Turnouts for Marx Commodore Vanderbilt

amich35
New Member

Posts: 12

Turnouts for Marx Commodore Vanderbilt Nov 7, 2022 9:20:17 GMT

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Post by amich35 on Nov 7, 2022 9:20:17 GMT

Hi all,

Another newbie question I'm sure. I recently bought a nice restored Marx Commodore Vanderbilt electric loco to go with my several windup versions. I have a loop of Lionel Fastrack in my office to run them on but the electric Commodore Vanderbilt won't make it through the fastrack turnouts. The windups do fine. I can rearrange my track to put one turnout in the main line with branches coming off it--IF I knew what kind of turnout the new engine could navigate. Will it get through a Lionel Turnout? An old Marx turnout?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Mike

Flagstaff, Arizona

Country Joe
Global Moderator

Posts: 8,415

Turnouts for Marx Commodore Vanderbilt Nov 7, 2022 16:32:54 GMT

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Post by Country Joe on Nov 7, 2022 16:32:54 GMT

Mike, I don't have any Marx trains so I don't know the answer but we have some members that run Marx and they should be able to help. If you don't get an answer here post your question in the main O Gauge section. More members will see it there.

Owner of the Alma and Jupiter Bay Railway

Railking Commodore Vanderbilt by Joe, on Flickr

af3020
New Member

Posts: 20

Turnouts for Marx Commodore Vanderbilt May 24, 2023 14:37:50 GMT

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Post by af3020 on May 24, 2023 14:37:50 GMT

The issue is the gearing on the Marx drive wheels. The gear is cast into the drive wheel and it makes the wheel too wide to permit it to pass through the switch points of Lionel or any other type of switch which has these features. The Marx switches, like the pre-war Flyer switches have a completely different construction which allows for thicker drive wheels. A word of caution - if you try to replace your switches with the Marx type and then try to run trains such as Lionel through them there is a good chance you will damage their roller pickups because these will snag on the movable piece of track that is central to these switches. A workaround, should you decide to put in Marx switches, is to build an insert out of styrene plastic to fill the "void" of moving piece of track. You will need to allow enough for clearance of the fatter Marx wheels but if you do this then both types of trains can run through these switches without any problems.