TRAIN TIME: Brimtoy O Gauge No. 48 Tunnel (1949- ?)

This nice little tunnel features beautiful rolling countryside graphics and was made starting in 1949 according to the book

"British Toy Trains

Featuring all those other British toy train manufacturers

Book 4 of 5 - Wells-Brimtoy Ltd 1946-1991 

One Hit Wonders"

by Michael D . Foster

I can't seem to find how long it was in production but apparently Brimtoy shut down production in 1983 so it wouldn't have gone any further than that. The tunnel disassembles into two pieces but when these photos were taken, I just didn't do that to show the process - sorry. The lithography on both halves is exactly the same so a full photo workup wasn't necessary but now I wish I would have tried to take a few more. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Marx - Marxville Accessories - Pt 17

While continuing our series on Marx 3-rail O-gauge train accessories, occasionally we're just gonna repeat ourselves, like with the tin-litho #390 tunnels which we did way back when the blog started and which we've been looking at again recently. Today's featured tunnel with camouflage pattern is the rarest of the three. As a matter-of-fact, the mine scene and farm aren't rare at all and Marx kept pumping them out almost to the very end. The camouflage one on the other hand was offered in the 1930s as part of several military sets and then just faded away. I'm not sure exactly when they stopped making them but I believe by the Post-war er they were gone. One today in good shape could fetch a couple of hundred dollars.  I'm also showing the tunnel as it looked when set up on an old portable train layout I had in the '90s. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Marx - Marxville Accessories - Pt 15

Another Toys and Stuff journey back in time...

Today's Marx post will differ from past posts in that we'll only show one accessory, and only one variant of that accessory. We covered all three versions back in November of 2010 but I thought it would be nice to revisit them in the context of the "Marx - Marxville Accessories" series. 

The #390 was first produced by Marx way back in the '30s in three different schemes: farm scene, mine scene, and camouflage. The farm scene and mine scene versions were pretty much in production nearly until Marx's demise in the 1970s while the camouflage scene didn't last much past the 1950s. As a matter of fact, I'm really not sure when Marx offered it last. The tunnel was made in two interlocking sections with the identical artwork showing on each. In earlier versions the two halves were held together by a simple metal clip, while latter versions used a screw. The tunnel we'll feature today is an earlier version. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Details showing the clip

On my layout the tunnel is raised by placing it on 'stone' embankments. Why? Because the tunnels were designed in the 1930s for the 3-rail O-gauge train sets then available. Later on Marx would add engines and rolling stock to their line which were too tall to fit under the tunnel. The same thing happened with Marx bridges and trestles - the openings were too small to fit all of the rolling stock offered!