Videos & Photos Videos How To Collector’s Showcase Lionel Santa Fe F3 is the stuff of legend

Lionel Santa Fe F3 is the stuff of legend

By Roger Carp | July 12, 2022

| Last updated on March 18, 2024


Professor Carp gives the history of this postwar O gauge icon

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The Lionel Santa Fe F3 is a colorful O gauge icon.

Roger “Professor” Carp is here to share with you what many consider the greatest post-World War II locomotive, the no. 2333 Santa Fe F3 cab unit. Interestingly, prior to its production, Lionel reached out to the manufacturer, Electric Motive Division of General Motors to ask for help and financial assistance. The train maker also sought help from two full size railroads known for having F3s on their roster.

Need more F3 action?

The railroads were the New York Central to cover the East, and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe for the Midwest all the way out to the Pacific. Both eagerly agreed.

With this financial backing and the expertise shared by Electro Motive, Lionel’s engineers were able to create an O gauge replica of both the New York Central’s and Santa Fe’s F3s.

Lionel debuted the locomotives in its 1948 consumer catalog. For whatever reason, the Santa Fe units were shown with a black body rather than the silver of the production units.

The Santa Fe F3 is the subject of articles in our special publication Lionel Trains of the 1940s, coming in fall 2022.

 

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