Are trains getting uglier?

[Anonymous]

The only modern engines I have a problem with as far as their looks are concerned are switchers. They remind me of my ex-wife!. Need I say more...

[Anonymous]

There is no competition in the locomotive market. I think GE and GMD don't think they have to design anything better looking (and I guess they don't). They are more involved trying to meet the tougher EPA regulations and such. Come to think of it, 18-wheelers are going the same direction. Most trucks on the road are the ant-eater design. You don't see cab-overs any more, which I thought were butt-ugly anyway.

[mustanggt]

Actually, I think Trains are getting easier on the eyes- well, the equipment and not the paint. UP is the worst. That yellow's been around since, the 30's? Anyway, I like the look of an F40PH or F59PH better than the old "bulldog nose" F units. Also, you have to admit Dash 8's and Dash 9's are prettier than the U boats with their ugly little short hood. And some people dislike the euro- inspired styling of the AMD103/P40/P42? I love it![:D]

P.S. I hope I did'nt offend anyone that likes old trains. But anything is prettier than the BL2, right?

[trainboyH16-44]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

I posted this on another thread, but this one rolls past my door. I think it looks pretty good.

I actually think that the low-nose EMD cab isn't that bad. It's those new SD wide noses and the GE wide noses I'm talking about.
Trainboy
P.S. SteamerFan, you have to agree that F units look better than the new SD cab.

[Anonymous]

of course they're getting uglier, they've nbeen getting uglier since the day they decided steam was no more. Only way they'll get better looking is to bring steam back. :)

[SpaceMouse]

I posted this on another thread, but this one rolls past my door. I think it looks pretty good.

[trainboyH16-44]

AC4400CW and SD90/43MAC
I don't like Candy Apple Red as much as the old Action red. It is too dark, and with a little dirt or exhaust looks like crap.
Trainboy

[selector]

I think the locomotives that CP is currently using (don't know diesel, so can't say what they are) are nice looking.

It seems to me that, when diesels were first introduced, we were at the tail end of the Art Decco and Buck Rogers eras, so it should come as no surprise that the newest type of (future) locos should be rocket-like in appearance. Now, however, with rail competing against trucks and other forms of tpt, keeping solvent is the name of the game. It is now function, not form.

[orsonroy]

I don't think so. Most modern American train designers seem to think that European trains are the epitomy of style. Bull; they're at LEAST as ugly as they've always been, which is why American railroads traditionally didn't copy them in the first place. If some doofus designer tried to create stylish modern freight engines for this market, they'd end up looking like a suppository (or worse).

And the F-series by EMD is generally considered to be the "standard" American stylish diesel. Even though they haven't been seen regularly on the rails in almost 30 years, you can show Joe Public a nose-on profile of an F, and the'll immediately recognize it (Metra still uses it on their "train station here" sign). And the F is a freight engine.

Personally, I think anything not steam or at least first generation diesel paint scheme is ugly as sin.

[Anonymous]

Locomotives today are more focused on function rather than form as they were in the '40s and '50s due mainly to the fact that they are freight and not passenger oriented. If there was a significant change in our transportation habits back to long distance trains, I am sure there would be a lot of re-styling done.

[trainboyH16-44]

When I look back to the cab units of the '40s and '50s, they look so nice, especially EMD Es and Fs, in that deep gloss coat that they applied. Then we went to the high nose geep. That was a step down. *** Dilworth did, as it says in "Nicholas Morant's Canadian Pacific", design an "Ugly duckling". Then we got to the low nose units. They look pretty nice, but they still don't compare with Fs. Then we got into the wide nose phase. The 2 window SD60s and 70s look niceish with their rounded nose. Meanwhile, GE designed their own wide cab. In my mind it is quite ugly. And now we have that new wide nose from GMD. It looks like it was designed around a door, and made from scrap metal. Compared to F-units, it is[censored]ugly. What do you think? Will they continue to get boxier and uglier, like they have done?
Trainboy