TRAIN TIME: Yesterday Was National Train Day - Pulled Out One Of My Marxawatha's and Played With Trains

With yesterday having been National Train Day it was appropriate I spend some time out in The Cave and play. While there, I took a butt-load of train photos as well, mostly of my Marxawatha sets. What is a 'Marxawatha' you ask? I'll tell you :-) It's when you modify a Marx train to resemble the Milwaukee Road's 'Hiawatha' streamliner's. Of course, whatever you end up with it'll be a caricature, but that's the fun of it after all. 

The engine being posted today was actually purchased about 13 years ago along with another engine and a set of cars with gray roofs. However, just this past week or so I latched on to a set of Marxawatha cars with blue roofs that were a better match for the engine. All of the pieces were converted to the Marxawatha theme using Faux Toys wraps. Faux Toys was in business from 2003-2007 and sold a series of 'wraps' printed out on inkjet photo paper with a variety of designs and road names that were meant to be applied to some Marx engines and 6in cars. They had a nice selection available of railroads Marx never produced and the bonus was they could be used to cover car bodies that were in less than pristine shape. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Here's the train on the layout

I posted this 'short' to Y'allTube

The consist that I'll be playing with for a week or so.

Commodore Vanderbilt (CV) Engine with a Marx #3551 Notch Front tender

Marxawatha Notch Front Tender - Blue Top

You can tell by the photos the cars had probably been taken apart and their components painted, after which the wraps were applied. Some of the roofs weren't in great shape, but this was a way to save and re-use them

Marxawatha RPO Car #1563 - Blue Top

Marxawatha Coach #1561 - Blue Top

Marxawatha Parlor Car 'MANCHESTER' #562 - Blue Top

Marxawatha Beaver Tail Observation Car 'MERRILL' - Blue Top

When the real Hiawatha's were first designed for the Milwaukee Road back in 1935, the observation cars had a distinctive slope to them and well as a very Art Deco fin protruding from the rear. These were nicknamed 'Beaver Tail' observations.

Courtesy Wikipedia