I am starting to enjoy running my few diesels more than my steamers (
Ohhh Nooooo! Say it aint so. [:'(]
You can keep that sort of talk to yourself please. It is easier to rail the diesels than some of the multiple wheeled steamers and they seem to track better through the smaller turns but I still love the looks of all those rods and links moving. Seen one diesel you seen them all is my way of thinking.
Pete
Gee… And I thought that Electric MUs were the cat’s meow!
Well, I’ve got to tell ya I just got two new diesels, they run exceptionally well and are fun to run. Still run my Shays and Climaxes but have found that my other steamers are sitting idle a great deal of the time. [:$]
Wayne
Well I like pretty much everything. I grew up across the street from a railroad that had been all-diesel since before I was born, but still had some interesting engines like Baldwin VO-1000s, a Baldwin DRS 6-6-1500 and FM H-10-44s. Later they went to EMD SW-1200s and 1500s. They were all pretty interesting.
Well, to borrow from a nursery rhyme, when a steamer is good, it is very, very good, but when a steamer is bad, it is horrid.
I really love steam engines, and I have a round house full of them. They are truly beasts of burden.
But when pilot wheels start derailing, or trailing trucks leave the rails, or driver wheels cannot hold the rails on tighter curves, then…
Diesels are just so much more reliable.
Rich
Funny, the Norfolk & Western started saying the same thing around 1956…
Dave Nelson
I don’t know what is happening to you UncBob, but I think Juniatha needs to have a word or two with you.
Sam
I used to run steamers all the time but no I run diesels almost all the time. Once in a while one of my few steamers gets put into tourist service but even that’s becoming rare as the tourist train is now usually pulled by an H24-66 Trainmaster.
I like my diesels. They are simple and move well without all the flashing and churning, and no trucks that aren’t powered. However, the flashing and churning, plus the chuffing and spoked wheels, are what attract me to steam. My locos all run well and reliably, and they only derail when I make a mistake…not them. So, in my case, there is room for both. I even have a GG1. Room for that, too.
Crandell
Steamers have been banned from from my layouts since the 70’s. Diesels Rule, (especially ALCos).
LION remembers that NYCT ran steam engines on its lines.
ROAR
If it makes you feel any better, I have the opposite problem. I was going modern for a while, then suddenly last summer the steam bug bit me (but it’s also for a few other reasons, too).
As long as they are “early” diesels, Bob…all is forgiven. [(-D]
To be honest, I’ve been running my HH600, VO-1000, and H10-44 switchers a lot recently - with the occasional appearance from my 0-8-0 U-3a. These are what supply coal, sand, and diesel fuel for my servicing area, as well as re-locate any gondolas full of ash.
I find the early diesels fascinating. And - for me - they have more character than their modern counterparts. For visual interest though…nothing comes close to a steamer.
Tom
Well, the “official” motive power on my line is this:
but I prefer to run this:
or that:
!(http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/Public Pictures/P1040067klein.jpg)
Can´t help it - I am a steam boy.
UncBob, it must be in the water or sumpin. I’m at that age where I’m supposed to be smitten with steam engines, and I do have a few and like them. But I find that I will usually fire up a diesel when I run trains. I’ve always been fascinated with their sound and how efficient they are. Maybe it’s because I live near the NS mainline so that’s what I always see and hear?
Weird huh…
Jarrell
Well I run both every day just about. Most of my steam power is very picky about things, so they sit on the layout looking pretty. (2 are on the RIP track [banghead])
But my PCM Y6-b pulls a train around 300 days a year.
Tracks great, pulls like a mule and sounds great! It has to have 800 hours on it.
But, I all so run the heck out of my F units. F7’s and F3’s mainly.
When I day dream about buying another engine, it is steam. Next one I want is the EM 1.
Cuda Ken
I’ve always been a diesel fan with an 80s era layout. Well make that older diesels, maybe an Alco and Baldwin, maybe in the transition era. You know maybe an occasional steam engine might slip in. When you think about it, maybe a 2-8-0 would be perfect leading a train down that branch. Perhaps I should think about some steam service facilities. Wait, what is happening? I’m sliding backward into the steam era. Ahhhhh!
You have just reached your transition age …
Welcome to the dark side 
Grin,
Stein
I will concede that steam needs more servicing than diesels - even the models, if you operate prototypically. My diesels are all center-cab diesel-hydraulics.
For absolute dead-simple operation the off-hours passenger schedules on the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo are protected by a four wheel railbus. Think of a municipal `handicapped’ bus, but double-ended…
There are a lot of good things to be said for traction - counterbalanced by bad things to be said for real catenary (especially when it’s above a puzzle palace of double slips.) That’s why my catenary is virtual. Doesn’t seem to bother my twelve-drivered motors or my EMU cars.
So, what do I prefer to run? Would you believe…
DMU! (RDC is a Budd trademark)
Easily half my total timetable slots - and no problems. The sets are drawbar-linked.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with everything except diesel-electrics)