Train Night At Dave's - Lionel & New Marx Passenger Trains on The MaP

Welcome back to The MaP, The Marxville and Plateau. It's nice to be able to show progress on the layout with each new video and today there are a bunch of things to present.

First, I built what I call 'The Chasm' - a 'rock cut' on one corner of the Plateau. It was designed as a nice little scenery element but also acts as a barrier should the trains get out of control and come off the track on the curve. I have two hills on the Marxville portion of the layout which were placed there for the same reasons. Next, I'll have to build a bridge to traverse the chasm so that our little toy train people have a way of escape off the Plateau.

Secondly, the scenery now wraps around the entire Plateau. I use lightweight, pre-mixed patching compound for my rocks. It doesn't take detail very well and so is not entirely suitable for scale model work BUT, should you decide to make changes later it's much easier to tear into because it doesn't set up hard as a rock as does plaster. For this reason, my layout is not quite Hi-rail, but it's also not totally toy / tinplate - it's sumthin' in-between and semi-scale as well as toy trains will look at home running on it.

Next, I painted a road down the middle of the Plateau top to help define the area a little better. I'd like to add some more detailing but that will come later.

Fourth, I made two removable scenery modules which can be seen in the left and right back corners of the Plateau. The plan is to make modules which would accommodate houses, barns, etc and then I can switch the modules around as needed.

Last, you'll notice the Plateau has been 'dressed' in paper. All the buildings are paper / cardboard. I FINALLY broke out the buildings which had been on my Osan layout and stored in boxes for the past ten years! You can see the Osan layout here:

http://trainstoysntravel.com/00OsanHome.html

The fire house is totally scratch-built but hadn't yet been finished when it was packed away back in 2000. Some of the other paper buildings are actually boxes made by the Standard Paper Box Corp of Los Angeles most likely for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as either novelties or advertisement tie-ins for the company. There are also several buildings from Greenberg's 'My Pretty Village' cut-out book which is a reproduction of a McLoughlin Bros 1897 product.

Now, on to the trains. The Lionel Santa Fe set hasn't been run for at least a dozen years and it was good to see it on the track again. The boxed set came with an 'A' unit and three cars and the remainder were separate sale items. I believe this is a complete offering - I don't honestly know if Lionel made a 'B' unit to go along with these cars.

The Marx set is from Marx Trains, Inc, the firm run by Jim and Debbie (spelling?) Flynn under license from Jay Horowitz. The engine was sold separately and the eight cars were sold as two separate, 4-car sets and is one of the most attractive (in my opinion) of the passenger sets offered.

This video also features a birds-eye view of the layout. I'll have to figure out a way to get the camera higher and further back to capture the whole thing in the lens' field of view but this will do for now.

As ever, Enjoy!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Marx
• Lionel
• Trains
• Toy Trains
• 3-rail
• O-gauge

[johnnyt521]

Sweet choice of music Ed!The MAP is coming along nicely,have you added power points along the tracks yet?The New Marx passenger set is phenomenal!The aerial shots are fantastic and nice editing!Thanx for sharing!

Johnny

[marxtoynut]

@johnnyt521 Many Thanx Johnny! No - I haven't yet connected the feeder wires I dropped about two years ago!! I know, I'm slow - and lame, and lazy, and...I hate wiring, that's the long and short of it. The lower level train has to be driven constantly. I can't just set the transformer and hope the train will maintain a constant speed so one of these years I'm gonna have to get off my butt and hook up those feeder wires! - Ed

[ElGreatZot]

Oh my! That is a real treat. I enjoyed the paper buildings a bunch and the overall impression is a consistent delight. Thanks, Bill

[marxtoynut]

@ElGreatZot Many Thanx Bill. Over the years I've unintentionally built up a pretty fair stash of paper & cardboard buildings - I think they're cool! - Ed

[chiconian49]

Ed,

This is the best video yet. It allows us to see the layout as a whole with a birds eye view. Now I can also appreciate your trackwork. It's nice and strait. I have always liked the way you combined hi rail and toy with the highly detailed rock cliffs and trees and shrubs and the toy-like buildings on the top. It's wonderful to see a layout large enough to run long trains as well.

Your layout and filming is an all around winner.

PS, loved the submarine races in the harbor. LOL

Chuck

[marxtoynut]

@chiconian49 Mnay Thanx Chuck - in the future I'll announce the submarine races ahead of time to let people place bets with their bookies LOL - Ed

[janisjade1]

Great vid and music.

[johnnyt521]

@marxtoynut

You're not lazy...just look at all the work you have done to the MAP!I connected 1 more power point on each of my tracks last night,had some slow spots!Sure works wonders for maintaining speed and filming.

Johnny

[marxtoynut]

@JEFFNMANDA3 Many Thanx Jeff! Still lots to do on the layout though! - Ed

[JEFFNMANDA3]

Love the Vid!!! Great passenger sets and I love the marx bridge!! Great looking layout!!!!

JEFF