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Ugliest locomotive?


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I think its mostly down to familiarity. Things that stray too far from what we subconsciously expect are less attractive...

The SP Cab-forwards are unusual in appearance, though perhaps not outright ugly.

Some of the LSWRs Drummond 4-6-0s were oddly proportioned, as well as pretty poor locomotives (so I've read).

And the CF7 is just unforgivable. That thing started life as a streamlined F-unit, and now... It's like drawing glasses on a Da Vinci..

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Often thought why are foreign steam locos generally ugly compared to UK ones...... ?

I don't know that they are, but they are certainly designed to a quite different aesthetic, or without regard for aesthetics. The Fell looks wrong because it appears to have been made from unrelated components, as does the Kitson-Still. The multi-boiler types look unfamiliar and lack the elements of artistic proportion.

 

I've always thought the narrow gauge locos of Southern Germany, Austria and the Balkans were strange looking contraptions, especially the enormously elongated, eight and ten-coupled ones with radial axles, inside cylinders and outside valve gear, and rods and levers flapping in all directions when they move. Rack locos especially, always look as though they are about to pitch onto their noses - and an extended smokebox is the cherry on tne cake.

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Locos designed outside the uk often were more about function over form, whereas British locos tend to hide pipework away where it looks neater but is harder to work on. At least that's my non expert thought on the matter.

Personally I like the brutal/ functional aesthetic of such machines.

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Often thought why are foreign steam locos generally ugly compared to UK ones...... ?

 

I'll excuse that on the grounds that you may never have seen a Bavarian S3/6 Pacific or any of the post-war Czechoslovakian locomotives that we as well-proportioned as they were efficient!

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Locos designed outside the uk often were more about function over form, whereas British locos tend to hide pipework away where it looks neater but is harder to work on. At least that's my non expert thought on the matter.

Personally I like the brutal/ functional aesthetic of such machines.

The BR standards had much less hidden pipework than earlier machines, since ease of maintenance was a higher priority for them than in earlier locos but they still don't seem to reach the levels of bits here, there and everywhere that foreign steam locomotives often do. If I ever scratchbuild a loco I'm sure I'll appreciate the UK approach!

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II've always thought the narrow gauge locos of Southern Germany, Austria and the Balkans were strange looking contraptions, especially the enormously elongated, eight and ten-coupled ones with radial axles, inside cylinders and outside valve gear, and rods and levers flapping in all directions when they move. Rack locos especially, always look as though they are about to pitch onto their noses - and an extended smokebox is the cherry on tne cake.

But they look elegant compared to your Avatar!

 

Anyone mentioned Churchward's Kruger ugly ducklings - turned out in the last years of Dean's long reign as early experiments ?

dh

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But they look elegant compared to your Avatar!

 

Anyone mentioned Churchward's Kruger ugly ducklings - turned out in the last years of Dean's long reign as early experiments ?

dh

Ah, but the Eimco was a very successful design, made in large numbers and various sizes and gauges from 18" to 42" for several decades. See one working, and it is RIGHT.... and to be fair, some (though by no means all) of the Balkan locos also had very long working lives.

 

The Krugers were pretty unsightly, and not successful either, thereby demonstrating the old adage of looking right by being right. I'm not actually a great fan of the Aberdares, either, but they were much more successful, some surviving until 1949

Not read the whole thread - but would be surprised if this hideous thing hasn't cropped up..

 

I mean damn... :sarcastichand:  :crazy:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Rail_of_Australia#/media/File:MZ_Locomotive_Blayney_NSW.jpg

I can't see the problem. Big diesels avoid genuine ugliness by being generic.

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Ah, but the Eimco was a very successful design, made in large numbers and various sizes and gauges from 18" to 42" for several decades. See one working, and it is RIGHT.... and to be fair, some (though by no means all) of the Balkan locos also had very long working lives.

And no gauge at all, if the trackless version I saw working was an Eimco (the name gets mentioned so often that, as someone with a casual interest in mining rather than any expertise, it starts to feel rather generic in a Hoover-like way).

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Cheers Mick - I did wonder if it was a corridor, but thought it couldn't be as there wasn't a door on the front....

 

 

 

Oh, I don't know - it just looks a bit dated, sort of Flash Gordon style...

There is a door on the front the whole of the drivers control panel folds up, and the whole cabfront is hinged, you can see some pictures of it in this Danish forum thread:

http://www.railworks.dk/forum/index.php?topic=638.0

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Alright, just so you can sit down again, I'll correct you  ;) . its on the RWE 'Rheinbraun' network between Aachen and Koln, http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/de/private/industry/RWE/EL2000/pix.html

 

You can see parts of the network from the Aachen-Koln mainline. The system is huge, and it supports 4 lignite mines and a similar number of power stations, close to 100 million tons of Lignite a year, they have just built a new bit of line and motorway, so that the original alignments of both motorway and their internal railway can be subsumed by one of the mines.

 

The extra wide cabs are so that the loco can push trains if they have to driven from a seat in the 'ducket' and there are two little side pantographs to allow the electric to pass under the loading towers. The trains might look quite short, but the axle loading is IIRC over 30T.

 

Jon

Try getting that round a radius 1 curve... it runs on the six foot no-way!

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No, it goes back some time.  It was a gift from our German office when I retired in 2007.  They knew I had a love of railways of all sorts and wanted something that would remind me of them and their office in Lindau, right on the German/Austria/Switzerland border.

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And no gauge at all, if the trackless version I saw working was an Eimco (the name gets mentioned so often that, as someone with a casual interest in mining rather than any expertise, it starts to feel rather generic in a Hoover-like way).

Eimco rail loaders (sometimes "muckers" in the US) are distinctive in that the turret rotates within a limited range. The trackless ones are fixed, you position them by skid-steering like a bobcat for wheeled ones, or conventional track brakes and clutches for the tracked ones.

 

Coal miners tend to be familiar with the Eimco side-tip loader, specialised for discharging onto conveyor belts, rather than the up-and-over rocker shovel type. They also produce, or produced a rotating-arm loader of the type known generically as a Joy Loader.

 

But yes, they are a generic name, Atlas Copco and other manufacturers also made them.

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Some of the LSWRs Drummond 4-6-0s were oddly proportioned, as well as pretty poor locomotives (so I've read).

Especially as rebuilt by Urie. I find No.333 positively nightmarish.

http://www.semgonline.com/steam/pics/DD460_F13_333p5btm.jpg

 

And this one is in a class of its own

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Nine_Elms_Locomotive_Depot_Ex-LSW_4-6-0_on_turntable_geograph-2655940-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

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