I have a 1666 locomotive.Who makes it and why is there identification on it?

Byran,

 This is a Marx locomotive. I have two of them. One black, like yours, and the other gray.

 The black one initially was for parts. But, then I found another drive mechanism and installed it. Now both are great runners.

 They usually are followed by a slope back tender.

 Without pulling them out, and if I remember correctly, look for MAR with a small circle around it on the shell. 

Thanks Henry,If I remember correctly i could not for the life of me find and Marx markings anywhere.

you don't show the geared side of the locomotive, but one nice feature of the 1666 is that it should have the Marx double reduction motor making the engine compatible with most modern trackwork without interference from flange-sized gears.  some 1666s are smokers, some additionally have cylinder smoke; a great effect when it works.

The 1666 was also available with electronic steam sound - "Sound of Power", I believe they called it, in 1969.

Look for the Marx insignia on the cylinder on the engineer's side, just forward of the mounting screw. 

I am not familiar with the 1666, but the 999, and I think others, have a small circle on

the side of the smokebox with MAR crossed by an X, for Marx on them.

I recently picked up a 4-car Marx freight set headed by a plastic 1666 and it smokes better than any Lionel engine I have ever owned, post-war or modern!  It has decent pulling power for such a light engine as I had it pulling 5 Lionel O27 passenger cars behind a 12-wheel Lionel tender. 

But I’m not ready to convert to Marxism, yet!

Bill

Having had a lot of 1666's pass through my hands, my answer without looking would be it is always on the steam chest. I went and looked at 4 f them and one of the 4 has no logo. The other three it is on both steam chests.

Steve

Thanks again everyone,I have looked and looked for any type of marking's and I have found none.Make's me really wonder why it was never put on the locomotive.I would love to know why.I went over it very carefully just to see if possibly someone filed it off or had it removed,but there is no sign of any kind of tampering with it what so ever.And therefore the mystery continues.

Bryan

Here we have three different examples for the same engine number:  "No trademark at all", "one on both sides", and "one on only the engineer's side".  The 1666 was made for many years.  No author of any book I have has tried to guess exactly how many, but it had to have been twenty, give or take a few.  So there was ample opportunity to change the mold.  There are probably more questions unanswered about Marx than there are answered.  A factory fire at one time that destroyed a great many records didn't help the situation.

It has become quite a mystery indeed.

Bryan:  Maybe the lack of the Marx logo or placing a small logo in hardly visible locations was intentional so the uniformed consumer would think he was buying a Lionel train!    

My 1666 does not have the Marx name or logo on it either.  It’s plastic and came in a set with a Penn Central tender and caboose so that dates it to no earlier than 1968.  There’s a blank circle on each steam chest where other posters have said the Marx logo should be.  The tender and all of the cars have the Marx logo but usually on the underside rather than in highly visible locations like Lionel did back then.

Bill

is it possible that the MAR logo was left off the 1666 engine's that were used in the Sears Allstate sets?

But mine came in a set box that was labeled Marx.

Bill

It is so strange that they wouldn't want to say that it was a Marx locomotive?Its a nice little locomotive actually.Why would you not want to advertise that? Hummm