marinaccio said:
i love the 6 inch cars, i got a good bunch of them, numberous bin cars, spotlight car, cow car, tanker cars, passenger, cargo,and coal cars
right now i'm look for a commodore vanderbuilt or any marx engines from about that time
i would love to see pictures if you have any
heres four of my engines, i got another which isn't running and isn't showed
http://www.clubcav.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10282/fronts.jpg
http://www.clubcav.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10282/fronts.jpg
Ray, I don't have any pictures to share, but I love 3-rail tinplate. The Peter Riddle book Trains From Grandfather's Attic likened tinplate vs. model railroading as impressionism vs. realism. I like and can appreciate both of them. A well-executed tinplate layout is a thing of beauty.
My Marx collection isn't as large as yours but I have a half-dozen locos and maybe a couple dozen of the six-inch cars. I also have a little bit of prewar Lionel and American Flyer. I like the Marx because it's attractive and still inexpensive enough that I can afford to collect it.
Nice picture of your grandfather's Unique Art set, BTW.
Are you aware of the MarxTrain group on Yahoo? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarxTrain
My Marx collection isn't as large as yours but I have a half-dozen locos and maybe a couple dozen of the six-inch cars. I also have a little bit of prewar Lionel and American Flyer. I like the Marx because it's attractive and still inexpensive enough that I can afford to collect it.
Nice picture of your grandfather's Unique Art set, BTW.
Are you aware of the MarxTrain group on Yahoo? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarxTrain
C
Catt
Guys,I for one am not a fan of tinplate.That being said I'll tell you what I think of tinplate (no it's not bad 
)
Even with the above statement I want to make it clear that I believe tinplate is an important part of this hobby and definately belongs here on the Gauge. It really goes back to the roots of this hobby.
)Even with the above statement I want to make it clear that I believe tinplate is an important part of this hobby and definately belongs here on the Gauge.
It really goes back to the roots of this hobby.The first train I ever played with was my Dad's old tinplate set from when he was little. It was probably from the Sears catalog or something.
It was a little worse-for-ware. It was a passenger set and my Dad got tired of playing with it pretty quick so my grandpa took and cut the tops off of a few of the cars so my Dad could carry around some "loads". It's quite a sight! My Dad's gone now but I still have and she runs great!
There's nothing like the smell of old electric trains...
It was a little worse-for-ware. It was a passenger set and my Dad got tired of playing with it pretty quick so my grandpa took and cut the tops off of a few of the cars so my Dad could carry around some "loads". It's quite a sight! My Dad's gone now but I still have and she runs great!
There's nothing like the smell of old electric trains...
The smell of oil and ozone from those old motors reminds me of one of my best childhood memories, which was setting up a box of old Lionels with my Dad when I was 11 or 12. He did his best to explain to me how the trains worked and why they had a third rail (I was 12 and he had advanced degrees in chemistry, physics and biology, so...) and how there was another brand called American Flyer who figured out how to do it with two rails. Well, as time went on, I got older and interested in other things and the trains went back into the boxes. I went off to college, and one weekend I came back and I heard a familiar sound coming from down in the basement. Mom mentioned that Dad had the trains back out and he'd spend hours and hours just watching them go in circles and she didn't see the point, but she knew what he was getting for Christmas that year... So I took her to the one place I knew that still sold Lionels and the like. We got him some Plasticville buildings. I gave him the Plasticville Hospital because he was a doctor and I thought it wasn't right for him not to have one.
He died a few months later. Mom saved the trains for me. It was a few years before I could get them back out again. That was how I discovered Marx. Dad had Lionel trains but lots of Marx track and accessories, because it was cheaper. So I got interested in Marx, partly because it's cheaper today too, and partly because I could figure out how to fix it easily.
So, while I appreciate a good scale model railroad, I really appreciate a toy train layout, whether it's tinplate or whether it's a '50s Plasticville layout, because that's where my memories are.
He died a few months later. Mom saved the trains for me. It was a few years before I could get them back out again. That was how I discovered Marx. Dad had Lionel trains but lots of Marx track and accessories, because it was cheaper. So I got interested in Marx, partly because it's cheaper today too, and partly because I could figure out how to fix it easily.
So, while I appreciate a good scale model railroad, I really appreciate a toy train layout, whether it's tinplate or whether it's a '50s Plasticville layout, because that's where my memories are.
About 2 months ago, I started an N-scale layout, and was telling my dad about it. He told me that my brother's old trainset was in a closet in my parents' house. My brother died in 1976 at the age of 30. I dug the train out of the closet, an old Marx "Streamliner" tinplate set with a 999 engine. I brought it home and started messing with the engine, trying to get it to run. After a fair amount of machine oil, and working the wheels, it finally sputtered to life. I made a few other repairs, mounted the track on a sheet of plywood, and took it back to my dad. He was as excited as any 82 year old kid in a candy store. When the dust settled, he gave the set to me. I've since bought another Marx set, a newer set with plastic cars and a smoking 666 locomotive, and a low end Lionel locomotive. The 666 was the most powerful of the bunch, with the Lionel the smoothest. Well, the 999's reverse mechanism started getting stubborn, and I found this site today, and another thread where Ray Marinaccio suggested contact cleaner. I tried that, and of course got contact cleaner (and lube) all over everything. My brother's old 999 now runs as smooth as the Lionel, and STRONGER than the 666! Marx rules!
Steve
Steve
Hi Steve,
Welcome to The Gauge.
Those old Marx locos were built to last. Even though they were about the cheapest trainset on the market.
Your old 999 is probably good for another 50 years.
Welcome to The Gauge.
Those old Marx locos were built to last. Even though they were about the cheapest trainset on the market.
Your old 999 is probably good for another 50 years.