diesel or steam?

[palallin]

Steam. 

 

I look to recreate that ellusive ambiance of real steam locomotives:  look, sound, heat, coal/oil/wood smoke smell, pounding on the rails (insert Tim the Tool Man's grunting here).  I've stood next to both steam and diesel, standing still and barely moving and running full out. 

 

Diesel is impressive.  Steam is IMPRESSIVE.  Diesel is like a highway semi-truck.  Steam is alive, a mechanical beast.  Diesel is powerful.  Steam is mighty (a subtle difference, but somehow all the more important for that).

[envfocus]

For me, steam engines are far more engaging to watch moving around a layout.  The driving gears, nostalgic look, and the need for a tender are the primary differences for me that separate them from diesels.  I certainly enjoy seeing both, but if I were asked to choose one, I’d choose steam.

[darianj]

Which do you like to run the best and why?

I prefer to run steam engines the best I like the movement of the drive wheels. I also prefer to model this time pierd better.

 

I have to agree with you.  Steam engines just seem to have a little more action to see at the drive wheels.

[daan]

I do like steam locomotives, but for the layout I prefer diesel. Simply because those engines are able to negociate the 031 curves better and they don't derail. Besides that, diesel engines are usualle less expensive then steamers (also with shipping) giving more value for the money.. The steamers within the reasonable pricerange usually don't have the complete driving gear or sound. Since I have to get the trains running with european stuff I have to be satisfied with protosound 1 (otherwise I need a digital system which doesn't work at 50Hz) and that doesn't have the rythm of chuffs synchronised with the rods.

What also counts, in Holland Diesel engines are mainly stuck to yards or small sidelines. The main lines are all electric. Even the freight trains are headed by a big electric loco. Therefore diesel is something special. (though the Kobelfret trains and the trains for Vlissingen-Oost are headed by class 66 diesels from the UK, but that is more an exeption.)

On the Yards we have the 6400, a smaller type of engine looking a bit like the Lionel 44 tonner. They occasially lead a fright train on the main track, but only untill the nearest yard where electrification is. there it's taken over by electrics.

[CB&Q3007]

I love steam!!!  The valve grear just make the running that much more fun.

If I have some bad track (read uneven and not really streaght) I don't mind running a F unit ABBA lash up real slow and watch it waddle and wander through it.

I need to put some track down and play..............  7 years away is way too long...

Steam has to be the all time winner for me.
.
Sorry for the ADD

[voodoothom]

I grew up with American Flyer steam and diesels. It was the Alco PA diesel that set me up for the wide world of diesels, especially in H.O. scale.

[lionelsoni]

Walschaerts was by far the most common American valve gear in the 20th century.  I'm sure that toy trains' valve gear was simplified both for robustness and to reduce cost.

Baker, Southern, and Young were other popular 20th-century valve gears.  Stephenson was almost universal in the 19th century and must be considered a godsend by model manufacturers, since it is hidden inside the frame.

[thor]

No contest, STEAM!  However I do wish that they were made with more complex valve linkages, how is it that HO steam engines have the most intricate motions and most 0 gauge don't?  My favorite bit to watch is all those levers and links flailing about.  Maybe the real American locos didnt have Walschaerts or whatever, I really dont know much about them as I wasnt around at the time!  I was busy chasing steam engines all over England.

Dad bought me some Trix Twin German locos though, and a Rivarossi or two, that had the most fantastically complex linkages which were a joy to watch.  A real mechanical engineer on a small line might have tried changing a few things to make their locos run better, maybe I can dress up my long suffering Scouts with some extra bits! 

[Brutus]

I think the steam engines look more interesting and somehow more mechanical than the diesels, which always just look like bricks on wheels to me - but, I am getting more and more interested in the diesels as well.  My first train that I owned (as opposed to my dad's Lionel train) was an HO diesel freight though - Santa Fe.

[Deputy]

Well I used to like diesel because of the air horn. And a flashy Santa Fe aluminum passenger car set pulled by war bonnet diesels is hard to beat. But I've always had a liking for the Pennsy S2 6-8-6 Steam Turbines. I have an MTH version on order right now. Oh cripes...I guess my answer is BOTH. :-D

Dep

[Jumijo]

Both!

I love the monkee motion of drive rods on steamers, as well as the smoke. But I also love F unit diesels.

Jim

[laz 57]

STEAM, CHUGA CHUGA WOO WOO!!!

laz57

[phillyreading]

Doug,

You have a point there about electric engines and cars.  I have a set of interurbans made by K-Line & a GG1 by K-Line, both run good.  Trolleys used to be the equivalent of modern day buses years ago. I am not into subway units but I guess subways would be nice too, I find it harder to model a layout based on subways.

From what I have been able to find out no GG1's are being used today because of electric problems and the cost to rebuild a GG1 is staggering, originally the GG1 used 25 hertz or cycles for the electric motors and today's electric supply is 60 hertz or cycles, very costly to upgrade everything inside the GG1 cab also.

Lee F.

[cnw1995]

How about electric? I prefer trolleys, interurbans, subways, and mainline electrics like the GG1.

[phillyreading]

I prefer steam because of the smoke effect, however most companies are putting two motors into modern diesels so that the diesel will pull more.  Another thing in model trains most companies don't put a front coupler on the steam locomotive so that double heading two steam locomotives is almost impossible. So far the only way to run two post war steam locomotives at once is to put one at the front and one at the rear of the train.

I like the Reading T1 steam locomotive better than the Pennsy T1, the Reading uses a single steam piston on each side where as the Pennsy used two steam pistons on each side making it a 4-4-4-4 rather than a 4-8-4 like the Reading.  Also like the Union Pacific's Big Boy steamer, a rather unique steam locomotive.

Lee F.

[pbjwilson]

Really like my FM Trainmaster. Seems to be my favorite as of late -

[otftch]

I grew up with early generation diesels.Steam is nostalgic but I find the diesels seem to track better and

pull longer trains with ease.I realize this is probably sacrilege but you asked the question.

                                                                                                           Ed

[RR Redneck]

I love steam. A good majority of my Lionel fleet is steam.

[Anonymous]

Nice answer buckeye.

 

[chuck]

"a steam engine and there is not toilet on board."

You could always use the coal pile

[Buckeye Riveter]

It is much easier to run a diesel engine with the modern computers in the cab.  You get very dirty in the cab of a steam engine and there is not toilet on board. 

[Anonymous]

Which do you like to run the best and why?

I prefer to run steam engines the best I like the movement of the drive wheels. I also prefer to model this time pierd better.