Above is a clockwork Mercury in black with a tab and slot coupler. Interestingly, I have never seen a black electric mercury with
TSC (that I know of). This engine first shows up in catalogs about 1937 in grey electric pulling a freight set. Other freight sets
shown are clockworks. It seems more common to find the Mercury as a passenger engine with the talgo pin coupler.
This gray electric Mercury freight engine is equipped with a sparkler. The Mercury was the only electric engine Marx ever outfitted
with a sparkler. It was not a good idea and was abandoned quickly. It is more common to find these engines with the sparkler guts
stripped out than intact. The pressure applied by the sparkler unit made the motor overwork. Unlike the sparklers on the clockwork
motors that operated off simple gravity the switch (at the stack) on these units pressed the flint against the grinding wheel.
I have two of these engines and both are very tempermental. A little too much pressure and the motor freezes. Not enough pressure
and the flint doesn't engage (no sparks).
Here's a task for one of you tinkerers. Equip a Marx electric engine with a pezio electric sparkler!
This Copper front Electric Mercury is a more common item that was produced in large numbers to head up the Copper Queen, a copper
finished streamlined passenger set shown in the Rare Sets section of this website.
Streamlining was all the rage in the mid 1930's and the railroads were pioneers in the experiment. In the USA the Commodore Vanderbilt
was the first streamlined engine. It was designed by Henry Dreyfus who also designed the Mercury about one year later. Looking at
the two one can see the same hand at work. Novices often confuse these two engines.