I think the locomotive is hideous myself but in case there are any T-1 fans out there…
A lot of scale residue around the pop off valves - poor water treatment.
You see this also in the films of the ore trains north to Sandusky, with ATSF 2-10-4s and J1s, in 1956.
I attributed this to too much water treatment, not too little, although that might be wrong – or perhaps treatment not optimized to 300psi pressure. I also wonder at the waste of water indicated by its presence – could there be deposits on one or more of the pops holding them slightly open?
It must be the last few weeks before their demise. In that Trains magazine article from 1999, or whenever it appeared, about the crew in nice clean clothing expecting to run a diesel, and who were told they had to run a T1. It had been hostled, but it was a mess, literally having sat unused for weeks before it was pressed back into service. The fireman had to spend some time wiping down the seats, the controls, the dials, and sweeping the floor to get rid of an accumulation of yard crud. The episode was being written about to describe the trip, one leg of which was at a clip much faster than the allowable track speed, but it was depressing until then.
They do look distressingly toadlike in many of those shots, don’t they? Not at all like when they are properly clean and aren’t being shot from a high angle. Baldwin Sharks (supposedly designed in part from some version of T1 styling) don’t look good from those angles either. In partial defense of Loewy he did consider normal viewing angles…
I like the look of the T1. I generally prefer it de-skirted. And I do have a bit of trouble with the rounded box shape on the pilot. But it’s a lot nicer looking (to me) than a whole lot of other streamlined steam.
Here’s another loco I find more attractive with the skirts removed:
It works for me.
Ed