Name the handsomest locomotives ever on American rails.

Name the most attractive locomotives ever on American rails.

One each for D/E hood unit, streamlined D/E and one for steam:

my votes:

1. steam: Baldwin consolidation
2. diesel hood: SD40T-2
3. streamlined diesel: the longest-wheelbase GM/EMD carbody engines made


PS - A woman (Vanessa Redgrave??) in the late 1970's (early 1980's??) referred to Ford Fairmont (Futura?) as being handsome on a TV commercial.

As we refer to locomotives and cars etc... as 'she' this question is probably another useless thread - handsomest would suggest a 'he' locomotive!!!
Now if we were to consider the 'Most beautiful Locomotive' etc then you may expect some input - just a suggestion - but then it would probably end up on the useless thread pile anyway.

butler57 said:

As we refer to locomotives and cars etc... as 'she' this question is probably another useless thread - handsomest would suggest a 'he' locomotive!!!
Now if we were to consider the 'Most beautiful Locomotive' etc then you may expect some input - just a suggestion - but then it would probably end up on the useless thread pile anyway.

Click to expand...

It's an interesting thought. And interestingly I think my answer would be different depending on if we are looking for most handsome or most beautiful.

But back to the topic at hand... I'd like to put forth one of the Dreyfuss streamlined locomotives, and the EMD F7s.

peter

The UP Biggest Boy





There already have been many threads on this very same topic ... and several more failed threads about awesome looking trains

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showt...35#post1183835

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showt...83#post1124383

butler57 said:

... but then it would probably end up on the useless thread pile anyway.

Click to expand...

Yet another thread ... bound for the "useless thread pile" :hehe:

The UP Big Boy has a masculine name but HE is as ugly as a rat's tail.

The Baldwin consolidation is quite a pretty lady.

Indeed, the noun for "locomotive" is feminine in many western European languages that
have this word as a cognate and have retained grammatical gender for all nouns. The genders
of boat, ship, plane and automobile vary among the western European languages, however.

Spanish: el barco, ship, masculine: la barca, boat, feminine: el coche (el automóvil), car, masculine: la locomotora, the train engine, feminine
Italian: la locomotiva, train engine, feminine: l'automobile, car, feminine
German: die lokomotive, train engine, feminine: das Boot, boat, neutral: der Zug, the train, masculine

If I can put in a good word for ALCO:
Steam - CPR H1b Hudsons (Montreal Locomotive Works)
Diesel - RS27 in PRR livery.
Streamliner - Santa Fe PA

After Trains magazine took asked their readers "what is the most beautiful 4-6-2 Pacific in America?" the winner was Southern's 4-6-2 Ps-4 Pacific's. Decked out in the iconic Sylvan Green, Dulux Gold, and Imitation Aluminum, these Pacific's are worthy of one of them, Southern 1401, to be on display in the Smithsonian, alongside The Hope Diamond, THE Star-Bangled Banner, The John Bull, and many other pieces of American History.
Link to pictures of 1401. Please note that there are no pictures of her tender, as the only color pictures of 1401 are of her in the Smithsonian, which didn't have enough room for her tender to be on display with her. Anyway, the pictures of 1401: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=54402

Diesel hood: The Central of Georgia RS-3. Most railroads have their freight diesels in more drab, less colorful, paint schemes. The Central of Georgia didn't. Decked out in a handsome paint scheme that would normally be found only on a passenger locomotive, the Central of Georgia's freight diesels' paint scheme doesn't look that much different from Norfolk Southern's Central of Georgia Heritage Unit. Picture of Central of Georgia RS-3 141: http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/other_lines/cofg/cg141.html

And the obvious winner of the streamlined diesel category is: The Santa Fe "Warbonnet" found on their F units and other diesels that pulled their passenger trains, immortalized by Lionel's numerous models of Santa Fe's F units. Link to paint scheme: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=228238

That's easy:

Flying Scotsman

Dwight D Eisenhower

Coronation Scot

Pretty much any 4-6-4, 4-4-2, or early E units. The latter makes my eyes water, something about that super slanted nose speaks volumes to me.