Worst looking locomotive topic. Antidote to Best Looking Locomotive topic.

[whart57]

This is a re-guaged armoured Simplex isn't it?

 

I had never considered that the radiator was inside the armour plating. Cosy.

[melmerby]

Yet more:

 

Weird:

 

And weirder:

 

 

[melmerby]

This looks like a standard "American" but the cab's on steroids:

[cctransuk]

4 hours ago, whart57 said:

This is a re-guaged armoured Simplex isn't it?

 

I had never considered that the radiator was inside the armour plating. Cosy.

 

No - it's a standard, standard gauge Motor Rail light shunter.

 

 

This is a 600mm. gauge Simplex, of the 'protected' variety, I believe.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[whart57]

6 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

No - it's a standard, standard gauge Motor Rail light shunter.

 

 

Standard with one wheelset being 19th century split spoke wagon wheels and the other wheelset a three hole disk?

[cctransuk]

53 minutes ago, whart57 said:

 

Standard with one wheelset being 19th century split spoke wagon wheels and the other wheelset a three hole disk?

 

OK - if we are going to split hairs - it started out as a standard, standard gauge Motor Rail; it certainly wasn't / isn't a regauged WD Simplex.

 

Happy?

 

John Isherwood.

[ianathompson]

On 15/03/2020 at 16:25, pete_mcfarlane said:

You should also exclude any loco fitted with a Brotan boiler

 

Whyever not? I think they are quite becoming!

 

1-606 by Ian Thompson, on Flickr

 

It also has a hideous oil bunker with a sighting hole cut through it on the other side as well as a top feed coal bunker.

If you are freelancing something ugly you might as well go the whole hog!

 

Ian T

[pH]

13 hours ago, melmerby said:

This looks like a standard "American" but the cab's on steroids:

 

It's an 'inspection locomotive'. These were used by many US railroads, where UK railways generally had separate loco-hauled inspection saloons.

 

https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=4-4-0&railroad=ba#16410

 

Do a Google image search for "inspection locomotive" and you'll find some even more weird machines.

[kevinlms]

14 hours ago, melmerby said:

This looks like a standard "American" but the cab's on steroids:

A variant on Webb's coupe?

 

I see that PH has said exactly that.

Edited March 24, 2020 by kevinlms

[daveyb]

Any of the surprisingly many 'Camelback' locos, or to offend my new countrymen, how about the CN Turbotrain?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAC_TurboTrain#/media/File:CN_train_in_1975.jpg

[melmerby]

6 hours ago, pH said:

 

It's an 'inspection locomotive'.

 

 

Yes, I know

Would be nice and toasty in the saloon area sitting next to the boiler.

[pH]

9 hours ago, daveyb said:

Any of the surprisingly many 'Camelback' locos, or to offend my new countrymen, how about the CN Turbotrain?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAC_TurboTrain#/media/File:CN_train_in_1975.jpg

 

I think 'turret cabs' in general look pretty weird. Here's a further selection:

 

Union Pacific M10000:

 https://images.app.goo.gl/VxA1wKR8ZE8VHiCm8

 

As a bonus, here's the back end:

https://images.app.goo.gl/k9QmvPMGqe2cs4mc6

 

Ingalls 4-S - the only locomotive ever built by this shipbuilding company:

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/612180/

 

and its rear end:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8750/28004957510_56c72931b5.jpg

 

The (slightly) weirder version of the Krauss Maffei M4000:

https://res.cloudinary.com/mediocre/image/upload/v1533177333/auz4onkh6jqdhlq3ujv9.jpg

 

[swampy]

On ‎19‎/‎03‎/‎2020 at 22:47, Mel_H said:

Finally, may I nominate Austrian Federal Railways BBÖ class 80. And, it's already been modelled. Who needs SteamPunk!

 

At least it has a built in loudspeaker enclosure for DCC.

[RedGemAlchemist]

On 15/03/2020 at 17:10, tomparryharry said:

As far as your views on the Q1, then no way! I'd call them Ronseals: It does what it says on the tin! Would you put a cocktail umbrella on your pint? 

Indeed. "Ugly" and "deliberately utilitarian" are two very different things.

 

On 15/03/2020 at 17:39, Andy Kirkham said:

 

I'd agree about the Q1, it was an "alternative" aesthetic deliberately contrived to make a point and should be judged on its own terms.

 

What I find most disturbing are what you might call "Frankenstein" locomotives that look as if they've been put together from ill-assorted spare parts. There seem to have been quite a few Irish examples such as

 

 

and...

You'd clearly hate most of my creations then.

 

On 16/03/2020 at 14:41, swampy said:

How about the Camden and Amboy 6-2-0.

Damn, you got there before me. 

 

On 18/03/2020 at 20:54, phil_sutters said:

I always thought that the loco in this photo in Dad's albums was a bit weird until I saw some of the monstrosities above

That's an early Crosti boiler by the looks of it. 

 

On 18/03/2020 at 21:14, Steamport Southport said:

One of the few decent things that Gresley did was smoothing out the B12s. Pity they weren't very good though. I think that was down to the original being pretty poor. They only just squeeze into being a 4P.

 

Anyone who thinks the GER version is better looking than this needs to go to Specsavers. 

Photo Tony Hisgett from Wiki

 

 

Jason

I like both, but the rebuild I do feel looks much better personally. Either way the B12 in all of its forms is one of my favourite locomotives.

 

On 19/03/2020 at 22:12, Ravenser said:

Not mentioned - but surely a respectable candidate : the GER T19R "Humpty Dumpty" 2-4-0s . A very ill proportioned loco, rebuilt from a rather elegant one...   Photos seem rare T19 + T19R

Indeed. The T19R being rebuilt into Claud Hamiltons was a godsend.

 

As for my own pick, do locomotives built by scam artists count?

Edited March 24, 2020 by RedGemAlchemist

[ianathompson]

6 hours ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

On 18/03/2020 at 20:54, phil_sutters said:

That's an early Crosti boiler by the looks of it. 

 

If you think the steamer is ugly you shpuld see some of the other (Italian) three phase electrics that it is coupled to.

 

As I once remarked in an article for the 7mm NGA magazine, "Incidentally for sheer ugliness the Italian three-phase fleet must be unsurpassed anywhere in the world and would certainly provide a model railway with character. Perhaps I missed my way in modelling the NG!"

 

Ian T

[Florence Locomotive Works]

On 16/03/2020 at 11:45, tomparryharry said:

 

Remember, the picture is just that, a picture. However, the Taff Vale had some 4-2-0 locomotives from America. That must have been.... Err.... Interesting...

Those were most likely Norris locomotives, (4-2-0 haystack firebox) which in there own right look a bit strange. Austria used them as well

 

-Douglas

[tomparryharry]

14 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Those were most likely Norris locomotives, (4-2-0 haystack firebox) which in there own right look a bit strange. Austria used them as well

 

-Douglas

 

Yes, I believe they were Norris locomotives. Some of these came via Gloucester, and possibly one went to the Aberdare Railway. I can't find my book at the moment.

[Joseph_Pestell]

On 18/03/2020 at 20:54, phil_sutters said:

I always thought that the loco in this photo in Dad's albums was a bit weird until I saw some of the monstrosities above

 

That's what I was looking for when I found the Italian Cab Forward. These 2-6-0s (or a close cousin as there were several series) were still operating in 1975. With more time indoors, I may get round to seeking out my slides from that era.

[pH]

Somebody mentioned Camelbacks.

 

An old one:

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/401997/

 

One of the last in service:

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/290675/

 

And an articulated one :

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/326054/

[Andy Kirkham]

4 hours ago, pH said:

Somebody mentioned Camelbacks.

 

An old one:

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/401997/

 

One of the last in service:

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/290675/

 

And an articulated one :

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/326054/

 

I see that in the last two the cab roof goes right over the top of the boiler. Does that mean it is symmetrical and that there are driver's controls on each side?

[The Johnster]

21 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

 

Yes, I believe they were Norris locomotives. Some of these came via Gloucester, and possibly one went to the Aberdare Railway. I can't find my book at the moment.

Do you mean from the Gloucester and Birmingham Railway?  These get a mention in Tom Rolt's 'Red For Danger' as being depicted on the Bromgrove churchyard gravestones of a loco crew killed in an 1840s boiler explosion, suspiciously enough at the foot of the Lickey in those days when safety valves could be tampered with.  Rolt notes that, despite the illustrations, the loco involved was not one of the Norris 4-2-0s.  They were not unlike Cramptons, and I rather like Cramptons for appearance, odd though they are to modern eyes.  I can see the point of having the motion and especially the big end bearing close to where the driver can keep an eye on it.  

 

We think of South Wales as being tank engine country, but both the Taff Vale and the Rhymney used tender locos initially and the Taff still had some quite late in it's day.  The GW used broad gauge 'Corsair' saddle tanks on the Vale of Neath, establishing tank operations early, but the South Wales had the usual suspects of Iron Dukes and Rovers, and 0-6-0s for goods work supplemented no doubt by Corsairs.  Unlike the Bristol and Exeter, South Devon, or Cornwall, but like the OWW, the South Wales never had it's own locos or stock.  The GW used Wolverhampton built side and saddle tanks, sometimes the same class, on it's Mid Glamorgan 'Tondu' network, and later Metros and 517s for passenger work when they were built; I assume saddle tanks previous to that

[tomparryharry]

I need to find my books...  RCTS volume 10, and Mountfords book on the Aberdare Railway. Can't find 'em right now....

[runs as required]

This Heretical thread doesn't deserve this post

(I cannot believe anyone can say FS  3 phase Crocodiles and Crosti 2-6-0s are anything other than the most desirable motive power ever to have ridden behind. They were still operational when we honeymooned across N Italy in 1961 - and only a dozen years ago I marvelled at a Croc still buzzing quietly through Cortona on a long long freight)

 

 

This is what a kindly neighbour left on our door step this morning knowing that: we were in lockdown, wife likes her white wine and  I like trains. 

Read what it purports to be on the back of the label, then examine the train more closely.

 

I reckon it is lifted from some pop publication about Lenin in his sealed train en route in 1917 to the Finland station in Petrograd!

Any explanations ? Or is it just bog Ugly ?

dh

 

The bottle is now empty but scheduled for preservation

 

 

 

 

[The Johnster]

In 1966 my parents took me on a 4 week camping/touring holiday on the Continent, or as I like to call it to annoy Brexiteers and other flag wavers, the Mainland.  2 weeks on the beach in Lido de Jesolo, and a week travelling either way.  On the way down, heading for the Simplon from a stopover in Geneva, we were motoring along the main road between the head of the lake and the town of Brig, where the Simplon road turns off on a sunny morning.  The road is paralleled by the railway for much of the distance, and traffic was moving along steadily at about 40mph when mother, more of a gricer than she ever admitted, called out 'look, a crocodile', and there it was, in green Swiss livery, with a mixed freight, pacing us, cranks a'whirling and being generally magnificent.  It paced us for about an hour, then got ahead just as we approached Brig.

 

Another memory from this trip was the day outing to Venice and the Crosti 2-8-0 in very clean condition on station pilot duty.  Another day trip took us to Trieste, where a 'corniche' section of railway on the cliffs on the Italian side, where we stopped for father to take view photos of the city, gave us the Orient Express, white roofs gleaming in the sun and hauled by a pair of rather nondescript FSS electrics.  On the way back, I was left on Bonn station for a couple of hours while the 'rent's visited Beethoven's house, and was offered a cab ride on the Kriegslok that was doing pilot duty there, lovely stuff.  The finale was at Calais coming home, a spotless 231E at the terminal.  None of these locos could in any way be called ugly, though the Kriegslok might be thought of as 'functional'.  

[tomparryharry]

On 26/03/2020 at 22:45, runs as required said:

This Heretical thread doesn't deserve this post

(I cannot believe anyone can say FS  3 phase Crocodiles and Crosti 2-6-0s are anything other than the most desirable motive power ever to have ridden behind. They were still operational when we honeymooned across N Italy in 1961 - and only a dozen years ago I marvelled at a Croc still buzzing quietly through Cortona on a long long freight)

 

 

This is what a kindly neighbour left on our door step this morning knowing that: we were in lockdown, wife likes her white wine and  I like trains. 

Read what it purports to be on the back of the label, then examine the train more closely.

 

I reckon it is lifted from some pop publication about Lenin in his sealed train en route in 1917 to the Finland station in Petrograd!

Any explanations ? Or is it just bog Ugly ?

dh

 

The bottle is now empty but scheduled for preservation

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it would need to be a red star. Otherwise, if it had a Blue Star, it might mean a different kind of drink.....