This is an unusual little set. Look it over before reading on and see if you can spot that
little oddity.
There is a plastic "dog" under the rear end of the caboose that throws a special plastic
track switch (turnout) with each pass. The specially designed switches from the set do not have the manual throws found on the standard switches.
Just like Marx to add some additional play value to an otherwise ordinary train set. This one
switches itself to a siding and then back to the main line with each consecutive lap.
I have shown this set with the Northern Pacific hopper. One ad shows the set with this car. Two other ads show Lackawanna Hoppers.
I could not put my hands on a Lackawanna hopper when I was taking the picture!
With this set also is the wedge
tender with the plastic coal pile which is not too uncommon. The Lackawanna hopper with sliding tab and slot couplers is
another story. Of course, you can swap frames but I hope you won't. Part swapping is tantamount to
rewriting history! Lord knows we've had enough of that.
Here you can clearly see the plastic dog that throws the special switch.
These are the switches from the set. I was looking at an Ebay auction one day and thought the switches were odd. I won the
auction for a low amount and was happy to find that the switches were exactly what I thought they had to be!
This is the only picture I could find of the set box and contents.