Right now I have 8 loco’s in my fleet, with plans to add a couple more eventually. My favorites by far are my pair of Atlas/Kato GP-7’s, Bangor & Aroostook #'s 562 & 570. Great pullers and they are so quiet you hardly know they’re running. Smoothest running loco’s I have too. I’ve run them practically at scale walking speed & they are smooth as silk. Love 'em!
I would have to say a close runner up is my Proto Baldwin BL-2, Bangor & Aroostook #57. Not quite as quiet as the Kato Jeeps, but still a good puller & pretty smooth runner. Bought this as “lightly used” & it had no couplers on it. Just got done installing a pair of Kadee #22’s on her.
Still haven’t weathered any of these yet. Didn’t do a whole lot of work on the layout for most of the summer & just getting geared up to start some more serious construction.
Well, I’m a lot like many others on this thread; it’s hard to pick a favorite. But I guess my three favorites are my Atlas C424 and Atlas S2. I also have two “sentimental” favorites, they are both Athearn BB’s: an SW7/9 which I painted and lettered/numbered in my free lanced railroad, and a GP9, custom painted in Erie Lackawanna livery.
Both of the latter two of these locos are in need of a good tune up as well as some work on the lights and maybe a few extra details but right now I’ve been busy working on the new expansion to my layout.
My favorite “Loco” to “look at” is in a display case. It is a P2K ABBA Santa Fe PA consist. The thing is big and absolutely beautiful. IMO, it doesn’t get any better than this!
I thought about my response to this thread for most of this evening and all I have done is hurt my brain![^o)][*-)][?][(-D]
OK, this is as close as I can get - my favourites are four P2K switchers and my Intermountain FP7 ABBAs, all in Canadian Pacific livery and with DCC and sound ( a couple of the switchers have yet to have the sound installed - I really have to get my juices flowing to do the sound installation in the switchers. Can we say PITA!)
You will have to forgive my indecisiveness. I have chosen eight favourites and I only have about 20 full sized locomotives!
I haven’t included my critters of which there are at least six on the rails and another 10 or so in the plans. That is a whole different topic!
Bottom line is that I really enjoy all of my locomotives, regardless of size or level of finish. Every time I pick one up I am happy.
And then there is the 2nd guessing. How can an PCM ALCO PA in Santa Fe red war bonnet on the front of a string of Walther’s heavy weights not be a favorite. Or the original Santa Fe freight cream paint scheme ABBA set of FTs on the point of a string of “map” style reefers.
sigh. then there are the 4-8-4s of all roads. BLI version comes to mind… double sigh.
[^o)] Have had a bit of a head scratch about this topic since the original post, [li] it should have been obvious all along,[banghead], whatever one I’m running at that particular point of time. [swg]
Cheers, the Bear.
Did I mention though, you can’t have enough RS-1 & -3s???[:-^]
My current personal favorite engines are my new Broadway Limited Imports Illinois Central E6A’s and the ACL purple and silver E-7A.
However, in the category of engines I can no longer afford (but once owned, excepting #2), the ones I miss once in awhile and wish I’d kept:
The Precision Scale HO Western Pacific 4-6-6-4. Rarely photographed in real life, the prototypes spent most of their abbreviated lives toiling across the Nevada and Utah desert on fast freight–but possibly the “best looking” (to my eyes) articulated ever built (or modeled)…of course, this assumes an articulated can actually be “good looking”.
Any Northern Pacific Z-5 2-8-8-4
The various classes of Rio Grande (standard gauge) 4-8-2’s. I think the M-78 with Worthington feedwater heater looks the best, but the M-75 is neat too.
The Southern Pacific 4-10-2 (both Westside and Max Gray versions).
The Rio Grande L-107 2-8-8-2. (not the ex-N&W Y-2A/L-109 pre-USRA engines–those are somewhat ugly).
