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?
Yes it is. So much so that people that know nothing of trains still recognize it.
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-Kevin
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Santa Fe all the way.
It is the model train equivalent of Whipped Cream and Other Delights by Herb Alpert. (I am also an LP collector!) 
Maybe because the red, yellow, silver, and black stand out more than other schemes. Course, if they were REALLY popular…you wouldn’t see them “all over the place”. [swg]
Tom
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Is that like saying “They were a lot more popular before EVERYBODY started buying them?”
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[:D]
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-Kevin
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Well, see my Herb Alpert analogy above. That album was huge, but it is still readily available at a thrift store near you!
To answer the question, quite possibly, but the really strong challenger would have to be the 4-4-0 or 4-6-0 on various roads, the one with the beehive stack and lots of brass…or bling…on it.
Can you post a pic? I am more a of a diesel guy, so I may have overlooked this.
I think the one with all the bling he’s talking about is made by Hallmark or somebody. It’s advertised on the back of magazines and in the Sunday paper glossy insert, along with the silver dollars and buffalo nickels.
What I had in mind was something like this example on the auction site, not necessarily this very Rivarossi model:
It appears in popular train sets, the kind mom 'n pop will smile at under the Christmas tree.
Definitely iconic, if not ubiquitous.
Actually my 1st HO train set had a red/silver warbonnet ATSF F7 in it, but the engine didn’t run so it went back to the shop. It was my almost Santa Fe F7 - never did get any in all the years after that.
Ok, we’ve solved that mystery. Put a fork in it!
Next topic… /topic
Oh, those…
Lionel was the first to make it starting with the post war ones. It was a huge seller then. Probably why it is still so recognized today
Lionel for sure played a big role in making it so popular (and since EMD and Santa Fe helped pay for the tooling I guess you’d have to say they played a role as well). There were so many Lionel layouts in store windows and inside stores at Christmas time; hard to describe if you weren’t around at the time. And not infrequently the Santa Fe F unit (an F3 I think for Lionel) was heading the train.
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.
The Athearn Sante Fe F7 was also extremely popular back in the 1950s. Other makes of F units had them as well; it was one road name they all had to have.
And remember the Santa Fe itself while a hugely popular “western” railroad also had a presence well into the midwest including Kansas and Illinois. So those locomotives and the trains they pulled were known and enjoyed in some very populated areas of the country, and areas where model railroading was very popular as well.
Dave Nelson
Will everyone who doesn’t/didn’t have a Warbonnet F unit please raise their hand?
(Thought so!)
I had to raise mine because you asked for '…a warbonnet…" I have two.
[8-|]
I have an A-B-A consist. Does that count as one, two, or three? I’ll raise just one hand for now.
Robert
Believe it or not, the only one I have is a Hallmark Christmas tree ornament. Does that count?
Been in this hobby since 1968, never owned any locomotive that said Santa Fe, in any paint scheme.
And don’t have any interest in owning any…
Sheldon