Favorite Locomotive

[Anonymous]

I'm intense in my love of Alco units, especially the RSD-15. I am gathering a collection of these, with high short hoods, to be my fictional road's standard engine class, alongside RS-11's, which run a close second place. Their lines are so pure, they are like modern art compared to EMD's romanticist curvy lines (on the first-generation units) or brutalist boxy corners (in second-generation units). A flat faced nose, with numberboard notches cut at 45 degree angles, a perfectly circular radiator fan housing, and a constant-radius arc for the cab roof... actually, I guess this is really postmodernism, but then consider that these units were designed in the 50's not the 80's...

The high-nose RSD-15 is just a beast of an engine, much like the SD-45 which N&W insisted on high-nosing as well. The '45 is by far my favorite EMD. Never liked U-boats much. As for steam, it would have to be N&W's class J, which was all about elegance, subtlety, and power.

[Anonymous]

My favorite locomotive will be one I'm hoping to get very soon, a brand new Rivarossi 4-8-8-4 Big Boy[;)]. But alas, due to my current cash amount I can only amuse my self with my current locos, a harry potter 4-6-0 and a dale ehrnhardt SD-40, but the coolest ones I have are my UP 4-8-2 and my UP 0-6-0. They both are pretty good (only the 4-8-2, which is a Spectrum, is better). I want to start getting more prototype model locos with real road names.[:)]

[Anonymous]

I'm partial to ALCo products, probibally because the plant was in Schenectady, New York which is fairly close to where I live.

My favorite locomotive is the Alco PA painted for the D&H. Thre's just something about how they look pulling a passenger consist, (like the Laurentian or Adirondack), that looks truly magnificent.

[ndbprr]

GG1 - any brand, any quality. A bad G is better than anything else and a good running G is heaven.

[AggroJones]

My favorite locomotive would be an ATSF 2900 class 4-8-4. But I'll settle for its older sister, the 3751 4-8-4 to be released winter next year by BLI.

[Anonymous]

My favorite loco will be my first! I am hoping to get BLI's new Santa Fe 4-8-4 Northern for Christmas.

I was given a ATSF GP-38 and a UP ???? (doesn't look like any of the pictures in any of my books so don't know what it is). These are fine for testing my track as I lay it but modeling in the early '50s era they just don't fit the picture. [:(]

[eastcoast]

G E AMD 103. I know it is referred to as an "ugly duckling" , a mono shell over
a Dash 8 powerhouse, but I recall reading what was said when the F7 was new.

[Anonymous]

Probably my Proto 1000 Erie-Built. I have one in C&NW livery, and it looks superb, as well as being a smooth and nearly silent runner. In my British OO collection it would have to be either my Bachmann diesels (drive systems on these are well up to Proto 1000 standards), or either my Hornby J94 (a little 0-6-0 steam switcher, runs superbly at low speed) or my Dapol Pug (a tiny little 0-4-0 steamer, an amazingly good runner considering it's only got four wheels and a short wheelbase!)

[Anonymous]

I have a Brawa 2-8-4 that I think is pretty much my favorite. It is DCC ready and fitted for a Seuthe smoke maker. Of all my loco's, this is the one.

[Jetrock]

I may try to hunt down an Alco S1 in Sacramento Northern colors one of these days.

I have a soft spot for those Bachmann 44-tonners! I own three. They're nice in that they run very slowly, the detail is nice, and they are very smooth in operation. About the only thing they don't have that I'd like is a flywheel, but considering their light weight inertia isn't as much of a factor as it would be with a big engine, and it might cause some hair-pulling when trying to do switching with it.

I'm fond of Athearn GP7's, though--I have one I got from my father that I used to run when I was a kid, in SP gray & red that I detailed and weathered to the Nth degree, and just bought another in WP orange & silver--the guy who sold it said that his dad left it to him when he died. I told the guy that his GP-7 and mine would be good friends.

[ironhorseman]

Let's get off these negative subjects and talk real model railroading.

Maybe this has been brought up before but what's your favoite locomotive you like as a model (it can be scratchbuilt, storebought, one you want but don't have, a special edition, or anything else you can think of that I didn't. I'm not exactly looking for brandnames like Bachmann, Life-Like, etc but if you throw that in that's fine, just be respectful of other's opinions.)

I like those model ALCOs. There's just something about they way they look as model. And the great thing is the model of a C-636 doens't behave badly like it's prototype (See Sept. 2001 issue of Trains Mag). I like the RS-2s the best. I also like my special edition Gravey Train F-Unit I got for my 8th birthday. It's HO scale and it's painted up with the Gravey Train dog food logo. This came out about 1988? Does anybody else have this one?

I kinda like the old locos, it's my way of time traveling [:D]