What is your favorite engine to use on a secondary or local train? Way freights and switch jobs count, too.
My favorite branchline locomotive, observed in its natural habitat over half a century ago, is the JNR C11 class 2-6-4T. The branch ran from Yoshizuka (a junction within the city limits of Fukuoka) to the town of Katsuda, the home of some poverty-level coal mining operations.
The usual passenger consist on the branch was a train of DMU cars. The C11s handled freight. On one occasion, when there was some priority freight to move, I saw a mixed train (C11 running bunker first, one box wagon, one drop-side gon and two decrepit coaches) running on the time of a DMU set.
Now the mines are gone, that branch is gone and the entire area has become a bunch of bedroom suburbs.
Chuck
If you are talking current 'modern' era, the G38-2 would be the 'go to' engine. The various 'Gen-Set' engines have a habit of catching fire....
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin