Which do your prefer: steam or deisel? Why?

[UPTRAIN]

FRISCO 1522!!!!!!!!! THE BEST 4-8-2 EVER!!!!!! IT GETS BETTER WHEN YOU OPERATE IT!!!!! I DID DOWN IN TEXAS FOR BOUT 45 MINUTES!!!! DEFINATLY STEAM!!!!

[vsmith]

Steam engines are alive, like horse. They breathe, they spit, they howl, they have temperments, They had boilers that had to fired and operated just so, each had to be finessed and coaxed to get the best performance, and if not watered right or fueled with good oates wouldn't run well, just like a horse or other living creature. No two steam engines, even identical models were ever identical, each had a personality, a uniqueness that had to be learned. So in a sense they were very much like horses. You had to find the personality of each engine.

Diesels just dont have that , they are more like autos, and hence have a certain soul-lessness in there similar enough from engine to engine that the personality of each engine tends to be more class to class, not engine to engine. At least not in the same degree as steam engines were.

[mudchicken]

If they have steel wheels and they run on on steel rails, I like them all!!!!

[cpbloom]

Sorry to disappoint you all but I like diesels. I was not around during the time of regular steam train service so that may have something to do with it. It also may be because to me, there is NOTHING like the sound of 645Es going all out upgrade and I think it was this that made me a railfan.

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cherokee woman

Mookie: THIS IS FROM LOCOMUTT (Walt):

I didn't know your ears had on/off switches, or were detachable[}:)]

cherokee woman[{(-_-)}]

At my age - everything comes off - except the weight!

[cherokee woman]

Mookie: THIS IS FROM LOCOMUTT (Walt):

I didn't know your ears had on/off switches, or were detachable[}:)]

cherokee woman[{(-_-)}]

[Mookie]

If Mookie has her ears on - steam. If she is just watching - anything!

[jchnhtfd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jchnhtfd

QUOTE: Originally posted by kenneo

QUOTE: Originally posted by jchnhtfd

On the whole... steam. ... And my all time favourite, period, isn't steam: as most of you have figured out by now, it's Pennsy's GG-1!

Jamie --- what was the designation of the PRR 2-D-2 electric. Was originally made as a box cab, but when the new sheet metal was designed for the GG-1, these locomotives were rebuilt with the GG-1 look.

P4, as I recall (but that could be a senior moment...[:)]) -- I'll check this evening when I get home. It was a good motor, but somewhat harder on the track than the GG-1 and didn't have either the power or speed -- but then, it was a much earlier design, so to be expected![:)]

Brain fade. Sorry[%-)]. It was the P-5. There is good information on it at http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/lexcie/tops-prrac.htm -- take a look!

[jchnhtfd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kenneo

QUOTE: Originally posted by jchnhtfd

On the whole... steam. ... And my all time favourite, period, isn't steam: as most of you have figured out by now, it's Pennsy's GG-1!

Jamie --- what was the designation of the PRR 2-D-2 electric. Was originally made as a box cab, but when the new sheet metal was designed for the GG-1, these locomotives were rebuilt with the GG-1 look.

P4, as I recall (but that could be a senior moment...[:)]) -- I'll check this evening when I get home. It was a good motor, but somewhat harder on the track than the GG-1 and didn't have either the power or speed -- but then, it was a much earlier design, so to be expected![:)]

[tree68]

Short Answer, Yes.

Steam has the flash of the side rods, the sounds, the mystique. As Sask_Tinplater said, they are living, breathing beings. Besides, we wouldn't refer to trains as "choo-choos" without 'em, not that that has anything to do with anything[:D]

On the other hand, it's intriguing to consider that with just a few levers, one person can control innumerable diesel engines, making up a locomotive of tremendous horsepower. Love the sound of a single engine (brand not important - insert your favorite here) winding up? Try the rumble of five or six.

We could run an entire thread just on horns and whistles.

[Mikeygaw]

hey, why choose?

[sooblue]

This is going to toss a few brains but I can't resist.[swg]

The steam locomotive and the diesel engine are more similar then different.
You could say that the steam engine, boiler and attending accouterments are a diesel engine inside out and the diesel engine is a steam engine encapsulated.

Ok, I've been gone for two weeks lazing on a beach in Florida but.......I don't think I fried my brain.[(-D]

Both engines use heat to expand, one air the other water, and that moves pistons, rods, and cranks etc.

Which is more efficient at transferring that motion to the rail ?

A steam engine does it directly from the Rod/crank/drivers

A diesel goes through the generator then through rectifiers and switches and whatever else is needed, then the computer or maybe at the same time, then the motors.

both locomotives have (or used to have) a fireman/now conductor.
In steam the fireman kept the steam.
In diesel the conductor just sits there.[banghead]

In my opinion steam made better use of the extra man[(-D][(-D]

Except for Ed he works. [bow][C):-)] [:-^]

I love steam locomotives but I'm glad I don't have to make my living with them 24/7
Sooblue

[kenneo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jchnhtfd

On the whole... steam. ... And my all time favourite, period, isn't steam: as most of you have figured out by now, it's Pennsy's GG-1!

Jamie --- what was the designation of the PRR 2-D-2 electric. Was originally made as a box cab, but when the new sheet metal was designed for the GG-1, these locomotives were rebuilt with the GG-1 look.

[jchnhtfd]

On the whole... steam. There are very few things in this world which combine beauty and power in the way a steam engine does. All steam is interesting -- but if 'awesome' and 'majesty' are words useful with mechanical things, big steam working really hard deserves those words. That said, there isn't an engine which isn't interesting, at least to me. And my all time favourite, period, isn't steam: as most of you have figured out by now, it's Pennsy's GG-1!

[Anonymous]

STEAM ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Actually, I love all trains and first generation diesels and old electrics would come in a close second.) There's just something incredible about a steam locomotiive. The sound. The movement. The smoke. The looks. How could anyone not be fascinated by a steam locomotive. The thing about a steam locomotive is that is is a sort of living, breathing creature that has a life of its own. As O. Winston Link once said, "a diesel can be standing still and look like it's going fast." I can't remember his exact words after that, but basically there's just so much more to a steam engine.

[cherokee woman]

Thanks to those who have answered. But let's hear from some more of you!! Your views are interesting. I'm glad to see I'm not alone in liking and preferring the steam engines. After all, it's the steam engines that really settled the west after the pioneers who came in conestoga wagons with all their belongings["D: like the immigrants from the east who were sent west because because the east was getting too crowded.

cherokee woman[angel]]

[Anonymous]

Steam. steam, and did I say steam. You want clean, go to a car wash. you want beauty, go to a garden. If you want power, moving parts, living Steel mosters, and the true nature of the transportation industry, go to steam! Yea, diesils are nice, powerful, polute a little less, and are cheaper to maintain, but their more like rigs on rails, real railroads have been replaced by impostors!

on the other hand, they are cleaner. but on the other hand, railroads arent supposed to be clean. authough on the other hand they are easier to operate. but then on the other hand, they are lifeless, while steam engines seem to be alive. on the other hand.......THERE IS NO OTHER HAND! (Like my "fiddler on the roof" re-write)

of course electric engines could count, as was posted in another topic, as steam engines, because most power plants use steam to make electricity., so yeh, electrics ARE steam engines with extension cords.

[kenneo]

Steam is a real work of art and a fired up steam locomotive is as close as you can get to having a machine that is actually alive. They each have their own personality.

However, workling with, on or around them is a real pain. Even the best of them are DIRTY. They beat you to death while operating. In movies they're great - when I don't have to get close, also.

If it has to make noise, I'll take the EMD 16-567 B<C<D, 12-567 D, the 645E20 and the Baldwin 408. I hope I remembered the diesel motor model desiginations correctly.

Actually, those that run around with an extension cord are my favorates. DB's E-103 (C-C), AEM-7 (B-B), GG-1 (4-C+C-4) and the GG's little brother (2-D-2) (I can't remember the model designation). And there is always the stranger of them all, the FL-9 (B-A1A).

[Anonymous]

STEAM Forever.

Once you work on a steam locomotive you will never go back to those other things.

[Willy2]

I prefer steam because of it's beauty and power. Also because without the steam engine the railroads wouldn't have gotton anywhere to quickly. Steam is what got the railroads going and I respect it for that.

Willy

[Puckdropper]

I'm really impartial, as far as steam and diesel goes. Enjoy these "modern" diesels while they're here, for even some of the newer locomotives have hidden beauty.

I like the little electric ones best, actually. You all know the kind... The ones with no brakes.

[Anonymous]

I must go on the record (AGAIN) as a steam fan. There is nothing on the railroad that has more character than a steam engine. NOTHING.

After steam then I would go with the first generation diesels. They were interesting. Some that should have been more popular actually were not. The trainmaster is one that comes to mind.

Then the second generation diesels. The Alco Centuries were very good engines. The railroads that had them and maintained them as they should have been had very good success with them. As time passed they showed what a good loco they could be. Given the fact that you can see them still in service after 40 some years proves how good they really were.

The new engines of today just don't have the same appeal as engines of the past did. Or maybe I am just becoming an old fouggy. [:p]

[Anonymous]

DEI-sel
Early thought like the E's and F's

[ironhorseman]

Steam.

P.S.--> I'm editing this post because I just now saw you wanted to know why. Why steam? Why not? It's more interesting and facinating. It just looks more mechanical. The sights, the sounds, the smells. Everything about them. That's why. [:)]

[Train Guy 3]

Steam locomotives just have a certain beauty to them. Nothing like watching all the rods move back in forth. I love the sound of a good steam whistle. Deisel locomotives don't strike me the same way the steam engines do.

[Anonymous]

I like deisels. Early deisels. I like the clean lines, to me its like looking at a race car.

Beside, I was born too late for steam.

[JoeKoh]

i would prefer to see the nkp berks and the N&W Js run again but I'll take what I can get.
stay safe
Joe

[cherokee woman]

STEAM ENGINES OR DEISELS[?][?][?]

Hi, this is cherokee woman, locomutt's wife. I thought I would pose a new question for everyone: Do you prefer steams engines or deisels, and why?

I prefer steam engines[:D]

To me, it is more interesting to see a steam engine and hear the whistle[:)]
In this day and age, you hear enough HORNS from vehicles; let alone hearing them on the trains[:(]

What does everyone else think[?]

cherokee woman