Trains.com

New look

3623 views
35 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    December 2017
  • 2,671 posts
New look
Posted by Lithonia Operator on Friday, April 15, 2022 5:10 PM

Still in training.


  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Georgia USA SW of Atlanta
  • 11,919 posts
Posted by blue streak 1 on Friday, April 15, 2022 11:05 PM

Anyone know if the trucks are the same as the ACS-64s ?

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • 2,671 posts
Posted by Lithonia Operator on Saturday, April 16, 2022 7:12 AM

This article has that same photo, but the front of the engine is not blocked by that annoying red text block.

I like the scheme. It's handsome. I'd prefer if they didn't have the big red areas on the front, but I guess that's a good safety feature in regards to grade crossing visibility, etc.

Still in training.


  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,314 posts
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Saturday, April 16, 2022 8:58 AM

A fugly schene for a fugly engine

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Saturday, April 16, 2022 9:31 AM

Lithonia Operator

This article has that same photo, but the front of the engine is not blocked by that annoying red text block.

I like the scheme. It's handsome. I'd prefer if they didn't have the big red areas on the front, but I guess that's a good safety feature in regards to grade crossing visibility, etc.

 

It looks good.  Thanks for posting.

  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Canterlot
  • 9,575 posts
Posted by zugmann on Saturday, April 16, 2022 10:26 AM

BEAUSABRE
A fugly schene for a fugly engine

I mean, it's a locomotive.  Pretty much different varaitions of a box.

I don't think it's too bad. Just wish they'd go back to the old arrow logo, but whatever. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Georgia USA SW of Atlanta
  • 11,919 posts
Posted by blue streak 1 on Saturday, April 16, 2022 11:34 AM

Is it my imagination or is that white plow bottom edge higher than most other locos?  After the Star's incident the other day makes me wonder?

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • 2,671 posts
Posted by Lithonia Operator on Saturday, April 16, 2022 9:09 PM

I'm not that big on that 6-paned vent screen being white. Seems like an odd thing to highlight.

Still in training.


  • Member since
    March 2010
  • 145 posts
Posted by bill613a on Saturday, April 16, 2022 10:15 PM

Now if theyed only run!

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Sunday, April 17, 2022 1:42 AM

Someone else already nicknamed it "Aquafresh" on another site.....

I still don't understand what was wrong with Phase III.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,314 posts
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Sunday, April 17, 2022 6:12 AM

zugmann
I mean, it's a locomotive.  Pretty much different varaitions of a box.

Sorry but a bulldog nose, an Alco nose, a FM C-liner nose or a sharknose is a lot more than a "box"

  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Canterlot
  • 9,575 posts
Posted by zugmann on Sunday, April 17, 2022 10:37 AM

A rounded box. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, April 17, 2022 11:09 AM

Hey, anyone remember the old "Speed Racer" cartoon series?

Don't the headlights on that ALC-42 look like the headlights on the "bad guy" cars in that series? 

I just thought I'd bring that up.

And Beausabre's swerved into something.  Would it be so hard to reproduce a bulldog nose, a shark nose, a PA nose, or a C-Liner nose on new passenger diesels?  That thing's fugly all right.

  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Canterlot
  • 9,575 posts
Posted by zugmann on Sunday, April 17, 2022 11:20 AM

Flintlock76
And Beausabre's swerved into something.  Would it be so hard to reproduce a bulldog nose, a shark nose, a PA nose, or a C-Liner nose on new passenger diesels?  That thing's fugly all right.

Go get a can of bondo, I guess.  

Seems as pointless as fake exhaust tips, though. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Sunday, April 17, 2022 3:13 PM

Flintlock76

Hey, anyone remember the old "Speed Racer" cartoon series?

Don't the headlights on that ALC-42 look like the headlights on the "bad guy" cars in that series? 

I just thought I'd bring that up.

And Beausabre's swerved into something.  Would it be so hard to reproduce a bulldog nose, a shark nose, a PA nose, or a C-Liner nose on new passenger diesels?  That thing's fugly all right.

 

Some folks felt the noses on F7s, E7s, C-liners, Erie-builts, any Baldwins and/or Alcos were unattractive back in the day because they liked steam.

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Sunday, April 17, 2022 3:37 PM

Duplicate post 

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, April 17, 2022 6:32 PM

charlie hebdo
Some folks felt the noses on F7s, E7s, C-liners, Erie-builts, any Baldwins and/or Alcos were unattractive back in the day because they liked steam.

Well sure, folks in the nascent rail preservation movement HATED those diesels because they killed their beloved steam engines.  Angry

But as the saying goes, that was then and this is now. A lot of people wish more of those first-generation diesels now considered classics were preserved. 

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Sunday, April 17, 2022 9:24 PM

Flintlock76

 

 
charlie hebdo
Some folks felt the noses on F7s, E7s, C-liners, Erie-builts, any Baldwins and/or Alcos were unattractive back in the day because they liked steam.

 

Well sure, folks in the nascent rail preservation movement HATED those diesels because they killed their beloved steam engines.  Angry

But as the saying goes, that was then and this is now. A lot of people wish more of those first-generation diesels now considered classics were preserved. 

 

That was an analogy.

 

  • Member since
    July 2010
  • From: Louisiana
  • 2,310 posts
Posted by Paul of Covington on Sunday, April 17, 2022 10:51 PM

BEAUSABRE

 

 
zugmann
I mean, it's a locomotive.  Pretty much different varaitions of a box.

 

Sorry but a bulldog nose, an Alco nose, a FM C-liner nose or a sharknose is a lot more than a "box"

 

   A box with a nose.

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Monday, April 18, 2022 6:00 AM

Paul of Covington
A box with a nose.

Was it DPM that pointed out that an E unit was basically a box... with bully billboards on both sides, to be painted with magic by railroads that cared?  (And pointed out in an article that when GM was left to its own devices to determine color schemes, independent of input from a client, their solutions were more or less boring?)

The problem with many modern units is that they are not boxes, they are dressed up in clown suits with a dump in their diapers, actively trying to appear as something other than competent high-speed streamlined power.  I have tried to understand the Vergara Studio 'look', or about 97% of the paint schemes Europeans inflict on their locomotives and trains, and I do not understand why good appearance and good design seem to be so underrated.

It does have to be noted that proper streamlining does not always look like esthetic streamlining, and that modern S580 cab design and expedient fabrication may not allow the careful piecework of a bulldog nose or E6-style slant or Loewy sharknose... just as we don't see long-hood-short-deck or fender endcap extensions that lock in crashes in most modern automobile design.  But I don't see why CEM mandates ugly implementation... and frankly never have.

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Monday, April 18, 2022 7:55 AM

Since "beauty is (often) in the eye of the beholder," a subjective perception, why is it necessary to belittle smooth, efficient designs?

  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,314 posts
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Monday, April 18, 2022 7:57 AM

Because they're UGLY

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Monday, April 18, 2022 8:37 AM

In your opinion.  And BTW, I liked F units' appearances.

There's something more going on here than a mere difference of opinion in aesthetics. Could it have something to do with jingoistic tendencies?

  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Canterlot
  • 9,575 posts
Posted by zugmann on Monday, April 18, 2022 10:22 AM

BEAUSABRE

Because they're UGLY

 

Why?

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Monday, April 18, 2022 11:53 AM

zugmann
 
BEAUSABRE

Because they're UGLY 

Why?

Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Monday, April 18, 2022 2:34 PM

charlie hebdo
There's something more going on here than a mere difference of opinion in aesthetics. Could it have something to do with jingoistic tendencies?

I'd like to think not -- the Vergara disasters are all home-grown and home-encouraged, as are the MP-36 and other associated horrors.Perhaps the Acela I is an acquired taste (which I never acquired despite liking the HHP-8s).  I thought the SDP40F nose was unnecessarily, gratuitously ugly, in the same sort of way the Dan'l Webster was, when I first saw the design in the early '70s, and I find I still do.

I don't dislike either the Sprinter (ACS64) or the Charger carbody -- they take a little getting used to.  But then I've liked the Genesis carbody since I first saw the back of one in Los Angeles in the early '90s, and that's a box with a wedge stuck on the front of it.

Cockamamie paint is the thing I most get upset over -- and I don't think any nation holds a particular priority on bad taste.  The problem I have is really that I don't like to see tens or hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money spent for some sophomoric supergraphics splashed seemingly at random on equipment that really deserves better.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Monday, April 18, 2022 4:02 PM

Overmod
 
charlie hebdo
There's something more going on here than a mere difference of opinion in aesthetics. Could it have something to do with jingoistic tendencies? 

I'd like to think not -- the Vergara disasters are all home-grown and home-encouraged, as are the MP-36 and other associated horrors.Perhaps the Acela I is an acquired taste (which I never acquired despite liking the HHP-8s).  I thought the SDP40F nose was unnecessarily, gratuitously ugly, in the same sort of way the Dan'l Webster was, when I first saw the design in the early '70s, and I find I still do. 

I don't dislike either the Sprinter (ACS64) or the Charger carbody -- they take a little getting used to.  But then I've liked the Genesis carbody since I first saw the back of one in Los Angeles in the early '90s, and that's a box with a wedge stuck on the front of it.

Cockamamie paint is the thing I most get upset over -- and I don't think any nation holds a particular priority on bad taste.  The problem I have is really that I don't like to see tens or hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money spent for some sophomoric supergraphics splashed seemingly at random on equipment that really deserves better.

As I said - Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.

Some designs 'pop' without beer even being involved.  Other designs require a six pack and others require a case.  Everything is individual taste and who is in charge of the graphics designs.

In as much as we are most all old farts - our tastes in designs and the graphics applied to them were formed many decades ago in our younger years.  Myself I am partial to the B&O Blue, Gray and Gold (Stainless on Cincinnatian equipment), with a secondary appreciation to the Chessie System liveries.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, April 18, 2022 7:44 PM

Overmod
The problem with many modern units is that they are not boxes, they are dressed up in clown suits with a dump in their diapers,

Excuse me while I go have hysterics and try not to choke while laughing uncontrollably!  (I'm barely able to type this!)

  • Member since
    October 2014
  • 1,139 posts
Posted by Gramp on Monday, April 18, 2022 9:58 PM

Braniff did it better. Nonsensical cheapness.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Monday, April 18, 2022 11:11 PM

Gramp
Braniff did it better. Nonsensical cheapness.

But when they did it right, it was hard to fault them.

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy