I’ve been collecting Marx since the 1990s. Growing up with American Flyer S gauge and Lionel, I had largely not gotten to know Marx. Eventually I started to take interest, especially in the plastic locomotives and cars. Plastic molding is something I like to look at and study.
I did have a Marx plastic set with the 4 wheel cars that I received around 1961, so I’ve always been partial to the 4 wheel items. I now have these cars and the 8 wheel versions using the same molds and some of the “deluxe” cars that have more detailing.
When my kids were young, I often set up a train track on the den floor and later transferred operations to a small layout in the basement. We had a few Lionel items but I was getting more interested in Marx. I had also become frustrated with the performance of my Lionel Alco engine.
At some point I decided to order a used Marx plastic bodied No. 1095 Santa Fe E7 diesel. The price was right at $29.00. I received the locomotive and when I went to test run it, I was shocked at the performance. It ran smoothly and pulled well even with a slipping traction tire. It easily outperformed everything else that I had at the time. After acquiring the 1095, I later picked up a matching B unit and a non-powered A unit.
The E7 was the top of the line diesel for Marx. Although not highly realistic in appearance, the E7 has the right detailing. Marx produced the E7 in a number of road names including Rock Island, Allstate, Western Pacific, New York Central, and Penn Central but the Santa Fe unit remains a favorite. My second favorite unit is the New Haven A-B set.
Marx’s motors are reliable and many of the items are inexpensive. I can still find cars for as little as $3-5 at train shows, though there are some rare pieces out there.
Another thing that I’ve always liked about Marx is that most of their locomotives and cars contained railroad names as opposed to Lionel postwar, in which tenders and cars were often lettered “Lionel Lines” or just “Lionel.”
For a newcomer to Marx collecting, a favorite book that I’ve often consulted is Greenberg’s Guide to Marx Trains, Vol. II by Eric J. Matzke (1990). It covers plastic diesels, freight cars, 7 in., and 3/16 in. scale tinplate cars.
Learn how to repair Marx plastic rolling stock.
