The set of trains shown on this page is a real thought provoker! Made by Brimtoy in the
fifties it is very uncharacteristic of Brimtoy production. I have included it here because
it appears that there might be a connection to Marx in this set. The motor, tender,
coaches, track and switches (turnouts) bear a remarkable resemblance to Marx production.
The motors shown above were the first sign of the possible Marx/Brimtoy cooperation in
this set. Colin Duthie, a very knowledgeable train collector from New Zealand, contacted me
some time ago inquiring about a connection between Brimtoy and Unique. He had this train
which was completely out of character for Brimtoy but was, without doubt, a Brimtoy
production. He had been told that the set might have been manufactured by Unique or with
their tooling. I inquired among my circle of friends to see if anyone knew of this
connection but to no avail. Sometime later Colin sent me the picture of the reversible
clockwork motor. I immediately recognized the similarities to Marx. My first reaction was
that it was definitely a Marx production. I relayed this information back to Colin along
with the pic of a reversible clockwork motor from a British Marx engine of mine. The
similarities were remarkable.
Then Colin sent me some more pictures.
The image above is of the set. Notice the switches. They look like Marx clockwork switches
to me.
Notice the coaches. Do they remind you of the British Marx short coaches?
Now check out the tender. Are you familiar with the British Marx tender for the steam
engines and CV's? I see a striking resemblance.
Below is a catalog page for the set.
There are several different ideas about this set but I like these two. First is that Marx
had bought out Unique and shipped the train tooling, along with the Marx mechanical motor
tooling to England where it was utilized to produce the Brimtoy/Marx set. This scenario
pretty much necessitates a financial arrangement (such as a take-over) between the two
companies but there is no known documentation of Marx acquiring Wells/Brimtoy.
Second is that Wells/Brimtoy simply copied the Marx motor, coaches, tender and switches,
copied a Unique Engine shell and pasted their own litho on the set. If this second scenario
is correct then all I can say is, touché.
There certainly appears to have been some cooperation between Marx and Wells/Brimtoy.
Some British Marx sets have Brimtoy stations in them! Marx probably owned Brimtoy at some
point. He owned nearly every other toymaker!
The picture above shows the unusual Brimtoy engine/tender along with several trains of
various manufacture. I have shown this to demonstrate scale and because it is such a great
picture!
(Courtesy of Colin Duthie)