Having already resucitated one Marx 666 steam loco, I turned my attentions to another 666 which had been languishing on my workbench for a year or more. When I first got it (another stray), I'd written it off as a loss; the drive wheels were flopping about and the thing looked generally disreputable.

Still, the happily buzzing 666 I had, well, got me to thinking, and today, I tackled the other one. As it turns out, the wheels were a tad loose on the axle, but once I applied a bit of ACC gel (by Loctite), they snapped into position nicely. Next, I took off the motor cover and cleaned off the commutator and brushes, and shined up the third rail pickup...

Now, mind you, I didn't even try to run the little beggar up. I just took it into the train room and plopped it on the track.

As soon as I applied power, darned if the thing didn't take off, sounding like a well-oiled Singer sewing machine!

Marx locomotives really ARE unkillable!

Just as the first 666 loco sports a donor Lionel tender, so does the second one (this one is an early 1950s Lionel Scout tender complete with Scout gondola and caboose; the matching loco smokes, but doesn't have a smoke generator, meaning it's shot. So much for the vaunted superiority of Lionel, at least in the low-end field)...

Photo © me. Yanno, for a trolley guy, I'm sure fixing a lot of steam locomotives lately...