…and why?
I would be a PRR 4-8-2 Mountain.
Why? Impressive, powerful, majestic, goes for the long haul.
That, and because I fell in love with PRR M1B (nee M1A) #6755 at the Pensylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg, PA (static display but boy would pay to see her run and ride in her cab!). I was more impressed with her than I was with the Big Boy at Steamtown National Park in Scranton, PA. With a “oversized coast-to-coast” tender for long hauls and with a dog house for the brakeman.
My oh MY
I would be a Withuhn-Garratt eight-cylinder triple expansion high pressure 4-8-4+4-8-4 with 70-inch drivers, a 500psi water-tube boiler, a cyclone gasifier Porta firebox, dynamically counterbalanced machinery and end-of-locomotive cabs similar to modern diesel cabs. Microprocessor control and automatic stoking, of course.
Why? Because I write science fiction, and that strikes me as a great, “What if we could resurrect steam,” locomotive.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - ten years before Bill Withuhn’s ideas were published in Trains)
Real or Model? What would I want to be, or what would my personality end up making me be?
Folks:
I would be an H8/H9/H10. A little backward, not real elegant, not at all fancy, but it gets the job done. Plus the H is a ruggedly handsome devil. [;)]
Gee, I’m not sure. My immediate action would be to take the place of the 4449. Since she has a long service life, plus all the fun of the excoursions. Alsoone of my first loco love affairs. But knowing what I also do with the likelyness of that fun continueing, a diesel such as UP 1996 might be a more fun route.
Nah. Hand me the steamer.
That’s easy… I’m 6’1", 255#… A 4-8-8-4 Union Pacific Big Boy…
Broke and out of fuel.[:D]
See now, this is the question Barbara Walters should have asked President Ford, rather than “what kind of tree would you be, if you were a tree??”.
Well I’m pretty big and un-streamlined…so maybe an ALCO C-628 highnose in CNW colors. preferably hauling iron ore / taconite. Of course my wife would probably agree I’d be an ALCO, with lots of rumbling and sputtering followed by noxious ‘exhaust’ emissions. [xx(]
I would probably just be one of the many Q4 2-8-2s B&O had roaming every inch of their system. Common, hard working, and underappreciated!
[swg]
I would be either: an Erie Triplex (2-8-8-8-2) or a shay. Either way, big and slow, but impressive…[;)]
Probably an 0-8-0 switcher: Quiet, unassuming - but pulling my weight and doing my job.
Tom
Gee, I will have to say an SD90/43MAC just because of the size, and the nice sharp look.
Mike
I’d be an E-44. Just quietly doing my job without any fuss or fanfare!
-George
I’d be an M-3/4 Yellowstone. That way I could spend my winters in Colorado [:P]
Tom [:D]
I’d be the lonely diesel switcher working 12 hour days in the yard. With the clean square lines of the GP-9, and the soul of a hard working mountain engine…
What? No… it wasn’t a long night last night. It’s not like I derailed half a train on a customer siding, either. [:-^]
I would be a Prr K4 pacific
the standard of the PRR,magestic, beautiful, and the ability to run almost anything anywhere…that and it is the whole reason i model the PRR(so it is my favorite locomotive)
SP Cab Forward MM-2 No 4200 with 4 wheel lead truck modification.
Peter Smith, Memphis
GP-38/38-2
Why, jack of all trades, frequently overlooked and usually get’s the job done while everyone else lusts after the more “glamorous” types (I couldn’t decide on which steamer either truth be told).
I would be a little 2-4-4-2 logger. Just working out in the country. They only made one I think.
I would be a 2-4-2 Columbia.
Because it must have been unique - I can’t find a model of it anywhere !