One of my persional favorites. Norfolk & Westerns 611 j class. (there were more than 1, but this is the only surviveing one. It is in a museam.)

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib014/611.JPG

She is a very beautiful piece of work. :up:

That's more like it!
Well proportioned, not too extravagant....almost English. ;)

Here is an interesting picture. K-4 before and after streamlining.


http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q...awk/prr-i3.jpg

Everyone always pulls out the mallard.

I think if you check out the mallard they were expensive to operate, unreliable, and not as fast as advertised. But hey they look cool.

Ive been a railfan for some time now, i play ms train simulator and kujo's railsim, also have a mostly finished N scale layout.

Id post some pictures but left the stupid cable for the camera at work... maybe tommorrow.

I always did like the look of the 3801 here in Australia

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/5176/3801bar9.jpg

Wow good to see some good old steam powered locos doing some work. I haven't seen a steam powered train on the Melbourne network for a long time, but there's a huge rail museum over in Williamstown here in Melb.

Great pictures, always good to have a wander down memory lane with those engineering marvels. Even better since I work in the rail industry.

The most beautiful steamer we ever had in Austria...

kkStB 310
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...aisengasse.jpg

Lol, everybody offers streamline locomotives when I post a 52.

The Reichsbahn Class 52 was maybe the exact contrary:
A perfect example of KISS. The german war machine needed steam locomotives in WW2, so an emergency program was created to build these extremely simplified cargo locomotives. Over 2000 were build.
They were designed to last 5 years, the last one left service 1993! In east Germany (railway wasn't unified until 1995), that is, in Poland they lasted even a few years longer and Russia alledgedly still has them in storage.
I've seen one in a museum that had dozens of patched .50 cal holes and still served another 40 years.
These things can haul stuff around, but certainly are not fast and won't win any beauty contest.

The Reichsbahn had streamlined engines as well:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rg_2006-08.jpg
Allready shown, engine 05 001, build 1935. Class 05 was some kind of "Über-01"
The Mallard beat this one by a mere mile per hour and had a downhill track.

Also there is the 18 201, the fasted operational steam locomotive in the world
http://www.mein-ostdeutschland.de/im...oS2MzXIPg=.jpg

Privately owned, can do 180 km/h.
This singleton was, for testing purposes, build by the GDR in 1960.
Or better, they build it out of this one, the Henschel-Wegmann experimental streamlined locomotive from 1939.

http://www.elektrolok.de/xU/te_61001_hwz.jpg

These are actually the same engines.

But my favorite is still the DR class 01, the "Flagship" of the Weimar Republic era Reichsbahn
http://www.frankfurt-historischeeise...da/Fulda05.jpg

01 118, build by Krupp in 1934, same owners as the 52 in the first pics.
Still in original condition, served continously from 1934 to 1984.

Some ugly American steam locomotives:

http://www.trainweb.org/mccann/4449jul02-1.jpg

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/flori...ickingdom3.jpg

http://sbiii.com/bwrkapix/t3shrkcf.jpg

Agreed, these are beautiful pieces of art/engineering. The German V-8 was quite an engineering marvel.

Aye, Mallard hit 126.5mph but it was downhill (Stoke bank) and she paid the price for it, with her big end overheating and her having to limp back to Peterborough after the record was made and then back to Doncaster for repairs.
But, she is a beaut alright. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say, for example, I happen to love the following locos:

The Stroudley A1X Terrier tank locomotive
http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/~u...72/759_001.JPG

Unrebuilt Bulleid West Country class

http://www.watercressline.co.uk/images/sl22d07a.jpg

Stirling Single

http://www.lner.info/eng/stirling_no1.jpg

Riddles Standard class 9F

http://www.eastsomersetrailway.com/m...4_scan0003.jpg

And finally, the Bulleid Q1...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...k_Railfest.JPG

Ahh! the Q1; so ugly it is almost beautiful.

Yet another of the trains currently in my home City of York. :D

The Union Pacific "Big Boy" locomotives have always interested me. They were some absolute behemoths!

http://www.bigboyposter.com/Big_Boy_...op_684x446.jpg

http://www.trainweb.org/jlsrr/bigboy...019profile.jpg

This looks to be pretty prone to derailing...