Best looking loco (ex6201 Lizzie overhaul thread)

I saw the LSWR T3 in The Railway Children at King's Cross last night, and that locomotive surely is one of the most elegant 4-4-0s ever built? She looked beautiful and the production really made the best use of her.

 

In terms of 'grace'- especially when in motion I think there is few locos that look as fine as a GW Castle, with polished tyres, motion and brasswork! The proportions are all just 'right'.

Also the SECR 'D' class and Hardwicke are both well up there for me!


Chris

 

Rebuilt Scot must also mean that the Lord Nelson class is included?

 

They don't do anything for me personally but each to their own. I will say Im a bit biased towards the LMS I've always thought Ivatt 2's both tank and tender have a certain elegance. And I think a certain films a fault for my admiration of a certain design of GWR auto tank! They might look like toys, but they go like a race 'oss!

 

USATC S160

 

Best Looking- Princess Coronation, specifically a rebuilt streamliner ie 46229 as was, also excludes last two for ugly rear end lol.

Most graceful-Stirling Single-all sweeping curves.

 

Surprising how many of the choices here are preserved in York. Either they saved a very good spread or we as a group do not have much imagination!

 

I think the Dean Single Wheelers were beautiful looking machines, should the plan for a new build come to fruititon I would suggest that an event with the Dean, the Stirling and the Midland Spinner would be hard to beat for sheer elegance.

 

I think it's because for many of us, for sheer elegance, a Victorian or Edwardian 4-4-0 or 4-2-2 takes a lot of beating and most such engines are in the National Collection.

As this thread was a spin-of from the Lizzie overhaul, one point that's worth making is that the aesthetics of steam loco design began to change about the turn of the century (i.e., 1900, not 2000) In came much larger boilers, which mean shorter chimneys because of gauge constraints, and also higher running boards, which meant smaller wheel splashers. These changes led to a different kind of elegance - which would perhaps be called "powerful elegance". Take the North British Reid atlantics, for instance. They certainly looked pretty impressive and attractive machines, but not in the same way as, say a Johnson machine. The Gresley A1/A3 pacifics and Lizzie also have this same sort or powerful elegance. There's also the question of smoke deflectors which, of course, came in during the 1920s. Do these spoil a loco's looks? We could debate this as well. Personally, I think that the Schools class have this same sort of powerful elegance with deflectors, as do the LMS Duchesses. I went to the autumn 2013 SVR gala and was amazed what a magnificent engine 46233 is at close quarters. I don't think that the German-style deflectors fitted to the A3s in the 1950s do much for their looks, but let's keep the Scotsman livery debate out of his thread (Please!!)

Having said all this, for sheer good looks, the late Victorian- and Edwardian-designed locos have to win overall. Wainwright's masterpiece as far as aesthetics go has to be 737, but look at 592 or 263 on the Bluebell line - one a goods loco, the other a suburban tank, but so graceful. Adams scores pretty well too. 563 may have the edge on 488 in my opinion, but not by much. S.W. Johnson also scored pretty well on aesthetics, although I don't think that 41708, albeit a cute loco, is quite the most attractive of his designs.

All in all, for looks, I think UK built locos compare favourably with those of other countries. The big US locos certainly look powerful brutes, but the big Mallets don't score very well on aesthetics and the Chinese QJs aren't any better, although I did like the bullet-nose WP pacifics on Indian railways. There are a few less than beautiful UK locos - the GWR "Krugers" were not very pretty, and then, there's the Q1, but in the main, most of our locos looked pretty good right into the BR standards era.

 

They do a lot less damage to the looks than the full depth deflectors fitted to A3 Humorist. One of the beauties of the A3 is the relationship between smokebox, saddle and running plate characteristic of most Gresley 3 cyl locos. The full depth plates obscure that relationship, giving the front end of the loco a heavier appearence whilst the german style leave that exposed. The same can be said for any loco with full depth reflectors - I'd be interested to see someone photoshop german deflectors onto, say, a Coronation, or even a 9F

The fact they are more efficient than full depth deflectors helps too.

 

Best looking & most graceful- 3440 City Of Truro in Victorian Red/Orange Frame. It looks so smart and meaningful in that livery.

 

I believe it's called "Indian Red" and yes it does look very smart in that.

 

Personally the B12/3 takes it, though an honorable mention to the Addams radial tank.

 

For a non GW person I like the look of 'Stars', and 'Saints' but a 'Jubilee' takes it for me

 

I'm definitely rather partial to the classic dark green Edwardian 4 cylinder 4-6-0, divided drive, inside cylinders placed ahead of the outside ones, plying its trade between London and the West ...







Just me then?

Which just goes to show, while the Edwardian era produced some of our most glorious looking locos, not everyone was quite on message with the prevailing aesthetic!

Being serious, I'm rather more partial to this:



Image source: http://1920slocomotives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/95-111-curious-roll-of-film-2.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LB&SCR_J1_class

Tom

 

For me it is a single chimney Castle followed by a Spamcan and Black Five and B1. Sorry got a bit carried away there.

 

Oh my word... I used to think old tinplate models were rough caricatures of real life trains but it seems they had some real inspiration!

It looks like the massive boiler's weight has squashed the running plate down flat.

 

Not a green five, then?

Tom

 

My overall favourite in terms of aesthetics would probably be an early Johnson 4-4-0. The small wheeled blue ones for the S&D being particularly outstanding. Of 'modern' types still in existence I suppose it would be a tie between a Castle for elegance and a Princess Coronation for imposing presence.