What was the most beautiful?

No - the GWR Dean Single was much better looking, with the MR Johnson Single - known as the 'Spinner' - a close second.

m>

snip

These weren't just pretty. They were perhaps the most practical locomotives built.

They were simple, and the equalising beams between the driving axles, together with the pivot for the front truck under the smokebox gave a

3-point suspension which meant they held the lighly built track or that era perfectly.

I'd have to go along with that, but second has got to be almost any British steam. Our US steamers look like Bowery bruisers next to them. I think the Brits kept the "colorful and ornate" mindset all the way to the end of steam.

But I've always liked the GG1 :-).

This is my list as it stands for today. Ask me tommorrow and I'll have a different one - I never saw a steam loco I didn't like! :-)

In the US:

Prettiest - Mason Bogies

Toughest - NKP H-6 2-8-2s

Best Looking - C&O Greenbrier 4-8-4s

In Australia :

Prettiest - SAR 520 4-8-4s

Toughest - WAGR V 2-8-2s

Best Looking - NSWGR Streamlined 38 4-6-2s

In Europe:

Prettiest - SNCF 241P 4-8-2s

Toughest - OBB 12/CFR 142 2-8-4s

Best Looking - Sächsen IVK Reko-lok

In the UK:

Prettiest - Brighton Terrier

Toughest - Southern Q-1

Best Looking - BR Standard 4-6-2

Rest of the World:

Prettiest - CFM Henschel 4-4-2s

Toughest - Transandine Railway Kitson-Meyer 0-8-6-0s

Best Looking - Vietnamese 4-6-2s

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 13:34:55 UTC, "mindesign" wrote: 2000

For me it was the Espee GS-4/5 on the head end of the Daylight. The loco by itself was certainly attractive but when coupled to the full train it was a sight to behold.

Steve wrote: Just wondering which Loco folks thought was the prettiest/toughest/best looking from the steam era? ***

----------------------------------------------------- My favorite is the Baltimore and Ohio Cincinnatian:

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Railroad Bookstore: 's Books and Toy Trains: to 1,000 sites:

Steve,

I just barely remember those times too. We lived near Cheyenne Wyoming for a while when I was very young. I was there to see the last days of the big UP steam! I only wish I could find my father's pictures of them. He loved trains and was a good photographer as well. What I remember were big trains, lots of cattle, horses and cowboys. In other words Paradise for a little boy. (Or in my case paradise at any age if you throw in a loving good looking woman who can cook.) When I was a little older ( about the time my memories are more detailed) I was given a young paint horse I called Patches. I used to gallop her along with slow moving trains to wave at the engineers but even in that short time the only smell was diesel exhaust.

PS. The pictures will be in your mail shortly. Bruce

SNIPS

I have not had enough exposure to the Brit steam to have ever developed a "like a lot" or "dislike a lot" for any individual loco or class of loco.

I expect that a lot of US sited modelers share that lack of exposure.

Just a sad gap in my education which at my age I probably will not have the opportunity to correct. :-{

And, oh yeah, as soon as anyone mentions electrics, the GG-1 in burgundy with 5 thin gold stripes is # 1. Lowey was a genius.

The Great Northern Little Joes are my second favorite in electrics.

Russian Decapods, Little Joes, and not a drop of Riussian blood in my typical American polyglot ancestry. Wierd.

-- Jim McLaughlin

Please don't just hit the reply key. Remove the obvious from the address to reply.

***************************************************************************

GN had "Little Joes"???? I always thought CSS&SB and MILW had all of them. Or did you mean the W-1s?

My Brain Fart. Sorry. Milwaukee Little Joes.

I like the Bipolars better, especially the Hiawatha scheme.

in message

prettiest/toughest/best

I-5, seen here

service from Boston

City). The I-5's

their 80"

kept on the

passenger diesels

there is no

explain why

Paul,

I agree the I-5 was the prettiest *steam* loco, but to me the prettiest loco from the steam era wasn't a steamer at all.

It was the PRR brunswick green GG-1 electric.

-- Len Head Rust Scraper KL&B Eastern Lines RR Museum

Its all about the eye of he beholder. Everyone has his own favorite. There is no universal "best looking" for electric or steam (or probably even diseasel) motive power.

Best looking?

Double-headed Nickel Plate Berks (S class, 700 series) charging up the curving grade along the Maumee River onto the elevated line crossing Fort Wayne just north of downtown; modern steam at its finest.

Prettiest?

Wabash home shop Hudson conversions (P1 class, also numbered in 700 series; rebuilt from old 3-cylinder Mikados at Decatur shops in '42/'43), semi-streamlined (some with elephant ears, otherwise just partially sheathed boilers, shielded pumps on deck, and skirted running boards), but painted a nice medium blue with a pale gray stripe consisting of the running board skirting and continuing on the cab and tender sides.

Toughest?

Allegheny or Yellowstone

The smell memories I get from diesel fumes are either riding the bus (down to the "roundhouse" central transfer terminal in Decatur, Ill.) or of flight decks and/or standing in the cargo door of an H-3. Never makes me think of trains.

Amen - pretty paint. Too bad they were oil burners. Sure looked nice coming in for the CRM in '81.

Yep, ugly, but how 'bout them Mother Hubbards (camelbacks): they look ugly and painful!

A little TOO Freudian

In Germany, the Wurttemberg C class Pacifics or the similar Bavarian S

3/6 Pacifics would probably take the prize for the prettiest steam locos, > Just wondering which Loco folks thought was the prettiest/toughest/best

Any GN articulated painted in the Glacier Park scheme.

Ron