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Ugliest Locomotive Modifications

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 11:08 AM

Any and all of the steam locomotives that had a bathtub turned upside-down over them by any of the various egocentric "designers".  About as pretty as Marilyn Monroe in a burka.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by mudchicken on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 11:06 AM

You forget the the Mexican San Luis Potosi shop rebuilds?

Mysteriously, crews liked the later Topeka Cab-ed CF-7s much more than the conventional  GP-9ms and GP-7'ms...ATSF learned lessons from the 2649 Class that improved over time. There are still a healthy number of Topeka Cabbed CF-7's in service that make nice switch engines with the extra glass on the engineer's side of the cab and the extra room in the cab. (Plus the A/C on a smaller unit)

Long live the "Beep"! 

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 11:02 AM

A rail magazine (I don't recall if it was model or "real") some years ago did a story about "Horrible Heffalumps."

There were some pretty ugly examples.

I would submit the "Dewitt Geeps."

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by K4sPRR on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 7:44 AM

When the PRR streamlined some of the K4's, the poor things looked like they ate one too many Little Debbie Snack Cakes.

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Posted by eolafan on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 7:03 AM

I'll add to the list from back in the 1970's when the C&NW put EMD prime movers (along with an EMD long hood for engine clearance) onto some ex-Frisco and company owned Baldwin road switchers, so you ended up with the short hood and cab of a Baldwin and hte long hood of an EMD...yuk!

Eolafan (a.k.a. Jim)
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Ugliest Locomotive Modifications
Posted by GP-9_Man11786 on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 6:59 AM

For whatever reason railroads have made modifications to locomotives that have not exactly been esthetically pleasing. What are some of the worst examples?

Here's a few of my picks:

1. Santa Fe CF7s

2. C&NW Crandall Cab E9s

3. The "Beauty Treatment" PRR applied to its K4 fleet. This included swapping the positions of the headlight and turbo generator and adding a footboard to the front of the smoke box.

4. Adding smoke deflectors to the Flying Scotsman.

Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.

www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com 

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