What was the most ugly?

Since Steve got things going with the what was the most beautiful locomotive thread I'm interested to see what you guys think are the most ugly. Not that we don't love those less then beautiful loco's anyway. Here's my list so far and all butt ugly.

  1. Southern Railways Q1-
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    Ugly or possibly hideous but I understand an excellent locomotive.

  1. French 232.P.1 High Pressure Locomotive. Even after the attempt to hide this disturbing abomination with streamlining it was still ugly.
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  1. 0-4-0 Compressed air Porter.
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    Nobody shed a tear when they scraped this one.

  1. Belgian 2-4-2 Triple Boiler. A Victorian nightmare that a villain might use in the Wild Wild West Show.
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  1. And the FM Trainmaster. Very Blah. I'd rather have a model of any of the locomotives above....... at least they have character.
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    Bruce
Reply to
Bruce Favinger
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I disagree with you on #2 and #4.

Now off to find what I consider to be really ugly....

Reply to
+GF+

To start with:

(1) The SP Kraus Maffei rebuilt as a camera car. (2) UP M-10000 (3) The SBB black scheme for regional passenger trains. (4) The DB Türkish and Beige scheme on Class 90 and Class 44 locomotives. (5) The Belgian streamlined Atlantic. (6) The McGinnis paint scheme as applied to locomotives. (7) The Amtrak/CN/??? Turbo Flames... er Trains. (8) Some of the Raymond Loewy (sp?) "wanabes".

That should start some people thinking. As to photos, I will try to find some of them, but I am sure that most of the contributors here can help me out.... Yah, I know which way did I come in....

Reply to
+GF+

Some ugly locomotives deleted)

And I consider the Trainmaster, while not "beautiful", at least extremely impressive, and a classic example of form follows function.

Now you want UGLY! Ugly is ANY, and I mean ANY and EVERY locomotve built in the northern hemisphere since about 1980. In fact anything built by GE is BEYOND ugly, it's HIDEOUS. The only reason EMD is not as bad is because they didn't build as many locomotives after stopping production in LaGrange. Then the passenger engines! Things like the AM-7 and the Acela look like the prototype styling was a bar of soap somebody left on the shower floor.

Don

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Reply to
Trainman

I agree it's probably the ugliest anywhere - from a country that normally produced good looking engines.

It was powerful but AFAIR suffered from the same axlebox problems other powerful 0-6-0s did.

  1. The Ljungstrom turbine.
Reply to
Christopher A. Lee

Although I like them (because they're odd looking :) the GE BQ23-7 was pretty ugly. I'm just glad that even though only 10 were built, someone (Bachmann) did them in HO scale. The model has a wide hood, but I'm hoping to be able to graft the BQ cab onto the upcoming Atlas B23-7.

Reply to
me

I'll begin with my opinion that 'ugly' certainly does NOT mean uninteresting. Often, I actually LIKE "ugly ducklings". Here's a few I can think of at the moment, in no particular order:

The UP's M-10000 is near the top of the pack. It looks like a demented old coal stove on wheels, with TONS of oversized rivits (looks like a BAD model), and a bit of Jules Verne styling thrown in. Classic "Steampunk".

I recall a SP 0-6-0T shop switcher with assorted tanks and bunkers all over it ... that looked pretty bad.

MILW had a little electric shop switcher that looked like an overshoe.

The AT&SF's "broomstick on wheels" 2-10+10-2's.

The NYC RDC with the jet engines on top.

The C&A's huge 'single' the "John Stevens" IIRC ... especially in it's later years with the 'wood shack' for a cab.

A variety of steam locos with Coffin feedwater heaters on the smokebox front.

Various Rack locomotives, with inclined boilers, multiple drives, and countershafts and siderods all over the place.

Smaller "Racehorse" locos with vastly oversized drivers ... like NYC's

999. These always look out of proportion to me. BIG locos, like "Northerns", with 80" drivers, even the PRR's T-1's (84"? drivers), looked fine.

I'm sure there are more, but that's all I have time for right now.

Dan Mitchell ============

Reply to
Daniel A. Mitchell

At least stinky is easy!

Reply to
Steve Caple

"Steampunk".

Dan, I have to agree with you and +GF+ on the UP-10000. And how I could I forget the SP 0-6-0T. It is definatly up near the top up the all time ugly roster. Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Favinger

Funny, but I think the engines with the Coffin feedwater heaters & air pumps on front are "built for business." To me, they aren't ugly, but ather the "blue collar" kind of engine.

dlm

Reply to
Dan Merkel

Wasn't it the BL-2 that looked like a cross between an F-Unit and a 55 Chevy??!? I always thought those were pretty ugly as well.

dlm

Reply to
Dan Merkel

me replied: Although I like them (because they're odd looking :) the GE BQ23-7 was pretty ugly. I'm just glad that even though only 10 were built,

..and then Dan=A0Merkel: Wasn't it the BL-2 that looked like a cross between an F-Unit and a 55 Chevy??!? I always thought those were pretty ugly as well.

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Those are my two picks. I can't think of anything that can beat those.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

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Reply to
Bill

Uggggggggleeeeee is the "streamlined" UP 7000 class 4-8-2, looked like a demented upside down bath tub!!

Reply to
John Franklin

Oh Dear! Ugly locomotives! Dredging through photos of steam locos. in Hungary and what was Yugoslavia one finds a beaut collection of what many would consider to be ugly locos. These locos include most engines with Klose valve gear and motion, Yugoslav 02 class 4-6-0 with a Worthington feed water heater, Hungarian ML class 0-2-2 with Brotan boiler, Hungarian 402 2-8-0, also going a bit further afield some of the Soviet steam-diesel experimental locos didn't look very attractive. Not knocking Eastern European loco designers, but their ideas of loco appearance didn't run parallel with those of Western Europe and North America.But any Western European loco with a full Franco-Crosti boiler arrangement also can offend the eye. Regards, Bill.

"Bill" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3255.bay.webtv.net...

me replied: Although I like them (because they're odd looking :) the GE BQ23-7 was pretty ugly. I'm just glad that even though only 10 were built,

..and then Dan Merkel: Wasn't it the BL-2 that looked like a cross between an F-Unit and a 55 Chevy??!? I always thought those were pretty ugly as well.

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Those are my two picks. I can't think of anything that can beat those.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

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History of N Scale:
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Railroad Bookstore:
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's Books and Toy Trains:
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to 1,000 sites:
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Reply to
William Pearce

I may get flamed for this but I always thought the Milwaukee Road's 4-4-2 Hiawatha was ugly. The streamlining on that, to me, looked like an upside-down bathtub.

Jim

Reply to
Jim

Yeppers!

Reply to
John Franklin

The Ingalls Shipbuilding 'turret cab', thank God there was only one !

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Reply to
Mountain Goat

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 04:26:28 UTC, "Bruce Favinger" wrote: 2000

My nominees:

The GM Aerotrain The Lehigh Valley's "streamlined" pacific Espee's AM series, especially with the 2-wheel lead truck The GP30

Reply to
Ernie Fisch

The 'most ugly' and 'most beautiful' threads have brought up some interesting comments, but has the net been spread too wide? Can we compare a streamlined diesel with a non-streamlined steam loco? I doubt it. And, are we being seduced by attractive liveries without looking at the basic shape that lies beneath. Should we only look at line drawings or b&w photos to negate the colour effect? And can we really say what makes one locomotive beautiful and another not so? Proportions? Shapelieness? Neatness? Is there a mathematical formula which one can apply to a locomotive which will say, that is beautiful, or that is not? This can be done with buildings, but I think not with locomotives. But whatever the answers, if any to the above questions are, these threads have brought a lot of entertainment to the group, so keep them going. Regards, Bill.

"Ernie Fisch" wrote in message news:NNGqmIRtbIm0-pn2-T3Xm4YCVLQXP@localhost...

Reply to
William Pearce

To each his own. I rather like front mounted pumps, but consider the Coffin feedwater heaters unsightly. They do add interest and character however. "Ugly" doesn't always mean bad.

Dan Mitchell ============

Reply to
Daniel A. Mitchell

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