What is are fascination with large enginies?

[selector]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jecorbett

If you model a class 1 railroad ... If your layout has 18" or 22" radius curves, you probably have a small layout which means you are running short trains. Why would you want to put any articulated on the front end of it. Of course we are all free to make whatever choices we want regarding our layouts but it seems to me your locos should fit your situation.

That about sums it up. If we are really "modelling", then your question seems reasonable. However, most of us just put up something we call a layout, often freelanced or loosely meant to resemble a prototype, and run what we like. If I put a decent train behind my Challenger, it would be rounding the same bend as its caboose most of the time, but behind it. So, the loco is more important to me than the prototypical length of train.

[tatans]

Size matters ! I've wondered about the fascination with large engines (re: big boys) I wonder how many out there ever saw an actual big boy running back when? as they never ran on all railroads I would assume most people never saw one in reality. I now assume it's all that iron and gears and movement that is the fascination, so if there was a 4-8-8-8-8-4 would everyone have one of these instead?

[TwinZephyr]

Bigger is always better? Given the abundance of them being offered in HO scale, the biggest articulated steam engines must be selling extremely well. Who is buying all those massive engines and what are they doing with them? Maybe switching a branch line mixed train with a pair of doubleheaded 4-8-8-4s...

[AggroJones]

QUOTE: Originally posted by twinzephyr

Bigger is always better? Given the abundance of them being offered in HO scale, the biggest articulated steam engines must be selling extremely well. Who is buying all those massive engines and what are they doing with them? Maybe switching a branch line mixed train with a pair of doubleheaded 4-8-8-4s...

I have a hand full of Articulated giants that run around my small layout. And theres very little switching involved. Hook up a 20 car train and let it cruise about the bedroom, watching from various angles. Dymamite!

[dinwitty]

I give credit to O Winston Link for my N&W interest, just listen to his recordings and you'll get it.

It isnt necessarily the big engines, or the power, but the mood behind it, raw power, but very lonely on the long strech of main.

[caldreamer]

My largest engines are the Veranda Turbines while H12-44 switchers are my smallest.

[Virginian]

Yes, of course bigger is better. This is America. Home of the Nimitz class aircraft carriers, the Grand Canyon, Hollywood, the Chevy/GMC Suburban, the 500,000+ illegal alien protest march against making illegal aliens illegal (?!), and the biggest plastic breasts money can buy. And if you want a Scooter, we can get you one and get the government to pay for it!
Love it or leave it!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by brothaslide

I think it's in our nature to like the biggest and the baddest. Look at all the SUVs on the streets. I'm not some anti SUV environmentalist but how many people really need that Yukon Denali with a lift kit and the 23" spinner wheels?[:0]

+1[^]

I've been looking at BLI's NYC Niagara. [;)]

[Anonymous]

im my opionon i need big power for the reason that u just dont get the felling of a "real" train if lets say u have 3 C44-9W's pulling a load compared to 3 sw1500's pulling the same load, now ask your self which would look more like a fearsome train. Thats my reason for it

Nick

[oleirish]

[2c]power,power , power! they just look great to me!![2c]
JIM

[Anonymous]

I don't have any large engines. My engines measure approimately 7". I love the EMD E8 model, but the more I look at it how my 85' passenger cars "hang" over the inside of my curves, the less I think I'll go larger that my existing sized loco's. I plan on buying 72' Via Rail passenger cars when they become available, but that will be the largest on my layout.

Trevor

[pcarrell]

Big loco's are cool and all, but it's the little guy's that have always facinated me. Unfortunately for me, that carried over too far and I'm now in N scale. Small steam and N scale are a hard mix.

I do, however, have a Minitrix 2-10-0 that's in the repair facility right now. It's a good runner that will be better. Looks great going down the track.

[waltersrails]

mine is a C44-9W CN and a C40-9W NS OLS just because i want a 1997 layout setting.

[Anonymous]

My largest steam locomotive is my NKP 2-8-4 Berkshire which I like due to it's balance and powerful look.

My largest diesel is my SD50 which barely fits my localle and era, 1980s southeastern Southern/NS/SCL/CSX

[easyaces]

My largest are GP60''s right now.

[Anonymous]

The largest I have are a set of two E-9's from P2K. Nice and heavy and when coupled together feel like the could pull the Wallpaper off the wall. I'm just amazed everytime I run them on my layout. So smooth and positive, seems like they would crush anything that got in their way.

Looking to add a Challenger to my roster. It's my Grand Son's favorite engine and one of mine too. That would make a nice Loco. Looking at the specs, just the engine alone is over 2 pounds in weight. Add the tender, DCC equipt and Sound on Board and what an addition!

Chris

[WilmJunc]

My question is: What is the manufacturer's facination with the large engines? It seems difficult to find smaller engines. Has BLI ever made a Mogul or a Consolidation?

[AggroJones]

QUOTE: Originally posted by WilmJunc

My question is: What is the manufacturer's facination with the large engines? It seems difficult to find smaller engines. Has BLI ever made a Mogul or a Consolidation?

I'm puzzle why they don't make smaller engines as well. In those 'what loco do you want produced' threads, you'll see many people for the Harriman mikado. Seems like a perfectly logial engine. UP & SP owned fleets of them.

[potlatcher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by WilmJunc

My question is: What is the manufacturer's facination with the large engines? It seems difficult to find smaller engines. Has BLI ever made a Mogul or a Consolidation?

This is also my beef with the "bigger is better" phenomenon. It sure seems like the manufacturers are obsessed with large steam locomotives. I think it's ridicuIous that there are three or four makes of Challengers and Big Boys on the market at the same time.

That obsession also seems to extend to certain classes of engines on large railroads. I'm frustrated that most of the recent high-quality steam engines have been from eastern railroads (especially PRR and NYC). I'm sure that some of this is "market driven" in that there always seems to be someone willing to lay down a lot of cash right away for these engines. The manufacturers then work to meet this demand because it will result in the largest short term return on investment.

I think, however, that if they took the plunge and produced some of the poplular classes of western locomotives, they would find that they would still make a fair amount of money. In particular, I would like to see a Northern Pacific W-3 class 2-8-2 from BLI (in the cast metal version, not the way-too-expensive brass version like the recent GN Mikado), and I can name several other western engines that have their own followings among modelers.

I just hope the manufacturers figure this out sometime soon.

Tom

Edited to change "western railroads" to "western locomotives" in the third paragraph

[WilmJunc]

The manufacturers must feel that it's easier to ask $300 plus for a Big Boy than a smaller locomotive, but the larger ones probably cost no more to produce. In fact, the installation of sound must be easier in the larger locomotives than it would be on the smaller ones.

[james saunders]

i love big stuff like SD70s and C44-9Ws and my biggest locos are my to 8-40Bs/BW and my smallest are my SW600 and S-3s so i go from one end of the scale to the other

[potlatcher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by WilmJunc

. . . the installation of sound must be easier in the larger locomotives than it would be on the smaller ones.

I'm not too sure about that, there's plenty of room for sound equipment in almost any steam tender. On a smaller engine, the tender is close enough to the boiler that it's hard to tell where the sound is coming from. It's only on the big locomotives that it's important to have speakers mounted within the boiler.

Tom

[Anonymous]

Bottom line is the manufacturers try to make what they think us buyers want. So somehow or other they must get the impression that the market is there for those big articulated monsters and not for the smaller locos.

Its like the SUV market. I'd never buy one of those gas hogs that like to roll over on a whim but I see a lot of them out there.

[Anonymous]

I suppose with HO you want something with a bit of presense to it. I have a big boy, a GG1 a J class plus many European express trains. I like them because they look good and make a big impression. I actually always wondered the opposite, "why would anyone want to model small engines?

[ATSFCLIFF]

I model in N scale and love running two or three SD90's or C44-9W's. I just cannot resist big diesels.
Cheers,
Cliff
http://cliffordconceicao3310.fotopic.net/c328807.html

[NeO6874]

while i love all steam in general (i mean... who can't theres all those moving bits, and fire, and smoke and... [:D]), I find that i like the x-6-x, the x-8-x, and the x-x-x-x configurations more than the x-4-x ones, mostly for the ever more complex arrangements of the side rods.

[MidlandPacific]

QUOTE: I find that i like the x-6-x, the x-8-x, and the x-x-x-x configurations more than the x-4-x ones, mostly for the ever more complex arrangements of the side rods.

Agreed - I love the sight of a big Mallet creeping along at a prototypically slow speed. The valve motion's really neat - and you get that sense of a massive wall of steel going by.

[twcenterprises]

Well, my biggest steam power is a 2-10-2, and diesel is either some E units, SD40-2, SD45, or FP45. I like running big lashups of 4-6 locos, because that's how most RR's do it. I still can't decide which looks better: 4 SD40-2's with a pair of SD45's mixed in, or an ABBA set of E-6's. The FP45 is a lone unit painted for Southern Railway, but it runs with the SD45's. (The premise behind the FP45 in Southern Railway paint is that one of the Southern SD45's was on lease to the GN and got wrecked, so the GN sent them a FP45 as a replacement. Mechanically the same thing.)

Brad