I purchased an AA set of Santa Fe's, #2333, and noticed that the engines have a large X carved into the plastic on the underside of the shell roof at the coupler end. I thought it was something that was done by a previous owner but now I have noticed the "X" on other F3's! Also, there are F3's selling on E-Bay that have the same mark. Does anyone know what the "X" represents? Thanks.
See this topic: http://cs.trains.com/ctt/f/95/t/172307.aspx
Bob Nelson
From Kalmbach's Lionel's Postwar F3's by Joe Algozzini:
1948 Production history: "...The underside of the power-unit shell includes some unique features...a large X scratched by hand on the inside of both the power and dummy unit shells (occasionally a shell is found without the X). No convincing explanation of the purpose of this X has been offered to date...."
1950 Production history: "...sometime during 1950 the decision was made to stop scratching the X on the inside of the body shell; whatever purpose it had served was no longer required...."
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