Icons of "O" Gauge

Don't forget Nickle Plate Road 765 and the SP GS4 Daylight.

The Icons of this hobby probably are the NYC Hudson and the Santa Fe F-7 and they have been done a kazillion times already.

 

    Bill T.

Freight: either NW-2 or Geep

 

Passenger Santa Fe War bonnet F3

 

Steam: Hudson or possibly a Berkshire

 

 

How about the GG 1 ??

Lionel Century Club 1 pretty much nailed it: 726 Berkshire, 671 Turbine, 2332 GG-1, 2333 F3 and 773 Hudson.

 

 

Besides me?

I second the Century Club 1, (5 Beautifully Command Equipped Locomotives) as although the 5344 Hudson made in 1937 is the really Great Icon, the Lionel Century Club 1 began the Operating and Collecting Revolution for what is now 2 decades of Fun to Run Trains. This changed the Hobby of Model Railroading to what it is Today. You might say 3 Rail Scale came about, and Technology has Changed the way we run and operate our layouts!!! YES, Great Thread, Happy Railroading

Louis Marx and/or his O gauge Commodore Vanderbilt. Truth be told, I bet more kids got a Marx, Commodore or other, as their first train than they did Lionel. I would consider the Marx CV as the gateway drug to the toy/model addiction and should be one of the icons.

Andy - certainly a Marx loco should be an O-icon; I guess that one (CV) was very common - but I would vote for the 666 - of course, I simply like the loco, and I'm only a casual Marxist; I wish one would have shown up from K-line with modern running rear, like the 333.

 

I do have a Marx CV set that I got a number of years ago - partly because it's Marx and partly because it's New York Central. 

 

Did more kids get Marx than Lionel? Interesting; I wonder if we can know this. It certainly makes sense to me, and I would guess that, yes, they did. Probably more Marx equipment wound up in the trash when it was worn, "outgrown" (yeah, right) or in the way than did Lionel or AF. It was perceived as "cheap" (it was in ways, and not in others) and unrealistic, at least until the die-cast and 3/16" days.

 

But, we all know that. I like Marx a lot. Looks so good beside my scale 2-6-6-2's... 

It would be difficult to differentiate "steam" from "freight" or "passenger" because I would put the Lionel Lines Berkshire under the "freight" category and the Hudson under the "passenger" one.

The Lionel starter set 4-4-2 is the first locomotive that pops into my head first when I think of O gauge.  Because it is a passenger wheel arrangement commonly included in freight sets, I'll designate it "mixed traffic" (as I have done with my own model).

The GG1 and Santa Fe F3 A-A also deserve representation, with both falling under the passenger category.

I should have categorized as;

Diesel freight  icon, steam freight icon , steam passenger icon and diesel passenger icon.  If you had to pick only 4 loco's what would they be from a model "O" perspective.

Wow, another fan of Old Sparky!  Awesome!

 

Besides old 666, I would nominate :

1. Lionel Santa Fe warbonnets
2. The Lionel Scale Hudsons 700E & 763E
3. The Lionel GG-1

That's my list off the top of my head.

 

George