Actually it was a prototype drawing by Linn Westcott back when he was very young and was Model Railroader's main draftsman (among other functions). There was a real locomotive but Westcott drew it with a logo for a model railroad he was planning at the time and somehow it was thought the logo too was prototypical -- so it appears on that brass locomotive and I think also on the Athearn little monster. Westcott once joked in print that perhaps no other model railroad logo had appeared on so many other layouts
The brass version of this 0-4-2T was, if memory serves, an accurate 1:87 HO reproduction of Westcott's scale drawing (which was in 1/8" scale, a popular size for scale drawings back in the 1930s because most modelers were in O scale and would just double the ) but to fit the motor the Athearn model was considerably larger than true HO and thus larger than the brass import. Maybe more like 1:76 which would be OO scale but of course running on HO gauge track. This gave the Athearn version a rather bulky bloated look compared to true HO scale switchers and hence perhaps the "Little Monster" nickname.
Dave Nelson
The Hustler was also made in brass.
Edit: Where did that "1" come from, and why can't I get rid of it?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Everyone knows that back in the Sixties, Athearn produced a cheap, plastic 0-4-2 designed by MR's Linn Westcott called the Little Monster. Here's an example - not
Who knew it had been made in brass?