This time of year is when a lot of train sets are displayed and sold. At age 63, I notice throughout the years it seems most of these train sets that had a diesel locomotive were the Sante Fe road name. I wonder why that is. I do know years ago Sante Fe paid Lionel to use their logo and maybe all the other manufacturers followed suit.
Santa Fe actually paid Lionel to help do the tooling for their F3 diesel -- I think GM/EMD and the NYC did too. And for a season or two that Lionel locomotive was one of the hottest and most desired toys in the country. Even the Jack Benny program dealt with Jack scheming to get one, when it was known nationally they were in short supply.
A case can be made that the popularity of that Lionel Santa Fe F3 helped make the warbonnet scheme recognized all over the country, even in the east where the Santa Fe had no tracks. But it is also worth remembering that the Santa Fe wasn't just a southwest railroad but had a major presence in Chicago and other major midwestern cities, not to mention the west coast of course. Big population centers.
Dave Nelson
And of course when something sells well like that then other companies copy the success. 90% of all successful businesses are copies of other successful businesses. Plus Santa Fe did so much other marketing that they were a well know brand. I personally liked Santa Fe because my grandfather worked for them (as a civil engineer), and when I was a very little kid we took the train often, traveling from Chicago to Los Angeles. I always thought the engines had the coolest paint job. It kind of reminds me of flames, like the train is going so fast that the nose is glowing red from the air friction. Of course there are train sets with other railroads but I’m sure the Santa Fe ones are still among the best sellers. The train set I think is cool right now is the Canadian one with only covered hoppers but it does have limited appeal since all of the cars are the same type. There was an old 1970s Lionel train set that was kind of cool which only had operating log dumping cars, but you had to want a logging railroad to want it and most kids want a variety of cars including boxcars and flatcars.
Santa Fe also served the Hollywood area, so when movies needed a train - Santa Fe it was! In the movie White Christmas they ride on a Santa Fe train to New England!
Of course there is the name connection - Santa.
As far as it goes, NYC and Santa Fe paid equal shares to Lionel to develop the F3, but Santa Fe got all the big catalog shots. The NYC people couldn't have been too happy.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.