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Is the Silver and Red Santa Fe F Unit the Most Ubiquitous Loco in Model Trains?

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  • Member since
    April 2024
  • 19 posts
Posted by COL BEAUSABRE on Thursday, June 13, 2024 10:57 PM

None of which ATSF owned (yes, they had G40's but in the blue freight scheme)

Actually, I think the GOAT is the UP's Armour Yellow and Sea Mist Gray - only minor changes for almost a century. 

  • Member since
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  • From: Mpls/St.Paul
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Posted by wjstix on Friday, June 14, 2024 9:26 AM

I recall - I think in MR long ago - someone in the hobby industry saying pretty much anything with "Santa Fe" on it sold well. They would create a new item, offer it seven or eight different paint schemes, and everyone would buy the Santa Fe version.

dknelson
I think there was even an episode of the then-popular Jack Benny program that revolved around Jack wanting one for Christmas in a season when they were so popular they were known to be in short supply.  

IIRC Rochester (Benny's butler) found Jack's letter to "Santa" asking for a locomotive for Christmas. Rochester then said something like "Mr. Benny sure thinks big - this letter isn't to Santa Claus, it's to Santa Fe!".

Stix
  • Member since
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  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
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Posted by MisterBeasley on Monday, June 17, 2024 2:19 PM

Remember the 1954 movie "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye?  The train ride sequence featured a lot of trackside shots of a Santa Fe warbonnet engine and coaches of that era.

Please ignore the story that the train went from Florida to New York up the East Coast of the US.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

PCN
  • Member since
    December 2013
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Posted by PCN on Friday, June 21, 2024 11:46 AM

One of my earliest memories is looking under a bed in my grandmother's house and seeing the silhouette of an HO Santa Fe F7. It was part of a train set that belonged to my teenage uncle who had probably long-before shoved it under the bed. My grandmother gave me the set, but I only recall playing with it once. Anyway, in my view, it is THE train set locomotive of all locomotives. 

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Posted by kasskaboose on Monday, June 24, 2024 4:06 PM

There's something fun about going away from the very popular.  This from someone who wants to model the N&W in VA during the early 1980s.

Curious if the color or the type of loco make them so recognizable.

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Posted by charlieB on Monday, June 24, 2024 7:01 PM

Without a doubt.But I do like the ATSF blue and yellow   

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Posted by Track fiddler on Monday, June 24, 2024 7:27 PM

Shock Control

Is the silver and red Santa Fe F unit - is it an F3 or F7? - the most ubiquitous locomotive in model railroading history?  It is everywhere, all scales, all brands. When I go to a train show, they are all over the place, from five bucks to hundreds of dollars.  I cannot think of a locomotive from any era that I see more than this one.  Does this reflect your experience? 

 

Yep, produced in high numbers is worth much less.  You may need to look a bit further.

The Great Northern Hustle Muscle that Ed posted several months, 22 or three ago, is a favorite of mine without a doubt.

(Rare)...Good luck finding one to add to your roster.  And if you do, please buy two, and sell me the other one for twice as much as you paid for it.  I'll gladly pay.

  Flickr

Don't know how it could not be sought after in any scale?  Orange and Blacky Green Halloween colors Rock!

 

TF

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Posted by maxman on Monday, June 24, 2024 7:55 PM

Shock Control

It is the model train equivalent of Whipped Cream and Other Delights by Herb Alpert. (I am also an LP collector!)  ;)

 

You mean that the loco box had whipped cream all over it?

Probably more people liked the album sleeve than the contents.

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    February 2008
  • 8,908 posts
Posted by maxman on Monday, June 24, 2024 7:57 PM

PCN
One of my earliest memories is looking under a bed in my grandmother's house and seeing the silhouette of an HO Santa Fe F7.

All I ever found under my bed were monsters and dust bunnys.

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,173 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Monday, June 24, 2024 8:03 PM

Don't know Dick, but remembering those days, the Monsters fit fine in the closet, but they were way too big to fit Under the BedWhistling

 

TF

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