I came across this thread ( https://ogrforum.com/t...-say-santa-fe?page=2 ) in google images.
I was looking at this engine and then clicked it and opened the thread.
It then led to this image:
These engines were posted by Rusty Traque and two years after he posted these pictures I finally got hit in the head with a sledge hammer and realized these engines had produced years ago by a small volume (by O gauge standards) S scale manufacturer.
Here's the point. The Santa Fe freight scheme (blue) above has only been produced once fairly accurately by MTH. They never produced another accurate Santa Fe freight F unit. Lionel has yet to accurately produce a Santa Fe freight unit. (The F3 from a few years back was nice but not accurate.)
Even more so, other scales are able to consistently produce the stainless panels on F units. They are spectacular. MTH tried, Lionel hasn't yet, and 3rd rail will not be plating their Santa Fe F7 run. You can make all the excuses you want, but it is about time then a Santa Fe passenger unit is produced, the stainless panels should be looking like they are stainless. Don't give me the limited O gauge quantities produced excuse. The S gauge manufacturer produced them.
Unlike other Road names, there is a website hosted by the Santa Fe Historical and Modelers Society with everything you need to know about getting both Passenger and Freight Santa Fe F units correct. Any idiot, myself included, can go to the site and find out what is correct. Lionel had all the tooling and molds to make a correct Santa Fe F3 freight unit, but failed.
BTW, if the plating is more costly to produce, Lionel ought to produce it as a Vision Line engine.
Isn't it about time?
PS Rusty, thanks for posting the pictures.