....and why?
I would be a PRR 4-8-2 Mountain.
Why? Impressive, powerful, majestic, goes for the long haul.
That, and because I fell in love with PRR M1B (nee M1A) #6755 at the Pensylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg, PA (static display but boy would pay to see her run and ride in her cab!). I was more impressed with her than I was with the Big Boy at Steamtown National Park in Scranton, PA. With a "oversized coast-to-coast" tender for long hauls and with a dog house for the brakeman.
My oh MY
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
I would be a Withuhn-Garratt eight-cylinder triple expansion high pressure 4-8-4+4-8-4 with 70-inch drivers, a 500psi water-tube boiler, a cyclone gasifier Porta firebox, dynamically counterbalanced machinery and end-of-locomotive cabs similar to modern diesel cabs. Microprocessor control and automatic stoking, of course.
Why? Because I write science fiction, and that strikes me as a great, "What if we could resurrect steam," locomotive.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - ten years before Bill Withuhn's ideas were published in Trains)
Gee, I'm not sure. My immediate action would be to take the place of the 4449. Since she has a long service life, plus all the fun of the excoursions. Alsoone of my first loco love affairs. But knowing what I also do with the likelyness of that fun continueing, a diesel such as UP 1996 might be a more fun route.
Nah. Hand me the steamer.
-Morgan
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
See now, this is the question Barbara Walters should have asked President Ford, rather than "what kind of tree would you be, if you were a tree??".
Well I'm pretty big and un-streamlined...so maybe an ALCO C-628 highnose in CNW colors. preferably hauling iron ore / taconite. Of course my wife would probably agree I'd be an ALCO, with lots of rumbling and sputtering followed by noxious 'exhaust' emissions.
I would probably just be one of the many Q4 2-8-2s B&O had roaming every inch of their system. Common, hard working, and underappreciated!
Probably an 0-8-0 switcher: Quiet, unassuming - but pulling my weight and doing my job.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Gee, I will have to say an SD90/43MAC just because of the size, and the nice sharp look.
Mike
I'd be an E-44. Just quietly doing my job without any fuss or fanfare!
-George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
I'd be an M-3/4 Yellowstone. That way I could spend my winters in Colorado
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
I'd be the lonely diesel switcher working 12 hour days in the yard. With the clean square lines of the GP-9, and the soul of a hard working mountain engine...
What? No.. it wasn't a long night last night. It's not like I derailed half a train on a customer siding, either.
This space reserved for SpaceMouse's future presidential candidacy advertisements
I would be a Prr K4 pacific
the standard of the PRR,magestic, beautiful, and the ability to run almost anything anywhere...that and it is the whole reason i model the PRR(so it is my favorite locomotive)
GP-38/38-2
Why, jack of all trades, frequently overlooked and usually get's the job done while everyone else lusts after the more "glamorous" types (I couldn't decide on which steamer either truth be told).
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
I would be a 2-4-2 Columbia.
Because it must have been unique - I can't find a model of it anywhere !
A rigid framed 0-8-8-8-8-8-0! If you want your curves straightened out this is the locomotive of your dreams!
On a serious note I suppose I would be something like a Little Joe electric!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
PASMITH wrote:SP Cab Forward MM-2 No 4200 with 4 wheel lead truck modification. Peter Smith, Memphis
Peter--
I'm glad you said with a 4-wheel lead truck modification, I had horrible visions of you waltzing off the tracks near Gold Run and ending up in someone's apple orchard. Those 'Little Malleys' were sure cute, weren't they?
Hi!
What an interesting posting!
If I were a steam loco, I would be a USRA 2-8-0 Consolidation (or 0-8-0 switcher). They were dependable, did a lot of work, and got the job done - without much glory or fanfare.
If I were a diesel loco, I would be a GP7/9, for the same reasons as above.
Not very glamorous, but the RRs couldn't survive without them!
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
mobilman44 wrote: Hi!What an interesting posting!If I were a steam loco, I would be a USRA 2-8-0 Consolidation (or 0-8-0 switcher). They were dependable, did a lot of work, and got the job done - without much glory or fanfare.If I were a diesel loco, I would be a GP7/9, for the same reasons as above.Not very glamorous, but the RRs couldn't survive without them!Mobilman44
A USRA 2-8-0? They're even rarer than the USRA 0-8-8-8-8-8-0s!
Good catch!
I started to write USRA steam switcher, thought about it, and changed my mind to the 2-8-0 - without removing the "USRA".
"I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words." - William F. Buckley
I haven't been sleeping. I'm afraid I'll dream I'm in a coma and then wake up unconscious. -Stephen Wright
Probably an SD40-2.
The main source for mainline muscle as of now.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
I would be a PRR GG1.
Why, becausthey were big, strong, fast, and more.