Back in the mid-'90’s, some co-workders and I were standing around the office one day discussing sports. One of my co-workers brought up that two of her brothers had recently had a very lengthy discussion on who they thought was the “ugliest person in baseball”. After much debate, the brothers finally concluded that the award should be equally shared by two players on the Seattle Mariners. (I’ll let you make your own guesses as to who they might be.)
Anyhow, if you had to nominate one (1) locomotive for the RR Hall of Shame, which one would it be? I like and model the New York Central. But, if I were to pick one - hands down - it would have to be the 1956 NYC EMD “Aerotrain”:
front end
back end
[xx(] Ouch! Makes me wince just to look at it.
Anyone have a worthy contender that they would like to include?
For steam locomotives, I would nominate the Erie/Virginian Triplexes, too much machinery and not enough boiler and firebox.
For diesels, I would consider the GE U50C, electrical disasters (aluminum cabling).
For electrics, the PRR L-5, a locomotive with a long rigid wheelbase intended to replace the flexible DD-1.
So many candidates, so little time! For all of their owner’s lovable charicteristics, Lehigh Valley had some really butt-ugly freight power built in the 1915-1925 era. Consider the R class 2-10-2s. They had rounded,largely featureless front ends, Wooten fireboxes and very old-fashioned inside bearing trailing trucks. Too bad (or, just as well) I can’t put a picture of one up, but look in " The Steam Era of Lehigh Valley" by Chuck Yungkurth Published by Andover Junction,pg.17. While one is there look at the Valley’s mikados,whew! Larry the Cable Guy would have had these in mind with his definition of ugly -" They look like in-laws[}:)]" Fourtunately, along came the LV’s finest: their Senecas (Mountains/ 4-8-2s to those of you in Rio Linda) and Wyomings!(Northerns, Niagaras,Poconos…) They had far too brief careers, but what replaced them- [;)]See my note on paint schemes of the early diesel era.
I always had problems with any steam locomotive whose headlight wasn’t properly centered in front of the smokebox or in the high position (where the bell is often located) like some B&O and PRR. But some of those with headlights mounted above the pilot (like C&O 2-8-2s) didn’t look too bad. Those usually had the air pumps to fill up space on the smokebox front. Oh, well, nothing ever was the way it was supposed to be.
The Lackawanna streamlined steamers would be right at home next to Thomas the Tank engine.
The PRR T1 was technically interesting, but something was lost going from the S1 to the T1. I never could figue out what the ‘styling’ on that one was trying to accomplish. Maybe PRR saw the NYC streamlined Hudson as Flash Gordon, so the T1 was to be that era’s equivalent of Darth Vader.
Interesting choice of names since PRR 6110 and 6111 (the first T1’s) acquired the nicknames of Flash Gordonand Buck Rogers when they first saw the light of day.
I certainly have to agree with the aforementioned U50 loco’s.My nomination would be for the BQ23-7. Not quite sure what GE was thinking but it certainly wasn’t the brightest lightbulb on Erie’s christmas tree.A close second for me would be EMD’s BL2. Nice idea, bad execution. Just my [2c] Rob
Can’t add to this because I happen to like all the “ugly ducklings” mentioned above. I would mention any of Amtrak’s new motive power (both diesel and electric) but this is a Classic Trains forum isn’t it?
It really takes a lot for me to find a locomotive “ugly”. To borrow a phrase I saw on the internet once, “The ugliest train ever I saw, I liked!”
However, one definite contender for “Ugliest Locomotive” would be the Leader locomotive built in Britain in 1949. Believe it or not, this thing is actually a steam engine! If it was a diesel or at least had windows on the sides or a nice paint scheme, I perhaps wouldn’t be as harsh on it. Actually, the Leader is quite significant historically when it comes to modern steam innovations.
Above, or should I say, Beneath all must come all the upsidedown bathtub design streamlned steamers, like those done for the NYC Mercury, and there are others.
