Most Beautiful Diesel Ever Made...

SD70ACE T4

MK5000C

ac6000cw

ANY GE WIDE NOSE ENGINE FOR THAT MATTER

Gosh nobody posted these yet. 

Firewood posted:

While we're in double-cab mode, there's always the DP-1 prototype British Deltic (1955). I think this paint scheme and headlight was for a non-starter attempt at export sales. Kinda purty.

I've had a soft spot for Deltics since I first laid eyes on an HO scale one some decades ago. The cab seems to be an interesting blend of F-unit, C-liner and FA, with a bit of Sharknose around the windows...  

Mitch 

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Firewood posted:

While we're in double-cab mode, there's always the DP-1 prototype British Deltic (1955). I think this paint scheme and headlight was for a non-starter attempt at export sales. Kinda purty.

I've had a soft spot for Deltics since I first laid eyes on an HO scale one some decades ago. The cab seems to be an interesting blend of F-unit, C-liner and FA, with a bit of Sharknose around the windows...  

Mitch 

The remaining preserved Deltics including the prototype - I dunno if they qualify for prettiest (?) sounding diesel, but that Deltic howl is one of the sounds of my childhood....and choking on the smoke....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/...ilsphotos/6223485613

Thomas & friends?  What's that doing here?

" The Most Beautiful Diesel Ever Made"    Words must have lost all meaning.  Deltics do rather favor Winston Churchill. Wouldn't call him beautiful though.     J

First off, I'm surprised and pleased that so many have chosen the EMD E/F "bulldog" style. When I first saw this thread, I expected it to be all Alco PAs.

Secondly, and I don't know if I'd call this "most beautiful", but this German V200 has always held a certain appeal to me...

This example is an HO scale Roco-built model, made in the late 1990s. I've had quite a few diesels in my time, in many scales, and this runs as well as any, and better than most. Absolutely silent, smooth and weighs just over a pound, so I guess it'll pull any amount of cars ("wagons") that you might want...

Mark in Oregon

Swedish Nohab is quite beautiful 

Firewood posted:

The remaining preserved Deltics including the prototype - I dunno if they qualify for prettiest (?) sounding diesel, but that Deltic howl is one of the sounds of my childhood....and choking on the smoke....

 

(watches video) I didn't know Alco made the Deltics!  

Mitch 

Not my images,  but I've always had an eye for the DL-109 especially in New Haven paint.

All some really good picks here... for me I’d have to nomithe following:

1. PAs in Nickel Plate Blue & Silver

2. PAs & FAs in Erie’s Black & Yellow

3. Early Model FAs that had some of the same styling cues as the PA (those rain gutters I think that are the “shwosh” behind the cab windows).

4. Alco RS-11

5. EMD GP-30

6. U-25B

I'm also like the sole person who really likes the Amtrak “Bloody Nose/ Pointless Arrow” scheme.

Now were talkin. We lived in Albuquerque in the early fifties and the Santa Fe pulled the Chief with an AB DL109. I was about eight and awe struck the first time I saw one.  We also saw FM Erie Builts on the front of the Chief at times. My grandmother came to visit us and when we put her on the train a couple weeks later there were Erie Builts pulling the train. It doesn't seem to matter what the Warbonnet paint scheme is on it is beautiful.  My second grade class took a field trip to the Santa Fe station and an Erie Built A unit was on one of the tracks at the station. I wonder if it was broke since it was alone and not running.  We had a class photo made in front of it.  My mother still has that photo in one of her scrap books.  This poses a question in my mind.   How many among us have any sort of diesel with the War Bonnet livery ?        j

I for one don’t, unless you count the Lionel Christmas ornament that came out in the 1990s of the F3. I will agree the Warbonnet seems to look good on almost anything though... I remember back in the early 2000s I was very excited to see a run through BNSF unit still in full ATSF colors.

Since I live east of the Mississippi though I have tended more towards the Eastern roads and their more understated colors, I particularly like the NYC’s lighting stripes & PRR’s Tuscan or Brunswick green with gold whiskers as paint schemes that look good on most diesels, and especially F units. B & O blue & grey is very attractive as well.

NKPs Black & Yellow Stripe scheme, and the ATSF zebra stripe come to mind as freight schemes that look good on most diesels too. The problem with those lovely Warbonnets irl, at least post 1950s when they weren’t cleaned as much is that the silver really shows the diesel exhaust soot after a while.

Wonderful stories about those FM diesels, they definitely are lookers. I have only encountered one FM in my life, at least on the rails, a switcher with the Ohio Central. I have had the opportunity to see the OP engines up close aboard the USCG Mackinaw.

I will admit, though, my first love is/was the FPA-4 in CVSR Yellow, later Yellow, Black & red and most recently black, maroon, and yellow. I think that quite possibly they might be my favorites since I’ve ridden behind & photographed them many a time. 

Here is my take on this.

BAR GP7 #63 posted:

Swedish Nohab is quite beautiful 

Does it have an EMD prime mover?

NS black does hide dirt, oil and birnt sides very well without a need of a quick repaint.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

BAR GP7 #63 posted:

Swedish Nohab is quite beautiful 

Does it have an EMD prime mover?

Yes they have.

Johan

That was not nice to say  That scene is interesting, I am guessing port of Baltimore or close by. B&O tug and that looks to be an B&O switcher in the drink. It seems the car float loading ramp gave up the ghost me thinks.

John Pignatelli JR. posted:

That was not nice to say  That scene is interesting, I am guessing port of Baltimore or close by. B&O tug and that looks to be an B&O switcher in the drink. It seems the car float loading ramp gave up the ghost me thinks.

John, I believe that is CNJ SW9 #1087 at their Jersey City, NJ carfloat pier. Both B&O and Reading had adjacent piers at that location.

Jim

How about a "Baby Face"

EBT Jim posted:

John, I believe that is CNJ SW9 #1087 at their Jersey City, NJ carfloat pier. Both B&O and Reading had adjacent piers at that location.

Sorry, couldn't resist. 

Mitch 

EBT Jim posted:

John Pignatelli JR. posted:

That was not nice to say  That scene is interesting, I am guessing port of Baltimore or close by. B&O tug and that looks to be an B&O switcher in the drink. It seems the car float loading ramp gave up the ghost me thinks.

John, I believe that is CNJ SW9 #1087 at their Jersey City, NJ car float pier. Both B&O and Reading had adjacent piers at that location.

Jim

I stand corrected, I do see a tall building in the background now, I did not know the B&O had a tug up in Jersey city also.  I hope the switcher driver got out quick, there are Bull sharks in the brackish water, Da dum da dumm...or was that politicians in the water? 

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

EBT Jim posted:

John, I believe that is CNJ SW9 #1087 at their Jersey City, NJ carfloat pier. Both B&O and Reading had adjacent piers at that location.

Sorry, couldn't resist. 

Mitch 

Thanks Mitch ….. I just spit chocolate milk out all over my computer laughing at your handiwork!  

John Pignatelli JR. posted:

I stand corrected, I do see a tall building in the background now, I did not know the B&O had a tug up in Jersey city also.  I hope the switcher driver got out quick,   there are Bull sharks in the brackish water, Da dum da dumm...or was that politicians in the water?

Yes both lol, and also, in those waters on the New Jersey waterfront, you would bump into NY/NJ mob family members and corrupt union bosses ….. sleeping with the fishes.  

Another vote for this locomotive, of which I was able to see running on the FW&D in the 1960's:

photos by Rob Schreiner and ES44DC respectively from railpictures.net

Hi Rob Leese, Yes, spectacular! I always theorized, having never seen them in real-life, that those Burlingtons must have been jaw-dropping to see moving down the track in the noonday sun.

FrankM

This pair of ET44C4s look pretty good! (pic from 4rail.net).

Rob - If I am not mistaken, one of the E5's you saw on the FW&D was Silver Pilot, which, again I believe, is the preserved E5 from the IL RY Museum collection.

I like the British Deltics, but they look kinda sad...like they're about to cry !

Strummer posted:

First off, I'm surprised and pleased that so many have chosen the EMD E/F "bulldog" style. When I first saw this thread, I expected it to be all Alco PAs.

Secondly, and I don't know if I'd call this "most beautiful", but this German V200 has always held a certain appeal to me...

This example is an HO scale Roco-built model, made in the late 1990s. I've had quite a few diesels in my time, in many scales, and this runs as well as any, and better than most. Absolutely silent, smooth and weighs just over a pound, so I guess it'll pull any amount of cars ("wagons") that you might want...

Mark in Oregon

 

When LGB released their version of the V-200 in large scale, guys went nuts over it.  I thought someone had turned a bathtub over and put wheels on it.....LOL     Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Ken-Oscale posted:

This pair of ET44C4s look pretty good! (pic from 4rail.net).

I recall seeing Lionel's version quite a few years ago, I mean back in 1999.  At least I think it was Lionel.  It certainly is a handsome paint scheme.  Odd how industrial designers can use different colors together and it looks good.  Yet you might not want your car to be decorated in such a fashion.

mark s posted:

Rob - If I am not mistaken, one of the E5's you saw on the FW&D was Silver Pilot, which, again I believe, is the preserved E5 from the IL RY Museum collection.

 

Silver Pilot was delivered to CB&Q as 9911A in 1940, purchased by FW&D in 1955 and renumbered 9982A, then sold to C&S as 9952A later in 1955.  Then traded to EMD for SD40 in 1968.  Then sold to a Mr Herbert Hanson for display at the IRM later in 1968.  IRM restored it back to 9911A.  It is the only E5 to be owned by all 3 roads in its lifetime.  Quite a story!  Steve Allen Goen did a first rate job in his research for his book, Fort Worth & Denver Color Pictorial.

Rob - Have the Goen FW&D book - very well done, and pretty comprehensive, including all the unique depots on the line.  Kind of sad, during Christmas 1966, an airline strike brought so much business back to "the Denver", that they had to use 4 E5's on the Texas Zephyr. Shortly thereafter, the train was curtailed.  That was during the "Menk the Fink" CB&Q administration; ex-Frisco boss Menk was very anti-passenger train, as well as anti-steam excursion service on the Burlington.   (In fairness, Menk was running a business, not a hobby shop)

Some of the E5's also ended their days in freight service:

Rusty