HY MARX?
It all began on Christmas Day, 1969, when as a six-year-old I received a
Marx BIG RAIL WORK TRAIN
set from my parents. I spent many enjoyable hours as a
child running this train on the floor (photo). I
vividly remember just watching the train go around (and around and around) the
single loop of track on the hardwood floor. I would lay my head on the floor
and watch at the end of the straight for the train to approach and pass, and then
I would turn the lights off and do it again, all the while smelling the aroma of
hot electric motor and smoke oil.
As an adult I did the grown-up thing and moved to scale model railroading.
I built a small n-scale layout, and spent lots of money on locomotives and
rolling stock, and then I tore up that layout and built a better one. But,
somehow, through it all I could still hear my Marx 1666 locomotive patiently
calling to me, asking me to return. Eventually, I realized that Marx O-27
toy trains was where my love lay, and the n-scale layout and rolling
stock were soon relegated to storage and construction of a Marx O-27 layout
was begun. I haven't looked back.