You probably have your favorite loco. Maybe it’s the first one you got as a kid for Christmas or maybe the first one you puchased. Maybe it’s a hand-me-down from your grandfather or father. Mine is my father’s American Flyer 316 steamer he purchased in 1953.
I must have over a dozen steamers and a few electric locomotives from the 1920’s. But I have no diesel’s.
What’s your story???
Ray
Boy thats a tough one, I probably have 2 that are tied for that honor. Both are picks are from the real deals that I was very familiar with as a youngster in the State of Washington.
The Milwaukee Bi-Polars, very unique looking and I remember as a youngster those brutes running the electrified line in Washington, they were massive, almost scary.
The other would be the Northern Pacific F-3’s and 7’s. The family would catch the NP local powered by F units in Auburn, Washington and take over the Cascades Mountains to visit relatives in Cle Elum Washington.
Ray,
My “story” bears similarities to yours.
Mine is my American Flyer 312 steamer that my father purchased for me for Christmas in 1948. I still have it, and after many years in storage, it is in good running order once again.
Rich
O gauge locos, my favorites are the Santa Fe 2333/2343/2353 with the war bonnet paint scheme
Real locos, my favorites are the Garratts, American Articulateds, and Shays.
Mine would be the Lionel 2026 from 1948/49. That was our first train. I have numerous of these, and have given the original to my nephew as it was my brothers train. I also have nemerous 2035 and 600 locos as that is what we had growing up. The original 2026 still runs good and smokes, has 1 broken marker light, but for the use that engine saw, it speaks well to Lionel.
Thats My Story,
Alan
The Lionel 88 Rock Island Northern. There is a couple of others that are different road names. Scale engines don’t look good on my layout. This is the biggest traditional size.
It would have to be my American Flyer 322AC. Runs and smokes great.
It would have to be this, the American Flyer 9915 engine from 1935
O.
For me,
As far as LOCOs it has to be my Lionel Santa Fe ALCO FA # 218 ABBA set.
As for the steamers, even though they never made it in real lift it would be the Lionel 681 S-2 Turbine, a great puller and smoker.
Kev
I like steamers, the bigger the better, but my favs are the cab forward and the Shays.
Diesela are cool too. I have a Preamble Express A-B-A that I love.
As a kid My dad had five American Flyer Locomotives. A 312 Pensy K5 pacific a 336 UP Northern, a Santa Fe Alco PA/PB the Rocket Alco PA1 AA set and a 370 GP7. I always like the looks of the Penny K-5 so I choose that as my favorite. In fact I was running a 312 K-5 SIT version last night as I now have multiple copies of this engine in my roster.
Real Locos: I like any articulated steam loco’s the bigger the better!
When I head for the museum anything that operates as it is supposed to. [swg]
The four pound Marx 333 , a petite lead boat anchor of a Hudson that pulls without complaint even with a driver slip or two as it powers up …all business, no fancy gimmicks a rock solid half century old reliable loco that requires minimal attention…no heart stopping electronic quirks …just a pleasure to run. From the folks who had the stones to number a loco 666…and create the Great Garoo along with Power Wheels, what else could I ask for? Don’t ask. Politically correct Lionel or Flyer could never top a twelve year olds demented and cultivated appetite for mayhem.
My favorite type of locomotive is the 4-8-4 steam engine. My second favorite is the SD-45 diesel, third is the GP-30.
My Uncle’s 2020 Turblne always got my attentlon. the keystone cemented my lnterest n the PRR.
my 675 ls the flrst steamer l bought for myself.
Presently I would have to say it’s my NYC A-B-B-A PA’s/PB’s I bought a PA-1 missing the number boards and number board holders I thought no problem I can order those parts Well 1/2 right can’t order the number board holders as lionel only sold them as part of the shell. So what happened to the original who knows. anyway so I set out to get another PA-1 thinking if I could get one I could make the holder by seeing what it looks like well wrong again to a point I kinda can as I can’t get them out as there glued and kinda looks like melted in there from the back so you can’t do that. but I have an idea what it looks like so its a project coming down the road. Well since the original PA didn’t have a PB-1 and Lionel’s were selling for over $200 ( thats the unit that has the rail sound in it) I figured I could buy a Williams and do it my self for about the same money and get some knowledge at the same time well Yes thats correct this time but I didn’t put rail sounds in it yet anyway. I have put coil couplers in it and lights in it and have learned some things too but by the way both my PA-1 now have coil couplers front and back seeing they didn’t come with them from the factory and when I bought the second PA-1 well it had a PB-1 with it with rail sounds and I actually got the set A&B for about what the B’s were selling for so I got lucky on that but they are a nice set of diesels on my shelf layout I’m building heres a pic to give you an idea how nice they are.
!(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y280/rtraincollector/My Trains/DSCI0061.jpg)
Yes the original Pa-1 needs to have its fuel tank and trucks painted black to match the rest. Some one had the PA-1 and the PB-1 by lionel custom painted so it matched the Passenger cars they had and the Williams came black so its just logical to paint the other one to match. But that
Well I don’t know if my opinion counts here as I’m an HO guy. I actually have three favorites. Each of them are permanently mu’d pairs. A pair of Bachmann GP7’s, a Pair of Atlas FP7’s(one is a 70’sera model and the other is an 80’s era model) and a pair of SDP40F’s (one is all Athearn and the other is a Proto 2000 E6 chassis wearing an Athearn body).
I would be remiss if I didn’t give my Marx Wells Fargo loco an honorable mention here as it was my first train set I got for Christmas in 1959 or 1960. I still have it and it runs like a top. Those Marx lococ’s will run right off the track if you let them, they are so fast.
Where are all the Marx fans???
Ray
Lionel C&O Ten Wheeler - love the paint scheme
MTH C&O Yellowbelly Hudson
Lionel B&O scale Mikado
Lionel Chessie GP30s (have three of them tripple headed)
Lionel CSX Heritage series B&O AC6000 - paint scheme may not be prototypical but it is a beaut!
My favorite prototype locomotives are the PRR and NYC electrics. Electric locomotives have always fascinated me.
In O gauge, it’s a tie between the second-run Lionel 2026 that Santa brought me in 1951 (my first locomotive) and the Lionel 252 with passenger cars, that was my father’s first locomotive in 1929. Both of them are still alive and well and running happily today.
