Best looking locomotive

[coachmann]

The appearance of the Streamlined Duchess must have been something in the 1930s. But as models go, i consider the LMS Compound takes some beating particularly in lake with 1930s insignia. There were so many good looking engines.....I'd love to see a LNW Prince of Wales in the flesh and they dont' come much plainer.

Edited April 29, 2012 by coachmann

[M Graff]

As I forgot to pick a diesel engine, here's my choice:

The IC Green Diamond!

[Guest oldlugger]

Steam wise; a hard choice but two favourites have to be the S1 Wath Daisy and the late G2H Super D

Diesel; class 52; Warship and the class 73 ED

[37114]

Totally biased but nothing comes close Split box class 37 with buffer beam skirts:

 

[Ramblin Rich]

I do agree with JZ saying the Western is the best designed diesel & also go along with the 4MT tank as the best steam loco - both having the body curvature to match the Mk1 coaches I believe.

I'd rank the Hymek & Brush type 4 / class 47 as well, I think they both had input of BR's design team & ended with up clean, very modern (for the day) styling. Even the changes between first series & later class 25s showed what can be done to clean up a previously very untidy looking loco (although still not exactly beautiful....)

[jcm@gwr]

I think you need to go back a bit in time to find the best 'looking' loco.

In my opinion the Achilles class [as built] takes some beating.

Jeff

[Andy Kirkham]

Although I'm died in the wool GW, an LSWR T9 takes some beating.

 

People often express admiration for the T9s, and if they mean the original Drummond form with smokebox wingplates I heartily agree - but I suspect most people are thinking of them as they were in BR days. I feel that the horrible smokebox and stovepipe chimney that Urie fitted turned them (and other Drummond engines) from elegant thoroughbreds into ugly ducklings.

[bluebottle]

...So, just how big an advance - in world wide terms - were the BR standards?

...But beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

There's disagreement about whether the BR standards should even have been built at all; I have my own opinion, which I'll keep to myself rather than expose my ignorance to the probable scorn of at least some of the vastly more knowledgeable, if mutually contradictory, contributors to these forums.

I quote Haresnape as one whose opinions on aesthetics are to be respected; it's convenient that he also sums up nicely the "state of the art" nature of the best BR standard designs, but it's their visual impact, not their innovation - or lack of such - that I'm praising here.

 

P.S. I must confess to a sneaking regard for the KWVR's "Big Jim" - homely as he is!

[Horsetan]

Deutsche Reichsbahn pacific nr. 18.201, known informally as "Jimmo".

[t-b-g]

 

 

There's disagreement about whether the BR standards should even have been built at all; I have my own opinion, which I'll keep to myself rather than expose my ignorance to the probable scorn of at least some of the vastly more knowledgeable, if mutually contradictory, contributors to these forums.

I quote Haresnape as one whose opinions on aesthetics are to be respected; it's convenient that he also sums up nicely the "state of the art" nature of the best BR standard designs, but it's their visual impact, not their innovation - or lack of such - that I'm praising here.

 

P.S. I must confess to a sneaking regard for the KWVR's "Big Jim" - homely as he is!

 

Big Jim wins my vote for the best whistle, if that counts! What a fantastic sound, echoing up the valley.

[Steadfast]

Best looking? No competition...

Mind you a Western on matching stock does have a certain ring to it...

I'm surprised no one's mentioned my second favourite...an iconic classic

jo

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Generally my affection lies with whatever was the last Doncaster express design I cast an eye over. The Stirling single probably takes the prize.

 

Don't start me on BR standards, a total vanity exercise by Robin Riddles. Standardisation on the best of the grouped companies existing designs would have delivered at least equivalent and probably better motive power results for BR, for a dozen fewer designs in service. To have had significant problems, with several of the Riddles products being outright failures at the time, really ices the 'bad notion' cake...

[trisonic]

 

Pennsylvania T1 (yet again).

Non-articulated duplex.

 

The spirit of "SUPERMAN" in steam.....

 

Best, Pete.

Edited April 30, 2012 by trisonic

[JZ]

 

Pennsylvania T1 (yet again).

Non-articulated duplex.

 

The spirit of "SUPERMAN" in steam.....

 

Best, Pete.

I was tempted to put that on my list.

[69843]

I have to admit that the T1 is a wonderful locomotive, although i don't know where they got the idea for the streamlining of the SAR 520....

[Poggy1165]

I suppose the point of the exercise with the standards was to try to make them acceptable to everyone. Imagine how the WR people would have reacted to being presented with a fleet of Jubilees, for example. They were hostile enough to the Britannias. (And yes, I know the Jubilee was only a glorified castle, but imagine telling them that!)

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Visual delights like the T1 rule themselves out by what they did on the road - handsome is as handsome does - I have seen a cine film once owned by a sadly deceaesd friend in the USA, narrated by an engineer who drove them on the Pennsy. Worse than a Bulleid pacific for one set of wheels losing adhesion at any speed, and these beasts were worked well over the 100mph mark. The vibration in these events was so bad that it was apparently difficult to actuate the controls to kill the steam supply to regain control...

 

Incidentally the K4 pictured above was the inspiration for the Gresley A1, a roughly two thirds the size down scale. Both of course supremely elegant machines, and the engineers verdict on the K4 was glowing to say the least of it.

 

Best US superpower, NY Niagara or N&W J class. Just glorious.

[scots region]

I do like the Highland Castle Class 4-6-0 and the LBSCR Class B4 4-4-0 are gorgeous. But if I had to choose I would plum for GWR No 111 The Great Bear, Edwardian engineering at its zeenith.

 

ScR

[Phatbob]

Kettle = LBSCR "Remebrance" class Baltic tank.

Diesel = Hymek

Electric = Pennsy GG1

[MJI]

I have a few

 

HST power car original livery - stills looks superb.

 

Hymek & Western very styled

 

50 not pretty but I love the look of them

 

Hall & Castle look "right" so does double chimney 9F in lined green, Peppercorn had styling sorted as well.

 

Lots of older locos were just elegant.

[PhilH]

Having been involved with the Mid Hants for a long while now I've been fortunate enough to be able to get close to a large number of locomotive classes in the steel so to speak. Most have great appeal from different angles, and from certain viewpoints some are positively gorgeous.

 

I do like the look of the Black Five, but for me my favourite lookers are rebuilt Bulleid pacifics - they just have such a purposeful air about them as well as looking good from any angle.

 

A couple of classes I've never seen, but have always considered to be almost beautiful in appearance are the Robinson C4 and C5 Atlantics along with the same designer's B4 4-6-0s - just classic looking steam locos.

 

Unfortunately for me diesel locos and best (or even good) looking are not words that belong together in the same sentence.....

[trisonic]

I have to admit that the T1 is a wonderful locomotive, although i don't know where they got the idea for the streamlining of the SAR 520....

 

The SAR5 20 is the RH & DR version of the mighty Pennsy T1

 

Best, Pete.

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

Subjective thread and I suppose it depends on whether you mean easy on the eye in a spectacular way like an A4 or a streamlined Duchess or whether you seek purposeful and powerful like the UNstreamlined Duchess or one of the French Pacifics with all the external piping.

 

For me it is the BR Standard 5. It just looks right from every angle and looks as if it wants to work hard, which I suppose appeals to the engineer in me.

 

I can see why people are drawn to little 0-4-0's though, they are so 'man' sized aren't they?

[bluebottle]

 

Pennsylvania T1 (yet again).

Non-articulated duplex.

 

The spirit of "SUPERMAN" in steam.....

 

Best, Pete.

 

I think I'd rather see an unadorned US freight loco than a shrouded express passenger one. Superman? My old art teacher used to tell us not to be distracted by the clothes on whichever of our number was acting as a model, but to "think about what's underneath" (at which we all giggled, of course). If you look at the Superman comic strip, the artists have simply drawn a perfectly muscled nude man and coloured him to represent his skin-tight costume (with one discreet modification, of course; in the movie Christopher Reeve wore a "swimmer's cup" so that the continuity people didn't have to remember whether he dressed to the right or the left). He flies with his cape streaming behind him, not hiding that carefully-delineated body. A well-proportioned steam engine should need no more than a few coats of crimson lake or brunswick green to enhance, rather than obscure its form.

 

Gordon

[sir douglas]

_{steam= Furness number 20, Peckett works No 2150 "Mardy Monster" (elsecar heritage railway), sir Arthur Heywood's 15 inch gauge "Effie" and Beyer-Garrett K1 (welsh highland railway)}

 

_{deisel= western region "Onslaught" and Hudswell Clarke "junin" (armley mills museum, leeds)}

 

_{electric= NER ES1}