What Is Your Favorite Type Of Locomotive?

Guys...the real trains members are concerned about toy train content here.  I agree with them as we provide the real trains guys ONLY ONE PLACE to discuss their passion.  The model guys have many places to do so particularly in the photos and videos section...please do so there and leave the real train content here in the real trains forum!

Randy, my favorite would be the GP9. While I did catch the end of steam on the PRR Middle Division, my most vivid memories from childhood are of PRR GP9’s running past my grandparents summer cottage at Horningford, PA. When my little sister and I would hear a train blowing for the crossings to the west or to the east, we’d drop whatever we were doing and race to the edge of a nearby field to see the train. And often as not back then, the trains were pulled by GP9’s.

Following photo is of my little sister and me in front of PRR GP9 7048 at Horseshoe Curve. Given our ages, thank God we didn’t have to run to see this GP! The incline at Horseshoe Curve was out of service though so we did have to tackle all those steps to get up to the park. 😅

Photo taken August of 2020.

Curt

For me, steam locomotives:

1) SP 4449

2) UP 844

3) UP3985

4) NKP 765

5) Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0s #4, #13, and #14

All of which I've worked on.

Let's see. My favorite type of (REAL TRAINS) locomotive. Hmm . . . well, I like this one,

this one,

and this one.😀

These are my favorite locomotives I liked being pulled by, traveling by train in the American West. But my real favorites were the EMD GP7s and GP9s, along with the F7s. But I've never been able to find any real ones left today to get up close to. 😔

I'm a big fan of steamers because I love machines with visible moving parts. The streamlined steamers were cool but seeing the valve gear moving just catches my eye so I like the locomotives with less refined designs that had more to look at.

In all honesty, I just love big machines that rumble and shake

Steam locomotives.

Steam Locomotives in general. To be more specific, NYC's Niagara

The Real Train locomotives that stunned me as a child, and still do in my memory of them, were and are the Pennsy GG1 in Penn Station in NYC, and the New Haven EP5 pulling in to the station in downtown Mt. Vernon, NY.

A recent stunning experience was about 6 years ago when a CSX diesel hauling tank cars came thundering down the line passing West Point on the freight line on the West Bank of the Hudson River in NY State.

Of course, without showing any photos of my models of them, in compliance with Alan Arnold's request, I have multiple O Gauge models of the above GG1 and EP5, and one O Gauge model of the above diesel. When running those models on my layout, my imagination is fired up by my memories of the real thing.

Of course, I also love steamers just as much, if not more.. My only experience with real steamers is the few times I've taken rides on tourist railroads, and those experiences were stunning too. Arnold

Union Pacific Challenger - fast and dual service steam.

For (perhaps) obvious reasons, I've become partial to Alco 420s... 

Mitch

I generally like Alcos the best i think because they were the underdog.     Right now today, I think Alco RS3s are my favorite.    Then an off the wall choice is second, that is the Fairbanks Morse H20-44.    That is the 2000 HP end cab road switcher that FM built for awhile.    It has a semi streamlined cab that adds class.   And even though it looks like a switcher it was built and sold as a Road switcher and used that way by most buyers I think.  

Hands down for me is the GP9. Just something very cool about the design. Not the sleekest locomotive ever made, but very unique.

My forum name is a pretty good indicator. 😂

Norfolk Southern steam excursions in the early 90’s led 611 to quickly become my favorite locomotive. It still is.

@J611

I also LOVE the N&W J Class. They are amazing machines!!!!! A friend and I saw it through a Strasburg shop tour. The thought and engineering that went into the building of the J is innovation at its best. Also, the physical appearance of the J makes it very pleasing to the eye. Of the streamlined steam locomotives, the J Class is my very favorite!

Below is a photo I took at Strasburg on a later visit after I took the shop tour.

@juniata guy posted:

Randy, my favorite would be the GP9. While I did catch the end of steam on the PRR Middle Division, my most vivid memories from childhood are of PRR GP9’s running past my grandparents summer cottage at Horningford, PA. When my little sister and I would hear a train blowing for the crossings to the west or to the east, we’d drop whatever we were doing and race to the edge of a nearby field to see the train. And often as not back then, the trains were pulled by GP9’s.

Following photo is of my little sister and me in front of PRR GP9 7048 at Horseshoe Curve. Given our ages, thank God we didn’t have to run to see this GP! The incline at Horseshoe Curve was out of service though so we did have to tackle all those steps to get up to the park. 😅

Photo taken August of 2020.

Curt

I also have a great affinity for the GP9. When I first moved to NJ in 1980 I would hear Conrail GP9s running near my house almost every day. Like you I used to run the almost 1/2 mile to see the train or sometimes I rode my bike.

Yes, those steps are brutal!! I have walked up them a couple of times.

Looks like there are two threads going. My answer is the same.

The PRR Q2 since it at 7900+ HP it was the most powerful locomotive ever built.

My singular favorite locomotive is the ACL #1504 (USRA Light Pacific). Living in Jacksonville, FL I had seen her for decades. Lionel finally made one. I bought it as soon as I could.

F-3's diesels or PA Alco diesels.

I have quite a few favorite locomotives. These are not in any specific order.

-Steam:

-Santa Fe #3751: Never seen this engine in real life, but I have seen her sister: #3759 in Kingman, AZ.

-UP #4014 (Big Boy!)

-UP #844 FEF3

-Flying Scotsman (can we include British steam, too?)

-SP #4449: really pretty in that SP Daylight paint

-UP #3985

-Diesel:

-Anything in Santa Fe livery (especially the Yellow Bonnets and Warbonnets)

-BNSF locomotives, especially the new ET44s

-SP Black Widow diesels (3rd favorite paint scheme after the ATSF and BNSF)

-Siemens ALC-42 Chargers

-UP "Big Blow" Gas Turbines; saw the one in Ogden, UT; holy smokes! That thing is massive!

-UP GP30 #844: I drove this engine at the Nevada Southern Railroad Museum in Boulder City, NV (near Las Vegas); Any GP30, actually

-SD70ACe-T4s

-Electric:

-GG1s, obviously

-Milwaukee Road Bipolars and Little Joes

-PRR E44s

That's like trying to choose my favorite child........Love them all. I grew up in the diesel era so I love my Pennsylvania H11. But the steamers intrigue me.

@Randy Harrison posted:

@J611

I also LOVE the N&W J Class. They are amazing machines!!!!! A friend and I saw it through a Strasburg shop tour. The thought and engineering that went into the building of the J is innovation at its best. Also, the physical appearance of the J makes it very pleasing to the eye. Of the streamlined steam locomotives, the J Class is my very favorite!

Below is a photo I took at Strasburg on a later visit after I took the shop tour.

I just took the ride with this beautiful 611 earlier this month out of Goshen, Virginia through the valley.  Great experience, it is massive.  hope they will be back next year.

I cast another vote for the GP9.

Although it was cab and booster units that thrilled me as a boy, the GP9 would have to be my favorite.  I look at this as a bystander as well as a former Locomotive Engineer.

A dynamic brake equipped GP9 with a cash register control stand and 24-RL pressure maintaining air brake equipment is a fine engine for switching, as well as pulling freight or passenger trains.  It's not as glamorous as the cab and booster units, but you can see well to the front and to the rear.  I favor the high nose because you can just walk through the door into the short hood, instead of descending steps and hunching over to get into the low nose.  Also, with the high hood you get a full cab floor instead of having a cutout for the steps.

A GP9 will jump into action if you set the teaser switch to "Switch" and will gently stretch the slack if you set the teaser to "Road".  It has the classic EMD 16-cylinder 567 exhaust sound outside, as well as the classic EMD blower whine inside.  That is the quintessential sound of The Diesel Locomotive.  A GP9 will part the breeze at 79 MPH with a passenger train; lug uphill at 15 MPH, wide open, on a mountain grade; or pick its way through the weeds on wavy branch line trackage.

If you equipped a GP9 with a Nathan M5-24L air horn and a figure 8 Mars oscillating headlight, you would have the best locomotive for real railroading.

I'll throw my hat into the GP9 ring, also.  Love the look.  Love the sound.

As far as steam goes, I really like the Shay locomotives.  They have a look that says "Get out of the way. I've got this."

And what's not to say about the sound!

Tom

@Number 90 posted:

I cast another vote for the GP9.

Although it was cab and booster units that thrilled me as a boy, the GP9 would have to be my favorite.  I look at this as a bystander as well as a former Locomotive Engineer.

A dynamic brake equipped GP9 with a cash register control stand and 24-RL pressure maintaining air brake equipment is a fine engine for switching, as well as pulling freight or passenger trains.  It's not as glamorous as the cab and booster units, but you can see well to the front and to the rear.  I favor the high nose because you can just walk through the door into the short hood, instead of descending steps and hunching over to get into the low nose.  Also, with the high hood you get a full cab floor instead of having a cutout for the steps.

A GP9 will jump into action if you set the teaser switch to "Switch" and will gently stretch the slack if you set the teaser to "Road".  It has the classic EMD 16-cylinder 567 exhaust sound outside, as well as the classic EMD blower whine inside.  That is the quintessential sound of The Diesel Locomotive.  A GP9 will part the breeze at 79 MPH with a passenger train; lug uphill at 15 MPH, wide open, on a mountain grade; or pick its way through the weeds on wavy branch line trackage.

If you equipped a GP9 with a Nathan M5-24L air horn and a figure 8 Mars oscillating headlight, you would have the best locomotive for real railroading.

That is one awesome, analytical description of the GP9, Tom, and thank you for that. 👍

Covered Wagons and Geeps! That's where my heart is. I grew up watching, listening to and riding behind EMD Fs and first generation Geeps and then the early second-generation hood units started showing up when I was a teen. The Bellow of 567s in Run 8 echoing off the hills. A ride in the cab of a Santa Fe Geep from Grand Canyon to Williams Junction and return. I was four years old when Dad and I climbed into the cab of a Santa Fe freight F and the engineer notched open the throttle. The whole world began to shake around me and those 567s started to chant (we moved a couple hundred feet to clear the switch at the rear end and then stopped).

Pennsy Geeps working hard Westbound up the Hill above Horseshoe Curve.

More Pennsy Geeps.

B&O F7s on the point of an excursion train East out of Pittsburgh, spotted at the old B&O station.

Four year old Gazer watching a PRR freight pass by a wreck site.

Our Power taking on fuel at La Hunta c. 1964

More Santa Fe passenger Fs at a meet with our train up around Glorieta. Brakeman protecting the Rear End of our train.

Passenger Geeps idling the day away at Grand Canyon. Iron Horses background, mules in foreground resting after carrying people into the canyon and back.

UP's Park Special spotted at Victor, Idaho. We got off the train drove a rental car into Yellowstone National Park.

I was present for every one of these pics taken by my Dad and which I inherited and thus have all rights to. Covered Wagons and Geeps!

@geysergazer posted:

Covered Wagons and Geeps! That's where my heart is. I grew up watching, listening to and riding behind EMD Fs and first generation Geeps and then the early second-generation hood units started showing up when I was a teen. The Bellow of 567s in Run 8 echoing off the hills. A ride in the cab of a Santa Fe Geep from Grand Canyon to Williams Junction and return. I was four years old when Dad and I climbed into the cab of a Santa Fe freight F and the engineer notched open the throttle. The whole world began to shake around me and those 567s started to chant (we moved a couple hundred feet to clear the switch at the rear end and then stopped).

UP's Park Special spotted at Victor, Idaho. We got off the train drove a rental car into Yellowstone National Park.

I was present for every one of these pics taken by my Dad and which I inherited and thus have all rights to. Covered Wagons and Geeps!

Lew, really like all of your dad's photos and thank you for sharing them. But this one of Union Pacific's Yellowstone Special has meaning to me. I was born and raised in Rexburg, Idaho, just 50 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park and 50 miles west of Grand Teton National Park. So, this train ran through my hometown twice a day during summers when I was growing up.

It was a seasonal train (summer only) from Salt Lake City, Utah to West Yellowstone, Montana, taking passengers near Yellowstone National Park's west entrance. Its West Yellowstone terminus was discontinue in 1960, after which its terminus became Victor, Idaho. At Victor, passengers could take buses or rental cars over to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. The train was discontinued in1965.

"kind, type?"=steam! Versions: freight Mikado workhorses; geared: bow-legged Heislers, like a tiny one once stored on Whitewater RR in eastcentral Indiana;  Articulateds: Little River's two 2-4-4-2's and l have heard of others .  Why?  My dad fired Southern Mikados and Console's, and l used to haunt the local station to watch my great aunt hang the mail bag up on the arm before a steam passenger passed.

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Lew, really like all of your dad's photos and thank you for sharing them. But this one of Union Pacific's Yellowstone Special has meaning to me. I was born and raised in Rexburg, Idaho, just 50 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park and 50 miles west of Grand Teton National Park. So, this train ran through my hometown twice a day during summers when I was growing up.

It was a seasonal train (summer only) from Salt Lake City, Utah to West Yellowstone, Montana, taking passengers near Yellowstone National Park's west entrance. Its West Yellowstone terminus was discontinue in 1960, after which its terminus became Victor, Idaho. At Victor, passengers could take buses or rental cars over to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. The train was discontinued in1965.

We rode the Park Special to West Yellowstone Summer 1960. The Conductor came around and took our breakfast orders and when we de-trained in West and walked into the dining hall the tables were set and we sat down and were served breakfast. At the risk of incurring Alan's wrath Ima' post the picture of that setup that Dad took and which I inherited and thus own the rights to share here.

Awesome, Lew! Then you rode this train the last summer it went to West Yellowstone. 👍

I like the above photo that shows a Pullman car from your train through the window. The UP's Yellowstone Special (also my handle on the forum ) was a mostly Pullman train, since it travelled overnight in each direction between Salt Lake City and West Yellowstone.

I for one, would find it very interesting if you were able to share your experiences from memory, as a boy riding this train sometime. 😉

The first time I saw a roster shot of this locomotive in Trains magazine, I knew the F45 / FP45 would stay as my all-time favorites.  Years later when I was marked up in OKC, I caught a Tulsa bound job with a BN F45 in the lead.  It was a shocker to see how large the inside of the cab is after a steady diet of low nosed geeps.

The PRR T1. 

Always disappointed that none were saved, and I'm excited that someone is attempting to recreate one -> PRR T1 Steam Trust

I made a small donation a year or two ago, and whether or not the project will come to fruition one can only hope.

As an engineer, I truly didn't have a favorite model/etc. As long as the unit:

* Pulled great with no nagging mechanical/electrical issues.

* Loaded smoothly during low speed handling. (I have handled engines that 1 notch gave you huge amp surges to the point the engine would lurch forward. Handling such a unit smoothly and safely when switching was a nightmare. Needless to say, the unit would get wrote up.)

* Didn't trip relays/etc.

* Had a good heater (in the winter)

* Didn't leak. (During rains.)

* Had great headlights/ditch lights.

* Had a good radio. (As clear as possible with minimal static and didn't have a cracked speaker.)

* Had acceptable windshield wipers.

* Had a decent seat. (You're going to be in it for up to 12 hrs, or more if you go on the law and have to wait for a shuttle.)

* Having good visibility forward and acceptable visibility long hood forward was a bonus.

IF the above was met, I was good to go. It's appearance or model-type meant nothing to me.

Now, if you had asked me that question from a model railroading perspective, you would have gotten a completely different answer.

Andre

Another of my absolute favorite diesel locomotives is the Fairbanks-Morse H-24-66 Trainmaster. While EMD's diesels in the 1950s were known to be very reliable, reliability and ease of maintenance were problems with FM locomotives. However, FM's engines were actually pretty reliable and had less moving parts than a conventional diesel engines. Some railroads, like the SP and Virginian, actually found the Trainmasters to be fairly good engines. SP used them for many years in San Francisco commuter service.

I especially like the look of the SP Black Widow FM Trainmasters. They look great in shiny black, silver, and orange.

Well, I guess I should enter a steam favorite too.   As you can guess, I am pennsy fan, it is obvious that my choice will lie there.   

My favorite steamer as of now is the PRR I1 2-10-0.    It is a brute of an ugly loco, which has grown on me.   I think it is good looking now, but really didn't like it when I first saw photos of them.    PRR had 598 of them, all in the same class.    Now that is a serious class of locomotive!     A pennsy articulated was a pair of I1s double headed as often seen on in photos of Horseshoe Curve.

Love G.E. 44-tonners. My favorite railroad (Arcade and Attica) owned a pair of them, bought new from G.E., and still occasionally uses one of them 80 years later!

i have a video on my channel where i say the SD70ACe is my favorite but now i have a new favorite

thanks to the internet and the lionel 636w that i hope to get one day

my new favorite locomotive is the m-10005

forget the T1 Trust somebody should build a new M-10005 because this thing is so retro looking and cool

Growing up alongside the PRR mainline in NJ, the GG1 is my all time favorite. Seeing fast passenger and double (even triple) headed freights pulling 100 car consists day in and ay out. I hear the A200 horn honk in my sleep.

Next is the PRR E6s Atlantic. Designed for commuter runs, she could get up and go with those 80" drivers.

Finally, the GP9. In all it's glorious PRR DGLE livery.

As a child I lived a block from the Patchogue station of the LIRR in steam days.  Many trains terminated here, there was a turn table and a coaling crane and a fairly large freight yard. G-5s and H--9s and 10s were the usual power. Love those. Saw the beginning of desalination and we kids in the neighborhood weren't impressed. For years the LIRR was totally ALCO so the RS series also live in my heart.

Pretty much any steam locomotive from the 1880s or 1890s. NYC HRRR 999 is up there, along with ICRR 382 (Casey Jones’s engine), and probably any B&O 4-4-0 or 4-6-0 from this era.