The Railroading Phoenix
New Member
Some new-to-me Marx equipment showed up in the mail yesterday; a pair of remote switches that've unfortunately seen better days and their accompanying controller which'll be put towards making my layout compatible with fat-wheeled engines, an original Marx 3-wire cable, a No. 994 tinplate 0-4-0, (side note, do all 994s have a hole for a wind-up key, or was mine converted from mechanical to electric?) and a No. 1229 50-watt transformer. Now, I bought this for the switches and controller, the loco and transformer I didn't really care about. However, the 994's grown on me, and I figured that with how gargantuan she is, I could probably fit a 6-wheel motor unit into her, and she'd probably look a lot better for it. I've also wanted a suburban tank on my layout for quite a while, and when I saw this custom tank engine someone made out of a Marx 994, I thought that if I could do something similar combined with my original idea of fitting a 6-wheel motor unit, I could have a really cool one-of-a-kind suburban tank engine. It would also be another reason to try repainting a locomotive for the first time, as her paint is oxidized, faded, chipped, and rough to the touch. What do y'all think? Should I give it a try, and if so, do you have any tips or suggestions?
