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Setting aside the achievements of modernization, and looking just at aesthetics in a vacuum, I believe the best-looking U.S. locomotives were built in the 1890-1910 era.  In that time frame, locomotives had not yet expanded to fill up the clearance diagram, so their features could be more prominent and expressive.  I see some incredible beauty in some of the ten-wheelers, and early Atlantic types.  The CMStP&O class I-1 ten-wheelers built by Also-Schenectady are an example with canted cylinders with inside piston valves, clerestory cab roofs, and a modernized version of the older tender trucks using a telescoping, non-weight-bearing pivot boss.     <o:p></o:p> Another similar class was the M&StL class G-1 ten-wheeler built by Schenectady in 1900-01, numbered 100-103.  They have several distinctive features such as a shotgun stack that narrows until about 1/3 the height, and then widens.  Other features include driver fenders, extended piston rods, rounded edges on the cylinder jackets, and a long wooden pilot with a fold-up coupler.  The looked like a racehorse.       <o:p></o:p> For as simple and primitive as they were, most 1870-1880 era 4-4-0s were quite handsome.  Yet most of them were eventually reworked by their owners to take the screens out of the stacks and put them into the smokebox, which was elongated in the process.  For the most part, in my opinion, this rework resulted in some of the most ungainly looking locomotives ever.  <o:p></o:p> Another beauty was the Burlington & Missouri River 4-4-2 Class P-2 from Rogers in 1903, with their 84 ½” drivers.  They also feature inside piston valves, spoked pony and trailing wheels, a horizontally slatted pilot, and a fold up front coupler.  These engines and a discussion of their speed records are detailed in Burlington Bulletin No. 44.
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