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This is a 1958 Marx 52960 army set. (The set box is dated August 1958 on the bottom.) The Army sets are quite desirable. The plastic ones don’t have as big a following as the earlier tin lithographed sets, but are still among the most desirable of the plastic Marx trains.

This is a less desirable set because it doesn’t have a green engine or tender, but the set contains some desirable cars.

The loco is just a common 666 with an even commoner Santa Fe tender. The caboose is a deluxe A.T.S.&F. work caboose with search light. The Erie automatic electric log dump car is a neat operating car but has no place in an Army set.

The 2858 boxcar and 2824 rocket launcher are desirable cars. I’ve included individual photos below.

The Marx 2858 United States Army Bureau Of Ordinance boxcar is the most desirable plastic Marx military car. Just drab olive green with white lettering. It does have a sliding door though.

The Marx 2824 Army Rocket Launcher Flat is an action car. There should be three rockets with the car shown above, but they’ve gotten lost somewhere over the past 50 years. There should also be a green man on the right side of the car, but he went AWOL.

The Marx 2246 Army Flatcar came with silver plastic trucks or jeeps. These are missing from the car shown above. They were probably driven off by the man missing from the rocket flat car and his drinking buddies.

This set is very desirable because of the boxcar. Any Marx collector would be excited to get a set like this.

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These green cars were Lionel’s first plastic passenger cars. The Madison cars were made of Bakalite which is a compressed granular material, not a plastic.

The Lionel 2400 Maplewood, 2401 Hillside, and 2402 Chatham were introduced in 1948. The passenger cars were cataloged in O gauge sets with the 671 turbine, and in 027 sets with the 2025 steamer.

It’s very hard to find clean undamaged boxes for the 2400 series Pullman cars because the trucks tend to twist and tear the boxes when the cars are inserted or removed. Boxes with all their flaps and no tears bring a premium.

In 1950, the cars were dropped from the catalog in favor the 2481 series yellow cars.

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Lionel introduced the New York Central F3 with the number 2333 in 1948. This unit has the same catalog number as the Santa FE unit. The 2333 came as an AA only.

In 1950, Lionel made changes to the motors and renumbered the NYC diesel the 2344. The 2344 came in AA pairs or as a longer ABA set with a dummy B unit. A 2344 B unit is shown below.

In 1953, more changes were made and the unit was renumbered 2354. New York Central was dropped as a road name on the popular F3 locos in 1956.

Like the other F3 locos Lionel made, like new or mint condition units bring a substantial premium. The seperate sale boxes a pair of A units were packed in and orange dummy unit boxes with ALL their flaps also greatly increase the value of these engines.

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Lionel introduced the 2333 Santa Fe F3 AA units in 1948. The F3 units were always sold in pairs or three car sets. The O gauge line the 2300 series numbers - 2333, 2343, 2353, and 2383) came with a double motored powered unit and a dummy A unit. The 027 2243 came with a single motor and a dummy B unit.

The different catalog numbers refer to mechanical changes made by Lionel. The 2333 had horizontal motors, while all the later units had vertical motors. The 2333 came with screen tops as shown above or louvered tops. The 2243, 2353 and 2383 came with louvered tops. The 2343 came either way.

Because the Lionel F3 units were top of the line trains, they always came with magnetraction. Either the powered A unit or the dummy A unit always had a horn.

The O gauge locos are among the best running locomotives Lionel made in the postwar period. Only the FM TrainMasters will out pull a double motored F3.

The Santa Fe is the most common of the Lionel F3 locos. Collectors will pay a premium for really clean locos, and also will pay hundreds of dollars for the separate box that holds an AA or AB pair.

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The 2037 was the middle loco in Lionel’s 027 line. It’s one of the most common Lionel postwar steam locomotives.

The 2037 is the same loco as the Lionel 2018, but with Magnetraction.

Magnetraction is Lionel’s trademarked word for magnetic wheels. The magnetic wheels on locomotive provided additional pulling power, and kept the speeding locomotives on the track in tight curves.

Until 1955 the 2037 came without a whistle. After 1957 the loco always came with a whistle tender.

A pink version of the 2037 was cataloged as the 2037-500 in 1957 and 1958. The pink loco pulled Lionel’s famous girls train.

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The 2020 is an o27 version of the 671 steam turbine. The only difference between a 671 and a 2020 is the number on the side. Lionel only sold 027 locos in sets, while the 0 gauge locos were available separately.

The 2020 always came with the derivative of the 2666T plastic tender. The tender number depending on the year could be 2466W, 2020W or 6020W. The turbine always had a whistle tender.

The earliest versions of the 2020 had double worm gear drive and smoke bulbs. Later 2020 locos had single worm gear drive and heater element smoke units.

The 2020 smoke bulb assembly is shown below:

Collectors prefer the earlier smoke bulb versions of both the 2020 and the 671, but the later versions run better. The 027 turbine did not receive Magnetraction and was discontinued in 1949.

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The 202 Union Pacific Alco unit was made by Lionel in 1957. Only A units were made, and the unit does not have a coupler on the front.

There are three variations of the Lionel 202 diesel. Two painted versions: one over a black mold, the other on a blue mold, and also a harder to find unpainted orange plastic Alco.

The unpainted version of the 202 brings a small premium. The painted versions are both equally ignored by collectors.

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Lionel made the 2018 steamer from 1956 to 1959. It’s the same as the Lionel 2037, but doesn’t have Magnetraction. The 2018 came with or without a whistle tender.

The 2018 has a metal boiler, smoke and 3-position e-unit.

Lionel made a few rare blue 2018 locomotives as samples for a boys train. The boys train wasn’t produced because the girls train didn’t sell very well.

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This is the second to last version of the 0-4-0 steam switcher Lionel introduced in 1939 as the 1662. The 1615 has a plastic tender and magnetic couplers. The 1625 replaced this for 1958 only and is the same except for a dummy coupler on the front.

These switchers don’t run very well because they lose current in 022 switches. The earlier 1656 and 1665 and the prewar switchers have pickups in the tenders and go through switches at slow speeds much better.

Many Lionel 1615 switchers are found with the marker lights broken off. replacements are available and aren’t that hard to install.

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Lionel introduced the operating barrel car in 1952 to go with the 362 barrel loader. The first color was black and numbered 3562-1. That’s the rarest version of this postwar car.

After a small production of black cars, Lionel changed the color of the barrel car to gray and renumbered it as the 3562-25. The gray one is shown above. Gray cars come with or without tabs to fix the man in place. The tab was added to barrels from falling off. There is no difference in value, but cars with tabs run better. All barrel cars after 1954 have tabs.

In 1955 the color changed again, this time to yellow. The yellow barrel car is Lionel’s number 3562-50. Yellow cars come in painted and unpainted versions. Neither is harder to find, but collectors will pay a slight premium for like new and mint painted versions.

In 1957 the color changed again. This time to orange with the number 3562-75. Orange is the most common color.

The two rubber tabs shown in the foreground of the photo of the gray car are spacers that go between the 362 barrel loader and the track.

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