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[quote user="Firelock76"]Steam esthetics reached their zenith by 1900?  Oh, I don't know, there were some real lookers that came along after that.  The Eries K-1 Pacifics, the NYC's Hudsons, both streamlined and un-,  Pennsy's K4s that looked as no-nonsense as a clenched fist, D&H's Challengers, the otherworldly looking Pennsy T1, I could go on but I think you get the picture.[/quote] Well it depends on what you mean by aesthetics.  You would have to look at a bunch of engines from 1880-1910 to see what I mean.  The more modern engines are not ugly.  I have some favorites in that group.  However, when I hear most people talking about how good looking they are, I think they are defining “appearance” as greatness, most modern, most powerful, largest, and most heroic.  They are all of that, but appearance-wise, they tend to be bulky looking compared to the elegant race horses of circa 1900.  As locomotives grew larger, they filled up the line clearance diagram, and all of the exterior features had to stop at that boundary and the whole machine grew up into a packed mass.  Before that stage of evolution, designers were able to create a strong sense of balance and proportion to the external features such as stack, domes, cab, cylinders, and pilot.  As engines filled up the clearance diagram, these features lost their distinctive proportions and balance.  Some of the best looking engines of the 1900 era were the ten-wheelers and Atlantics.
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