The 5 Best Looking Electric Locomotives Ever Made

There is only one-------GG1

Matt I like your choices.  I'd put the EP-4 as 2nd right behind the GG1. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JFo04sZavo

Those howling wolves look pretty good to me. I've got a real nice looking Conrail E44, wearing the blue livery.

Electric North American locomotives from the past had/have an Industrial thing going on, re: their looks; and are much more appealing to me than the standard definition of good looks.

I have the other P5a type, the PRR box cab version; another nice looking box.

I've got a New Haven EP3 that did the porch thing long before EMD stretched their undersized SD40's, by adding a dance floor to the front and back.

Big, quirky and black, looking like two back-to-back old school locomotives with a fort in-between, my EP-2 Bi-Polar.

I don't have one, but I like the Joe's.

Rick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc-0icW_F4g

These unique EMD built gf6c's are pretty cool looking, too. At approx. the 12:45 mark of the video, a great scene is captured - CN5507, itself a fine looking specimen, sporting a Canadian cab, meets up with the BCR electrics.

Rick

I agree with Nick about the Little Joe, but I think the Hiawatha color scheme shows it off to better advantage. I like the sharply angled nose - gives it more of a streamlined Deco look. 

The maroon in this shot looks a bit brown because the photo was shot on an overcast day. This one is on display at Deer Lodge, Montana.

This may be heresy, but I've always considered the DB class 103 (Formerly the E03) electric to be a most beautiful electric locomotive. I especially like the early models in TEE colours with full skirting, but I couldn't find a good picture of one of those.

1 - NYC P2 boxcab - elegant and classy (and scrapped - big surprise)

2 - NH streamlined EP's - freight and passenger

3 - PC (okay, PRR) E44 Bricks

4 - Because they remind me of each other so much: CMStP&P Joes; VGN

     streamlined; GN streamlined (I forget the classes)

5 - and the PRR "Big Liz" 2-C-C-2 boxcab

Also-rans: NYC S-1/S-2/S-3 and the PRR L-5.

And the rest of them; electrics are cool.

Lionel's postwar version of the Great Northern EP-5, hand's down.

I nominate CNR 6710 which ran for 76 years, 8 months, 11 days, and ten hours after it first went into service.

Read more about it here:

http://raakone.hubpages.com/hu...e-Mount-Royal-Tunnel

Marek

Any GG1.  They stand tall,head and shoulders above all others even to this day I do believe. 

Norm Rish

I'll have to go with the GG1-- best American electric. Then There are the others: French TGV, and just about all of the various Shinkansen types.

#1 Solid stripe, dark green locomotive enamel, GG1.

#2 Solid stripe, tuscan red, GG1

#3 Class E44 in Pennsylvania colors

#4 P5a boxcab

#5 P5a modified

Sorry folks, but I grew up in Philadelphia!

Wow!  The CNR 6710 has the GG1 beat by about 25 years, although no direct fault of the GG1 since it was the electric supply that was changed at the catenary that forced them to retire.

They look kind of like the B1 Rats:

Believe, the initial reason for retiring the GG1's was due to cracked frame problems.

Someone will correct me if i am wrong

I have always been a sucker for this one:

The GG-1 is just an EP-3 with a fancy body and the insides rearranged to cook the crew. So I'd go with:

1. EP-3 'Flat Bottom' in dark green with the gold stripes and lettering.

2. EP-5 'Jet' in the pre-McGinnis pin-stripe scheme.

3. EL-C/EF-4 in VGN or NH paint schemes.

4. Class 373 'Eurostar' power car/loco

5. "Little Joe" EF-4

I like this guy..

Joe 

1-Little Joe

2-bipolar

3-Westinghouse quill

4-GE Box Cab

5-nothing qualifies 

Do you see a theme here?

Don

New Haven EP4/EF3 for sure, then the NYCS/CUT P1a, then the GG1, and then either the Lil' Joe or the GN W1.  Then plug in (sorry) the PRR E44, and the NYCS S1 and PRR P5a modified. 

It's a "no-brainer" LOL!

1. Lionel #38

2. Lionel #42

3. Lionel #8

4. Lionel #318

5. Lionel #9U

1. EP5 Jet 

2. GG1

3. EP4

I assume we are talking heavy mainline electrification beyond 600V DC..I don't care for going to five inasmuch as the rest don't seem to have much styling outside of what was dictated by their functionality or more brute appearance. There are lovable ugly ducklings and unremarkable "box cabs on a raft". Perhaps a Class D steeplecab would fit in there. My criteria is what denotes speed in their styling not uniqueness etc. Probably the craziest and ugliest thing I ever saw was an electrified "bobber" caboose used for switching...talk about low budget projects.. 

have to agree with don about

(a) the bi-polar.

(b) his theme.

My 2

Whilst I'm a huge fan of the GGI, I do love a good Crocodile as well.

One of my favorites..

Joe

This has not been done in O-Gauge. A Virginian EL2B

I'm kind of partial to this one. Boxy, but the graphics get your attention.

With electrics, for the most part, beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.

There's nothing better than these IMO!

Jim

I'm sorry to be anything but my usual Pollyanna self here, but except for the TGV and similar modern 'superfast' locos, which look like rockets on rails, the terms "beautiful" and "electric locomotive" are mutually exclusive.  This is particuarly true when a catenary is involved.  Many electrics are just plain ugly, if quite interesting to look at and intriguingly novel of design, but I can't think of anything with a catenary cage on top (the locomotive equivalent of Alfred E Newman's ears) that is anywhere close to beautiful. 

To me, "Best Looking" means sleek, aerodynamic, fast, stylish, nice color scheme, graceful curves ... and kinda sexy.

No one has listed Great Northern's electrics! 

W-1

Y-1

Z-1

Stuart

There ya go, Joe!  You beat me to it!  

Nicole, by "full skirting", do you mean below the buffers, like this.... [ Taken in '73 ] 

I admit I especially liked the first four from '65, with the silver roof, single row of vents, trim band, etc. -- and no  computer number, either. This shot taken in '66, when two had single arm pans.  I really liked the original 120's in the TEE scheme, though.

The original E10's and E40's were somehow 'just right':

And one can't discuss good looking electrics without at least a few examples from Paul Arzens;  here's one

So many favs.......

Best rgds, SZ

PS  Amazing no Pennsy fans nominated the E2c's or their E3b siblings;  an "electric Shark" -- what's not to like ??!?

PPS  No need for photo credits;  I took all these.

I agree with Lee

My five:

1. Amtrak Acela

2. Amtrak HHP-8

3. Amtrak AEM7

4. ICE train

5. Amtrak GG1

Tsk - no mention of the first U.S. railroad to purchase 3 of the electrics originally destined for the Soviet Union?  From a website across the Atlantic:  http://www.ashmore1952.freeserve.co.uk/page9.html  let me add the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend's most handsome 800 series in classic Traction Orange and Maroon to the list (not Little Joe's to a South Shore man):

I agree MTN 100%.  That is what I model.  Yes and they are the 800 series.  Who doesn't know that?.....lol  

I think my user name says it all.

Siemens S-70 LRT Big Nose LRT railcars!