Resurrecting a Marx 897

[PatB]

Having had it maturing in a box for several months, I finally decided to do something with a cosmetically decrepit Marx 897 tinplate loco that I got off Ebay last year. As you can see, the poor thing was suffering the ravages of rattling around in several generations of toy boxes for the past 80ish years (the 897 was only produced between 1939 and 1942, so this old girl is at least 79). The litho was badly scratched, there were significant areas of rust, some previous owner had had the 3-piece body apart and butchered it on reassembly. Altogether, not a promising start. On the plus side, when given some volts, the mechanism ran well. Astoundingly well, in fact as, even before cleaning and lubing, it ran perhaps the best of the half dozen Marx mechs in my possession. A slightly clattery sewing machine of a motor, if you will.

 

[PatB]

And another post's worth of pics to show the dodgy reattachment of the smokebox door pressing.

[PatB]

Fortunately, even a bozo like me can do pretty much anything necessary to a Marx loco using only these.

 

And so I did. The mech got a thorough scrub with cotton wool buds and meths, paying particular attention to the motor brushes, springs and commutator. The headlamp got an el-cheapo LED replacement bulb and I bypassed the mechanical reverser with a bridge rectifier to allow running on DC with direction changes by reversing the traction supply polarity.

 

Meanwhile, I dismantled the body into its 3 component parts and chucked them into a plastic storage box full of thinned treacle to deal with the rust. This was my first attempt at derusting by chelation and I must confess myself impressed. Where the rust was just a brown film in areas where the litho was worn the surface was back to clean, grey metal inside a day. Deeper, crusty rust took rather longer. Maybe 3-4 days, with a daily inspection and a good scratch with a thumbnail to expose as much new surface to the treacle as possible. In truth, I probably should have left it for quite a bit longer, given there's no risk of overdoing it, but I got impatient.

 

After derusting, rinsing and drying with a hairdryer it was time to tidy up the severely scratched litho. For this, I used a black Sharpie marker pen to fill in the scratches, rubs and gouges. Someone of greater artistic ability could probably use different coloured pens to recreate some of the rather nice shading on the print, and replace some of the detail that wear, rust and time had obliterated completely. As it was, I just made sure the bits that were supposed to be black were black and decided to rely on the whole giving a good overall impression rather than worrying about detail that I can't do.

 

After the marathon colouring in session, I gave the whole thing a good coat of cheapo gloss clearcoat from a rattle can ($5 from the next-door car shop) and, after waiting 48 hours for it to harden off a bit, put the body together again.

Edited March 24, 2021 by PatB

[PatB]

Et voila! A useable Marx 897 emerges from a battered chrysalis. I'd be the first to admit it's a long way from perfect. I suspect perfect was not available from a body as cosmetically far gone as this one was. I'm not bothered in the slightest. A near scrap engine is back in service for a truly negligible outlay of effort and money. It may not be the shiny object of wonder that it was (probably) one Christmas morning 80 years ago, but it's not bad, and that is very satisfying.

 

Here's the cleaned up mech, complete with supplementary wiring harness and bridge rectifier (the rectangular lump hanging off the back).

 

And here's the finished beastie.

 

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by PatB

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Wheels by Lima?!!

 

Mike.

[laurenceb]

You just know that this old girl has done the job it was made for all those years ago

[PatB]

5 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Wheels by Lima?!!

 

Mike.

They do rather look it, don't they? Except Marx went one better and made their flanges massively thick, as well as deep, at least on these older chassis. Some later engines got the "double reduction" motor, whose final drive gears didn't extend to the edges of the flanges. Although not actually rare, the double reduction mechs are sought after as they pull better and will run through other makers turnouts without problems.

 

And in the Lima tradition, there's no connection by coupling rods. The axles are, however, geared together, so at least everything purporting to be a driving wheel actually is one. Later mechs got "Baldwin" (sorta Boxpok) wheels instead, similarly uncoupled. Diesels got identical mechs, but the unsuitable wheels were largely hidden behind dummy truck frames.