This set, sold about 1953, is one of the earliest Marx plastic train sets. Unlike Lionel, Marx did not plaster its brand name all over everything it made. I didn't care for Marx when I was little but secretly I was envious that the "cheap" little Marx cars always had correct railroad artwork while my "good" Lionel set had LIONEL LINES on every car! This set is one of the few exceptions. Why Marx choose to festoon these sets with Marlines is anybody's guess. It hardly makes sense when one considers that the first Marx plastic sets were unmarked but sold with correct railroad artwork decals to be applied by the purchaser.

The engine in this set is equipped with the airbulb smoker. It had a packet of baking powder to be dumped into the airbulb (down the stack) and the motor had a bellows that sqeezed the airbulb to churn out puffs of pseudo smoke. They didn't work very well and I am sure many mothers stopped the smoker use immediately! The cars in this set are hard to find and all have variations.

Here we see the beginning of Sears attempt to Market using the Happi Times brand.