Marx - Marxville Plastic Accessories - Pt 20 Colonial House Canadian Production

Made in Marx's Toronto, Canada facility, the Canadian Colonial Hose set pretty much resembles the U.S. version with the obvious difference being the house color. This version has very dark blue walls with bright white trim. The set contents are the same as the U.S. version. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Marx - Marxville Accessories - Pt 18 #3855 / #3856 Chicken Coop White Walls/Green Roof

We're goin' to start posting the Marxville line of plastic buildings. We've already done a bunch of the peripheral items like street lamps, water towers and such, but the buildings are what make a miniature town a town - the houses and business our little train folk reside in. But first let's travel out to the sticks, the countryside where  the people who toil away trying to provide Marxville residents their food live. Today we'll start with a good old fashioned Chicken Coop (the barn will come later).  Marx made a nice little barn and chicken coop but never got around to making a nice old fashioned farmhouse.  Even their large tin-litho farm sets never had a farmhouse. Other brands like Lionel and MTH would make plastic houses quite suitable for the occasion though.

Here's some of the details:

#3855 / #3856 Chicken Coop

1. White walls, light green roof and trim
2. Medium / dark green walls, white roof and trim
3. Light green walls, white roof and trim
4. 12 pieces of small board fence (white HP)
5. Tree (‘A’ style tree, green)  (Unconfirmed)

Marx logo: Underneath large roof piece

Size: 8”L x 3 5/8”W x 3”H

Series 2 Farm Animals (54mm, cream, SP):

Rooster

Chicken

3 baby chicks

Duck

3 baby ducks

Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

I took this picture before I had a clean set of animals. The 'A' tree may or may not originally have come with the set. I'm taking an educated guess that it probably did as Marx liked to include trees with their buildings and it is hinted at on the box artwork.

Marx - Marxville Accessories Pt 4

Here's Part 4 to our somewhat sporadic Marx/Marxville series of accessories. The last post was way back on Sep 23, 2013 and I'm hoping to get back on track and feature the rest of these this year. Each post, almost by necessity, will feature multiple accessories because there are just so many of them that to do only one at a time would take forever. Here's what we've got today:

-Marx #066 Plastic Grade Crossing
-Marx #067 Crossing Signal
-Marx #068 High Tension Power Poles
-Marx #072 Lamp Post
-Marx #073-3 Lamp Post Set
-Marx #074 Boulevard Lamp Post
-Marx #078 Twin Lamp Post

Enjoy!

#066 Plastic Grade Crossing

Available as single sale and included in sets

When this photo was taken the lighting made the crossing look chocolate brown. It is in fact the dark brown as shown above. When K-Line started reproducing the Marx plastic accessories under their name they did use a chocolate brown plastic.

#066 Plastic Grade Crossing

Included in accessory sets and train sets. Not known if available as a separate sale item. 

#068 High Tension Power Poles

Available as a set and included in train sets. 

#072 Lamp Post

Three known colors: black pole with silver-gray shade; all gray; all silver-gray

 #073-3 Lamp Post Set

Two color variations known: black poles; silver-gray poles.

The three boxes on the pole sides are: 'Fire', 'U.S. Mail', 'Police'

#074 Boulevard Lamp Post

Same casting as the lamps in the #073-3 set above but minus the various boxes

#078 Twin Lamp Post 

Marx - Marxville Accessories - Pt 3

Today we're featuring yet another of the Marxville plastic accessories that Lois Marx & Co., Inc. started producing back in the early 1950s to go with their line of 3-rail O-gauge trains. This accessory would continue being made until nearly the end of Marx production in the mid-1970s and is a ubiquitous railroad accessory and for my money far superior in design to the Plasticville water tank. Don't get me wrong, Plasticville had some terrific stuff and offered a wide variety of structures, many of which Marx never produced like an apartment building or radio station, but even as a kid when I had the Plasticville water tank for my trains I thought it looked funky.

Enjoy From The Berg's :)

#065 Water Tower with Spout

1. Red supports, silver-gray tank and spout
2. Yellow supports, red tank and spout
3. Green supports, yellow tank and spout
4. Gray supports, yellow tank and spout
5. White supports, red tank and spout
6. Black supports, black tank and spout

Production beginning or earliest appearance in a catalog: 1950

Marx logo: None

Size: 8 ¼” (21cm) H

Description: Plastic round tank, 3 ½” (8.9cm) H x 4 ¼” (10.8cm) Dia, sitting atop four plastic supports w/square plastic feet; moveable spout; plastic ladder