cwburfle
"The pre-war version had black rim drivers"
I don't recall ever seeing one with black rim drivers. The prewar 1666 loco I have out has nickle rims, as does the one pictured in the price guide I checked.
I think your right.
Lionel ran the O-27 locomotives with cast drivers, 1664, 1666, 1668, 1688, and 1689, no applied nickel rims. A quick check of my 1668, 1688, 1662, and 1664 confirm this. I checked my "O" gauge engines of this era and they had the nickel rims applied, 224, 225, 226, 227, 763. I no longer have a 1666 but it had no rim cast wheels.
The Lionel 1938 catalog shows no nickel rims on the 1666 but following catalogs DO show applied nickel rims to the 1666 only in O-27 gauge. The TCA Lionel book showes only the 1938 gray version, no applied rims. It looks like the change to applied rims on the 1666 happened sometime in 1939 or later. Did Lionel have problems with the 6 wheel drive or was the added cost for appearence?
