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For this lifetime, I'll put my money on diesel/electric "hybrid" locomotives.  Steam engines have a lot of stages and parts.  The greater the number of stages or parts a machine has, the greater its probablility of failure.  A complex machine can be made reliable (think jet passenger airplane) but it is expensive to make it that way.  The basic components of a diesel locomotive are mature, reliable, and robust, and provide a lot of "9's" (decimal places) of reliability while remaining affordable.  The next generation of locomotive will build on the existing successful elements of the diesel locomotive, just as hybrid cars have built on the success and reliability of the standard gasoline car.  We will not see any new steam locomotives except in high school science fairs, low-brow publications like Popular Mechanics, or in the fantastic imaginings of railroad fanatics on internet forums... (don't they have normal lives to lead???). Following from the <a href="http://www.railpower.com/products_hl_ggseries.html">Green Goat</a> web-site: The patented Green Goat® design, compared to standard diesel switchers - diesel electric and diesel hydraulic is cheaper to purchase, cheaper to run, cheaper to maintain, and produces considerably less pollutants. The Green Goat® has over all capital cost savings of around 30%, and about 90% reduction in smog causing NOX (oxides of nitrogen), and a similar reduction in cancer linked particulate matter
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