It's A Small World After All: Marx #6652 Guid-A-Traffic Set (1952) Pt 3 - Wind-up 1952 Buick Sedan

This terrific 1952 Buick Sedan is included in the Guid-A-Traffic set. How do I know it's a Buick from 1952? The catalog says so (albeit in fine letters). The car has a wind-up motor mechanism which powers the rear wheels. It sits raised-up on a rotating third wheel (just behind the front wheels) which allows it to negotiate the wire track and plastic intersection and switches. The car itself is oversized for HO and is more appropriate in an O-scale train layout setting. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

4.625" (11.74cm) L x 1.75" (4.44cm) W x 1.625" (3.36cm) H

The brake lever on the rear of the car.

It's hard to read but it is the Marx logo.

It's A Small World After All: Marx #6652 Guid-A-Traffic Set (1952) Pt 2b The Buildings - Church - Cream/Ivory

Here's the second of four HO scale buildings which came with my Marx Guid-A-Traffic set. This church is in a color collector's tend to refer to as 'cream' but Marx referred to as 'ivory.' Enjoy! Opa Fritz 

2.25" (5.71cm) W x 3.5" (8.25cm) D x 3.75" (9.52cm) H

It's A Small World After All: Marx #6652 Guid-A-Traffic Set (1952) Pt 2a The Buildings - Colonial House - Blue HP

Okay, you guyz know of course that this is a sneaky way of extending this 'Small World' series while I try to figure out what the heck I'm gonna post next right? Okay, just so we're on the same sheet of music! 😀

Like I said in yesterday's post, the ad for the #6652 Guid-A-Traffic set stated there were four houses in the set. The ad showed two Colonial style and two ranch style homes. My set only came with one Colonial style house in blue HP. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

4.25" (10.79cm) W x 2" (5.08cm) D x 2" (5.08cm) H

It's A Small World After All: Marx #6652 Guid-A-Traffic Set (1952) Pt 1

I needed a couple days to wrap my head around this next phase of "It's A Small World". Trying to put together a cohesive story from many layers of information is a bit tricky. As I'll be concentrating on Marx for this next phase, it's probably best we start with the No. 6652 Guid-A-Traffic set from 1952. You'll notice Marx spelled 'guide' wrong by leaving out the final 'e' but that's okay - the set more than makes up for it it fun! The premise of the set is simple: provide a village complete with buildings, people, figures, and one giant-as-hell wind-up car to drive around through it!

By 1952, HO scale was beginning to really take off in popularity and this is the first time (I believe) that Marx started to offer some accessories that were made to HO scale (aka 1/87th scale). Granted, the wind-up car is oversized but this was a stand-alone fun, playset not directly tied into HO scale trains - yet! That would change in the years to come. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

1952 Sears Christmas Wishbook extract showing the Guid-A-Traffic set

Set Contents (as shown or stated in the ad)

4 houses

1952 Buick sedan

33+ft of rigid and non-rigid track

2 switches

2 turnouts

crossover

22 hedge pieces

19 figures (people, animals, etc.)

Trees (six shown) 3"H

"...other pieces in proportion"

That "...other pieces in proportion" is a nice way of saying they'll include whatever else they feel like! That's okay, it's all fun.

The box itself is the typically unadorned Marx box of the era and made of lightweight cardboard.

The catalog illustration showed four houses but my set came with a house, church, barn, and filling station. While the buildings, figures, trees, and hedges were all scaled to HO, the fence pieces were standard Marx O-gauge fences.

The fence sections aren't shown in the ad above so must be part of that "...other pieces in proportion"

These pages show the wind-up car driving through a selection buildings Marx marketed for their O-gauge trains not the HO scale buildings included in this set.

These are Marx O-gauge buildings and would look great with the car included in the set