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Why I like Marx.

I grew up loving trains.

From my front porch as a kid, I could watch the Western Maryland coal trains running along the Gwynns Falls. I still love those diesels (Alco's I believe). I didn't see a passenger train until I was about 15. My first was a Pennsy GG1 consist running north from Baltimore to New York. It was awesome but gone from sight much to quickly.

Our family had two Lionel sets which were set up for Christmas each year. One was an Erie "AA" freight set (Alco's) and the other was a 1668 torpedo engine with tin passenger cars. Plasticville buildings festooned the layout which was different each year. I still remember the fascination of turning out the lights and watching the shadows projected on the wall as the lighted train whirled around the layout. The best show was when the searchlight car passed under the semaphore bridge and projected the ironwork onto the walls as it went by. What a light show!

I began collecting Lionel trains at about age 16 and was active, on and off, until age 35. I always pooh poohed Marx trains because they were so cheap! I especially despised the 4 wheel plastic and the horrid 994 with it's scale 20 foot overhanging front. The clockwork Wm. Crooks also enjoyed special contempt! They were a disgrace to decent toy trains!

Quietly, to myself though, I had to admit that the lithographed scale pieces were very realistic, but then there was that awful looking coupler!

About 1988 my 8 year old son showed interest in a Marx CV I was repainting for a friend who had started collecting Marx because he was too cheap to spend the money for anything better. I admonished him about the cheapness of Marx and discouraged him from engaging in train collecting heresy! My friend continued to come around and show off his latest, pathetic, 6" find, and, to my disgust, my 8 year old son showed continued interest!

One day, not long after, my thoughtful 8 year old came to me and said he knew why I didn't like Marx trains. I saw toy trains as models of real trains not as toys unto themselves, he said. If only I would consider these Marx trains as toys, and not as models of trains, surely I would appreciate them.

As you can imagine, I was floored by the depth of thought my son had expressed and while not convinced, I began buying some Marx 6" tin for him. Within one year I realized I was no longer collecting for him but had fallen in love with the little tin "wannabe" trains myself! I was going to toy train hell after all!

Now, over ten years (and 1500 pieces) later I can reflect on the change and know why I like Marx. The reason is this.

Lionel, MTH, Williams, Aristo-Craft and even K-Line produce toy trains that are beautiful and very realistic. The prices for most of them, while considerable, are very modest considering the value of the dollar, but...

They leave little for the imagination. They are just too realistic and yet, not realistic enough!

I can go to the B&O Museum at Mount Clare or the PA Museum at Strasbourg and see trains that look pretty much like them. I can watch the Amtrak Genesis engine whizz past on it's northbound trip to New York and see the Williams model at the same time.

I've been to Strasbourg, Cass, Tweetsie, East Broad Top and dozens of other scenic railroads and I love them, but I don't want to collect models of these trains, after all I can see the real thing.

On the other hand, Marx trains require imagination. The spectator has to become involved to see them as trains. There is a certain interaction between the toy and the spectator (or operator) that allows him to become a kid again! When the trains are running or I am just sitting staring at the shelves, I can forget, for a time, all the pressures of life. I can relax and be 10 again!

I collected Lionel for investment and because I liked them. I collect Marx because I love them. Most of them anyway! I don't have a Mickey Mouse set and I don't want one. If I could get one cheap I might add it to my collection just to have it but it would be high on the list to sell if money got tight! There is a certain investment quality to collecting that cannot be ignored but it takes a back seat.

If you have enough money you can buy a complete Lionel collection. Not so with Marx! How many of us have been looking for a clockwork CP for ten years? How many of us have found that Silver CV? When was the last time you saw a Seaboard "B" unit for sale or a lighted 556? If you can't find it for sale, you can't buy it regardless of how much money you have!

The beauty of Marx is that the money is still somewhat secondary. I bought the rarest Marx 4 wheel plastic caboose at a show last year for $1.00! I know collectors who have never seen some of the trains in my collection despite their longtime involvement and thicker wallets! I know casual collectors who have pieces that I had never seen before and haven't seen since, and they paid little for them.

Marx collecting represents, for me, the conjunction of two childhood dreams. To have a great train collection and to search for treasure! I am a treasure hunter searching through Ebay instead of the Chesapeake, sifting through train shows instead of sand, snatching Marx valuables from the jaws of train sharks instead of Great Whites!

I've got to go now, the guys in the white coats are coming!

Walt Hiteshew