Originally Posted by C W Burfle:
The 8625 is a starter set quality modern era locomotive.
The 1664 is a prewar locomotive, made somewhere in the late 1930's to 1942. I'd have to look up the exact year, and the variations. I think I sold a decent, fully serviced 1664 with a whistling tender (also serviced) for around fifty dollars.
C.W. is right on the money.
That particular 8625 came from sets harking back to around the mid-1980s to around 1990, although that number has been recycled on a couple of other modern-era locomotives. It has a horizontally-mounted can motor that was wired for DC use only (original set came with a DC power pack, so that's what would have to be used or the engine would have to be modified with a bridge rectifier to make it work with regular AC O gauge transformers). I believe it originally came with a Pennsy-marked, 2046-derived streamlined tender modified during the MPC-era to resemble an oil tender that was commonly used in the Rio Grande Black River/Heavy Iron & similar sets of the time, although I don't recall what cars came with this particular engine or what the catalog # of the set was.
I think 1938 was when the 1664 was first offered; 1942 for the final year is correct.