Yes, probably those.  D&RGW

Yes, probably those.  D&RGW also seems to be a big seller, especially given that RR's size vs. some of the others already mentioned.

The 3 You Mention:

Those three are likely up there on the list of "most favored" of the fallen flags.

I have an affection (though I don't act on it) for the Santa Fe up to, and including some of, the "Bookends" era. During that era I like Zebra's, the Bookends scheme, the blue/yellow cigar band F's, and of course, the traditional Warbonnet car body units. (I'm not much on the yellow "warbonnet" scheme on freight units that followed the Bookend scheme.)

I'm perplexed as to why Pennsy is such a favorite, though. Interesting railroad, but very bland schemes, to me.

SP? Their stuff was pretty nice, too. From the Black Widow all the way through the Bloody Nose. Good variety among the roster, too.

Andre

PRR had the largest freight car fleet

The Pennsy had the largest freight car fleet.  The chart below shows data for 1950 courtesy of Tony Thompson's blog:

If you would like the full story, click the link below:

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/search?q=freight+car+chart

Judging by the price of

Judging by the price of anything Milwaukee Road, it has to be right up there.

Michael H

PRR

As shown in the graphic above, the PRR freight car fleet was HUGE.

Pretty much whatever you model, you can see PRR freight cars on your RR. The places they wouldn't get to would be pretty small.

Also, while their paint schemes might be plain, for a company that billed themselves as the "Standard Railroad" they had a lot of unique (non-standard) car classes and locomotives (unique steam locomotive design features, electric engines like the GG-1, etc.)

The railway covered a large area of the eastern US, and had massive car and locomotive shops that built a lot of their own equipment, with many individual car classes numbering in the several thousands of cars.

the NYC

might be in the top 3  for eastern modelers. Perhaps the UP for midwest folks ? Definitely the SP and Santa Fe for west coasters and Pennsy for Pennsylvanians ....DaveB

Keep in mind the opening

Keep in mind the opening question was which road names sell the most.  Not which RR in real live had the most rolling stock.  That may or may not be related to what sells the most.

As and SP fan and D&RGW fan both, I can attest both of those roads sell well.  As for eastern stuff, while I live in the east (Virginia) I have little interest in east coast trains other than what may have been typical the mix crossing the Rockies.  And since PRR was so major back in the day, I've been sure to incluse some PRR and successor names like PC and ConRail.

laming....comment about the pennsy.....

It was his comment that he couldn't understand why the PRR have so many models sold, so I showed the chart that they had the largest number of freight cars in the prototype, so it would be logical that Pennsy models would be big sellers, especially with prototype modelers of the 50s and earlier.

Also keep in mind

That before prototype modeling, the Santa Fe and the Pennsylvania rr’s were always made, think Lionels and American Flyer. Athearn was based out on the west coast, they did ATSF and SP on everything, then the Pennsy.

A railroad that still sells, even foobie stuff is the New Haven, gone over fifty years, it still sells

oh, and Pennsylvania locos are far from colorful.

Consider where the railroads

Consider where the railroads ran and how many people were exposed to the real thing. Also consider the number of model railroaders in the population.

Now think about the model railroad toy market. Bright colors would often attract the eye and be big sellers for someone buying for a child. Many years ago I read somewhere that the biggest seller for athearn was the Santafe f7 warbonnet red scheme.

Chuck:

What I meant was, given the blandness of their paint schemes/etc... I don't see the appeal.

That the PRR had significant presence in the railroad rolling stock scene is a given. Because of said presence their rolling stock should be dependable sale items in model form... but then there's still the bland paint scheme (to my eyes). In other words, I think it's safe to say I won't be modeling the Pennsy at any point in my lifetime.

...

The only reason Uncle Pete isn't on the list is because it's not a former railroad...

Pennsylvania, Santa Fe, and Union Pacific basically covers well over three quarters of all the trainset material ever produced...as long as we're not including Lionel...

Appearances

I guess some of my purchase designations have been made on 'appearances'.

First off I was attracted to steam engines,...they just offer more exciting appearances and differences in their external hardware. And being located in the Laural, Md area, I visited John Glabb's shop quite often, so the C&O was a big influence. And of course Howard Zane's huge collection of steam engines.
 

Then Proto 2K introduced their PA models in the Santa Fe colors. Childhood memories rose to the surface and I just had to have some of these SF diesels. Now I needed to figure out how I was going to run east and west coast trains on the same layout,..the

the Continental / Trans-Continental Connector, Layout Theme
https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/the-continental-transcontinental-connector-layout-theme-12213408

So my diesel engine purchases have been concentrated on Santa Fe line.

Then I discovered those multiple long auto-car carriers being pulled by those multiple, very colorful BNSF engines. Now I find myself collected a number of these heritage colored BNSF engines. In fact I just found a deal on 4 'rivet-counter' Scale Train models.

I guess those colorful diesels are what attracted me, plus their actual usage in the theme of my transcontinental theme.