Modern Steam in North America (An Informal Poll)

[Anonymous]

Southern Pacific's GS-4's and GS-5's were the best. Reached 110 MPH at 5,000 HP during tests conducted by the SP, and great looking too!! Engine and tender nicely stream-lined, not over-done. Good colors. Dual headlights looked great too. All around the best. 

[WP 3020]

I have to pick SP GS-4 as my top fave.(for this pole)
Others include SP's AC-9 and AC-10 - 12s. Too bad a WP GS-6 with its smoke deflectors or a 2-8-8-2 wasn't saved, as they were nice too.
The SP 5000s were designed a year too soon for this pole.
Why hasn't anyone picked a logging loco yet? The Pacific Coast Shay was designed and built in 1927 after the Willamette locomotive (a very much improved version of the earlier Shay) was built in '22.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I'm usually big on NKP Berkshires, but in this case I'll vote for ATSF 4-8-4's, the ultimate dual-service locomotives.

[PBenham]

Well, IMOHO, There's N&W 1218, then NKP 765, then N&W 611, CN 6060, which I've had the pleasure of seeing alive, and then there's the Lehigh Valley's last groups of Wyomings, class T2b, doomed from the day they were built by diesels.And the T3s, which were a bit of a mistake, as LV passenger trains never needed the power of a 4-8-4. They are the steamers that I most miss not having seen.

[JanOlov]

Milwaukee Road class F-7 4-6-4's and N&W class J 4-8-4.....

  

 

[n012944]

A CB&Q S4A Hudson, the best ever built.

 

Bert

[AltonFan]

Kansas City Southern's Class J 2-10-4s.  Big and beautiful.

[Anonymous]

The race has tightened considerably here in the last couple of days.  With 22 votes cast, we have a three way tie for first between the N&W J, SP GS, and the NKP Berks, each with four votes apiece.  Second place is deadlocked at two votes each between the ATSF 2900 and the NYC Niagara.  I'll probably vote sometime on 8/3 to end the contest at an even one month, so there's plenty of time left.  Be heard...Vote Now!!!   

[Dr Leonard]

Another vote for NYC's Niagara, which I saw several times and photographed once in Chicago. One of them hauled my grandmother's casket into the Indiana town where she is buried. The locomotive set records for availability and efficiency and horsepower output (for its size). This was despite the fact that the Niagara had little "experimental" technology, except for the one example (No. 5500) with poppet valves. One feature, though, was that the Niagara was designed to accommodate 75- to 79-inch drivers so that it could be "regeared" (so to speak) for freight as well as passenger service, though I believe all but the first (No. 6000) were built with the higher drivers.

[SteveC]

Wow, what a hard thing to decide as the needs were so different.  It's so hard to vote against the NYC Niagra as some of them were putting in 29,000 miles a month.  That's a continous average speed of 40mph 24/7 for 30 days.  Considering that they had to stop for service and everything else, these things were flying when they were pulling trains.  Over 5,000 hp picked up water on the fly at 80mph!!!  The ATSF 4-8-4's and 2-10-4's were outstanding!   The C&O H-8 2-6-6-6 also is about the most impressive visual locomotive I have ever seen.  When I first saw one, I thought, "Wow, a 747 on rails!"  But for my final vote for the best modern steam locomotive has to be the NKP 700's.  All of the VanSweringan roads used the 2-8-4, and the NKP/PM/C&O were all great, but no other locomotive was so important to it's owner as the 700's were to the NKP.   And thankfully, we still have six of them left. 

Steve

[jlampke]

Well, of all steam locomotives designed and built after 1925, my vote would go to the Southern Pacific's GS-5's. Only two were built: 4458 & 4459. They were pretty much identical to the GS-4's, but they had roller bearings, not journal bearings. Sadly, they were both scrapped in the late '50's.

If I were to choose a steam locomotive that still exists, it would be 4449, of course.

I second the previous post "the 4449 is just one more reason for living in the Pacific Northwest"

 

[k41361]

We had so many great steam locomotives.To me it would be hard to beat the A.T.S.F. 5011 class of 2-10-4's.Over 5600 drawbar horsepower,a figure many an artculated would like to have.For steam,very little maintanance and not to hard on coal and water.When the Pennsy borrowed them to haul those long coal drags in Ohio,over 10000 tons,they went from terminal to terminal not minutes faster than the Pennsy J1 but 1 or 2 hours faster.This with 74 inch drivers.I'm from Western Pa and love the Pennsy and love their J1 but in horsepower they couldn't touch that A.T.S.F. 2-10-4.Great locomotive and they did this with two pistons and one set of driving wheels.

Terry

[Anonymous]

To be honest, the 1st steam locomotive that I liked was the Timken Four Aces. The reason was the cutting edge of how efficient the roller bearing is. But over time I have found my true calling... "The Nickel Plate Road"  The Berkshire was the second steam locomotive that I fell in love with...  After reading and doing a lot of research, the Berkshire is the BEST Super-Power, High Speed steam locomotives in the USA.  Out of all the Berk's I wish that #746 was still around for it was recorded as the last one to pull a fright revenue on July 2nd 1958, when it went from Bellevue to Conneaut.  But Berk #765 is still with us and it pulled the last steam-powered passenger train on June 11th, 1958  in East Wayne to Chicago. So it's Great to know that someone was thinking...

Unlike the NYC RR who couldn't even save one Hudson or Niagara...  Come to think about it NP RR #2626/ A.K.A. 4 Aces was sitting on a siding waiting for a home, but negotiation's fell apart and so it died to the torch also...

We all have some up's and down's about the end of the Steam Era, but I personally would like say THANK YOU... For those who have tried and succeeded to perserve the steam locomotive's that are still with us today!

So I'll cast my vote for the NKP Bershire #765 that is still in operation...

[jimrice4449]

While the N&W J is certainly a worth while contender (most tractive effort of any non-booster 4-8-4, pulling a 17 car train on a test on the PRR at over 100 mph and probably the best streamliing applied to a steam engine) I will have to go with the SP GS-4 from personal contact both riding behind and from trackside from 1950 to the present (the 4449 is just one more reason for living in the Pacific Northwest)

[Anonymous]

So, does the J run away on her 70 inch drivers?  Did Roanoke Shops build the nation's finest modern steam?  Only you can decide.  I need more replies, and I know everyone has a favorite.  So vote now, if you haven't done so already! 

[espeefoamer]

SOUTHERN PACIFIC'S STREAMLINED 4-8-4 DAYLIGHT GS4.

[rrinker]

 Why naturally, the Reading T-1 class 4-8-4



                --Randy

[ChuckHawkins]

My vote would probably be for Pennsy's Class J. I know it's a knock-off of a C&O design, but it definitely was a fine looking/performing machine.

[hwoods]

Well, I'll go for a different N&W Class. I'm a BIG STEAM fan. I'm kinda partial to N&W's  Class "A".

[Anonymous]

I haven't been a member of this forum for very long, but one thing I have noticed is the problem with formal polling--too many possible answers in one fixed poll question. The answers in many of the polls prove it--members may vote in a given poll, but under comments they'll often list that they would have voted for such-and-such instead, if only the pollster would have had the vision to include this item in the computer-generated poll.

We're going to fix all that, and right soon. I formally invite all interested parties to vote here for their favorite "Modern" North American steam locomotive. (Consider my butler to have come to your door with a silver platter bearing my card and invitation...) There is no formal poll in the usual sense--no set list of locomotives to choose from. So what is the set criterion, you may ask? Only this:

(1) Steam locomotive must be designed and built after the year 1925, the year of the revolutionary A-1.

(2) Locomotive must have been built and run in service in the US, Canada, or Mexico. Nothing built in North America for foreign export will be eligible (not that any such engines would be taken seriously...)

(3) Locos of all wheel arrangements are eligible, so long as they were designed after 1925. Example: PRR K-4 would not be eligible for this contest. Even though the engine was built up to 1928 I believe (moving, my books boxed for the moment), it is still a 1914 design, and therefore not modern (though I still love 'em).

(4) Only one vote per member is allowed, and for one locomotive only. If your decision is split, neither vote counts, so make up your mind! Comment whenever you feel like it, but your vote will only be counted once. (And please, no comments like, "Oh, well this line's berks were just like that line's berks, how can a man make up his mind?" Every class was different in some way, however microscopic, so just pick one and be done with it. If things like minor class distinctions on the same road bother you, choose the one you like best and leave the nitpicking to the school nurse.

(5) The poll ends when it ends. And that's when it ends. I'll keep track of the responses and vote last.

If I forgot anything, so be it. If it's that pertinent I'm sure I'll hear about it.

So let the games begin...

For me it´s N&W  Class J  -  what else?

Best, Tom

[Gunns]

Me too, Give us 3 to 6 years.........

Gunns

 

 

 

 

I have several favorite steam locomotives,but my absolute,want to put the throttle on the roof,haul down the whistle chain and haul a mile of cars with would be the 2900 class 4-8-4's of the Atchison,Topeka,and Santa Fe Railway.

[markn]

Norfolk & Western J 4-8-4

[Anonymous]

Southern Pacific GS4 daylight

[Anonymous]

My vote has to go to the NKP 2-8-4 Berkshire.

[Anonymous]

And N&W's homebred sprints to an early lead!

[daveklepper]

My vote would be for the Norfolk and Western J 4-8-4's.

[txhighballer]

I have several favorite steam locomotives,but my absolute,want to put the throttle on the roof,haul down the whistle chain and haul a mile of cars with would be the 2900 class 4-8-4's of the Atchison,Topeka,and Santa Fe Railway.

[ZephyrOverland]

My vote would go for NYC's Niagaras.

[Anonymous]

My favourite modern steam loco class is (or better said are) Texas & Pacific´s 2-10-4 type, built in 4 classes between 1925 and 1928 I believe. I like those steamers very much, because they were something totally new in 1925, and they are also very interesting machines. Especially I like that Elesco feedwater heater on the boiler front. It gives those engines such a massive and monstrous look.

[Locomotive681]

I would have to go with the 6-8-6 steam turbine first built in 1944 and scra[[ed in 1946
Mike