majorloser said:
I always thought the Southern Pacific "cab forward" engines were cool:
http://www.toltecimages.com/trains/later images/4250.jpg
And you can't beat this paint scheme:
http://www.toltecimages.com/trains/4449.jpg
.....Major, you definitely want the cab on the head end, except when colliding with a gasoline tanker at a crossing, haha....I have yet to be involved with a collision, but sure have come close three or four times with cars....about 15 years ago, mandatory ditch lights on the head end of freight and passenger trains made them much more visible, especially at night....it looks like the sun coming down the tracks, day or night, but especially at night.....
.....Guys, be careful at crossings....the head end locomotive by itself nowadays, weighs a little over 200 TONS....then there's more engines, and what can be 135-150 loaded cars....a loaded coal train with three engines and 135 loaded cars coming downhill toward a crossing using the engine's dynamic brakes to keep the train speed constant downhill, renders the loaded coal train "bunched up" with the cars and engines against each other at the drawbars, and can represent over 19,000 ""TONS"" hitting a vehicle at that crossing....the train hitting your car doesn't kill you....the side of your car suddenly being propelled into you, jagged with sharp metal edges, is what kills you, stick/slice/chop....correct, I'm trying to get your attention and paint a picture in your minds....don't ever go around crossing arms, or not look both directions at ANY railroad crossing....and, if you go around crossing arms and make it fine, if a local policeman witnesses the event, you will get to contribute to the next Policeman's Ball, trust me....I've had policemen stalk our head end leaving town watching for cars to go around crossing gates many times....easy money.....
.....Major, that picture of the Southern Pacific steam passenger consist looks real nice....Union Pacific absorbed Southern Pacific back in about 1996, and Burlington Northern absorbed Sante Fe about the same time, I think....if you want to see really sharp paint jobs on old passenger consists, look at Sante Fe engines from the steam days with the traditional theme "War Bonnet"....they are considered to be the standard paint job others were measured against....from the cover of a 1945 magazine......
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mulester77/detail?.dir=/a0fe&.dnm=2c58.jpg&.src=ph
