This one, for example. Technically the most powerful locomotive in history, 3 kVDC 13200 kW "Granite" by Sinara group, Russia. Sorry for a little expansion of RZD thread.

I am prejudiced against locomotives for passenger use but thing this manages to do just about anything including going fast or carrying freight with 4 axles. It also has the best sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRf30pVGMp4

>>131584
Also 4ES5K, this is the most powerful locomotive de jure.
The difference is that Sinara didn't care about certifying 3ES10 as a new series, what should be done by logic, so in documents it is a permanent multiple unit system of regular 2ES10 and 2ES10.S booster unit, however on practice it is referred as 3ES10.
4ES5K is not that impressive due to less axle power and more cheap traction drive solution (impulse controlled DC motors), still it has 4 units and 13120 kW of power. This thing is massive! It is rated for 25 kVAC.

I suspect quite a few 'Pommies' would maintain that no list of great locos would be complete without a Class 55 "Deltic". But what do I know; never been one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UM6yPQ0zmU

Of course the weeaboo in me wouldn't be complete without some degoichi-kun. Over 1000 of these were produced.

Or even the EMD-NOHAB AA16 class, like these Danes: MX 1001 and MY 1159.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkhtb597ffg

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoHAB_AA16
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=https%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FNoHAB_AA16&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=de&tl=en

The A1 Terriers. They were small, but useful.

>Pic related
>Built: September 9, 1872
>Withdrawn: January 4,1964
>Was the oldest steam loco in BR stock when withdrawn
>Still running today

This guy held the world record for fastest locomotive for nearly 50 years.

The French still hold the record in S/S (Super Stock).

because baddass largeness

obligatory

I would say the first locomotive designed to be great was the Rocket . And so I have!

>>131618
Nothing makes me think "objectively great locomotive" like a lack of throttle response when I've got a train dragging my ass down.

Hello, spreading the Finn-cancer again.

This, with its two sisters, is a great locomotive because it flogs some life back into the living dead goverment rail operator that has seriously outpriced itself from anything but big bulk. Operated by Fennia Rail.

The initial operating mode is trying to steal some Russian over-the-border timber trade off from VR like the other private rail operator (Ratarahti Oy) is already doing, but as they portray themselves as "the low-cost airline of rail" in their announcements, maybe eventually we'll see some closed railhead that VR sees too insignificant to care about re-opening.

Ratarahti doesn't really count as it is tightly associated with the saws and papermills it serves and already served before it had access to the national network. This operator says it is aiming for the whole country, claims it will have 10% of freight by 2020, but that's just venture-speak.

Bringing it on home to London: The ever reliable SD40-2. Of the thousands built, most remain in service 40 years later.

I presume SD40s are like what was once said about the Douglas Dakota: The only way to stop one permanently is to wreck it.

Class 43

Reliable, light weight, screaming turbocharger (although nowhere near as much on the current engines as the original Valentas), good looks, 125MPH.

>>131625
A generation before the ubiquitous SD40/SD40-2, hordes of GP-9's showed us all the pros and cons of cookie cutter locomotive fleets. And killed off steam for good.

SUPER POWER!

oc

The first off-the-shelf production US diesel... the ALCO-GE-IR boxcab.

C'mon, this ought to be an Epic® thread...

Alright, if this is about something impressive...
4TE130. The most powerful diesel locomotive, and the most heavy and big locomotive ever built. 12000 HP diesel output, 552 metric tons of weight and 84 meters of length.
Interesting fact, there are (were) several diesel locomotives with 12000 HP diesel output but from the available sources this one has the biggest power output on wheels. Well, it also shares the record for weight with 4TE10S/M, but still, all these parameters in one locomotive...
It has been designed as a transitional solution for BAM before locomotives with 6000 HP per unit should have been finalized. However officially it haven't passed climatic testing and was uncoupled to two two-unit 2TE130 locomotives with adding cabs in the cabless units.

As for 6000 HP per unit locomotives...
There were two of them. 16-axle 2TE136 with two V20 1D49 diesels sounds impressive, but wait until this one...
2TE126, 2-unit 20-axle diesel locomotive with two V16 320/320 mm 4D56 diesels. Yes, twenty axles. We should look at them a bit closer. The axle formula of each unit is A+Bo+Bo-Bo+Bo+A, the diesel was so massive that with 8 axles per unit the locomotive would exceed maximum axle load of 25 tons, so they had to add runners. But they weren't ordinary runners, by project (which haven't been completed) these runners should have been able to transfer part of their load to the motorized axles on low speeds which is safe for the tracks but noticeably increases maximum traction force.
Also this locomotive was equipped with unboosted version of 4D56, the finalized version of the locomotive should had 16000 HP power output by diesels. But...
It all was just before the collapse of USSR which almost destroyed our diesel locomotive machinebuilding. [thank you, Reagan]
Now the projects of high-end diesel locomotives are running slowly, however Transmashholding announced 2x6000 HP 16-axle diesel locomotive designed almost from scratch for 2018.

>The United States Army Transportation Corps S160 Class is a class of 2-8-0 Consolidation steam locomotive designed for use in Europe during World War II for heavy freight work. A total of 2,120 were built and they worked on railroads across the world, including Africa, Asia, all of Europe and South America.

While not a very mechanically sound locomotive, they were found all over the world and there are 25 preserved examples. I'd say it did its job and then some.

If "great" is defined as the right machine in the right place at the right time, then the American "standard" 4-4-0 (air quotes because there was nothing standard about then) is truly the greatest of all. Built not just by the thousands, but by the
hundreds of thousands (often without benefit of plan or drawing), their rugged simplicity utterly dominated the American continent for over 50 years.

SNCF's first make out session with electric after getting kneecapped by the oil crisis

I was going to say the Fairbanks-Morse Train Master, largely credited for starting the HP race, but nawww...

I saw an HO scale model of this on friday night and I still think it's an awesome design. I can't help but think what it would be like if development continued into today. Modern AC traction motor design, advanced metallurgy, methane fueled.. likely violate every noise bylaw in the land though.

Reading Wiki it's rated 8500HP (6,300 kW) and it's suggested that it could have been 10,000+HP (7,500 kW) at lower altitudes if the electrics could handle it. Still holds the record for highest HP for a single power plant locomotive, (although in light of the recent postings of Russian locomotives) it's not clear if that's world-wide or north America.

Regardless, pretty respectable for something out of the late 1950's.

>>131705

I've been to Ogden Utah where they have the coal plant one sitting there... the thing kind of goes on forever.

>>131705

> it's not clear if that's world-wide or north America

Russian GT1h holds Guinness record as the most powerful GT in the world, so it is officially. Its turbo-shaft engine has 8300 kW power output.
By the way, no point in wondering about how modern GT would look like, you're looking at it on the pic related. Alive and kickin' as you can see, RZD has ordered another machine for this year, so, I'm just guessing, it is now beyond only testing.
By the way, totally related to the thread.

ALCO PA-1, hinting at why it earned the title "honorary steam locomotive."

During world war one, the railroads were briefly nationalized as the USRA. One of the few happy episodes of this experiment was a dozen standardized loco designs. The light 2-8-2 was particularly noteworthy, being able to run (horsepower) or lug (tractive effort) with equal ease.

THE BIG BOY 4-8-8-4.

>>131732

>onkel piet hive-mind

Also, it's only 9000

The 4-6-2 pacific type was bottled lighting, hauling most passenger trains (and a bit of fast freight,too). To me, the best of the breed were the Erie RR K5a, which were basically USRA heavy pacifics (Erie K5's were the only ones built) with some extra efficiency gadgets.

If a pacific couldn't keep the most demanding schedule, a 4-6-4 hudson surely could. New York Central's J1's weren't the biggest or most powerful, but they definitely rostered the most to move The Great Steel Fleet.

What trains is that?

The IHB had some interesting switchers.

>>131746
I wonder if that was painted in IHB's iconic black and orange...

By 1939, diesels had proven themselves superior in ALL respects (except initial cost -- and we were still in a depression) in yard service, and the newfangled streamliners were universally profitable and popular. But the big share of traffic was freight, and steam reigned supreme...

until the FT. It could move more tons cheaper and faster than all but the best super-ower steam -- and with drastically reduced maintenance costs. It was just what the railroads needed. The order books filled as quickly as depression-era dollars could be found.

And then the War Production Board all but ended the party...

After the wartime restrictions were lifted, a series of new-and-improved F units started replacing worn-out steam for good.

PRR Q2 4-4-6-4 duplex, the ONLY truly successful duplex design, and the highest horsepower steam locomotive EVER, tested at just shy of 10,000! Unfortunately, maintenance costs were sky-high compared to diesels.

>>131705

>I was going to say the Fairbanks-Morse Train Master, largely credited for starting the HP race

Annnnd... you'd be wrong. ALCO actually broke the 1500/1800 HP ceiling first with the 2400 HP RSD-15, but failed to recognize the revolutionary aspects of a high-horsepower motive power policy.

Santa Fe figured it out almost instantly.

>>131908
FM did recognize the benefits of a high-horsepower world, not the least of which it was far easier to stretch the OP engine than EMD's 567. Unfortunately, the timing couldn't be worse, with the post-(Korean)-war recession proving to be far more stubborn than anticipated, and GP9's ordered in better times continuing to be delivered (and killing off big steam 10+ years too early). FM couldn't wait for better times and quit the USA loco market,

Basically a GE Dash 9 that's able to operate in very thin air. Boo-yeah.

EMD finally bit the bullet and turbocharged the 567, yielding the 2400 HP SD24, conveniently timed just as their competitors had given up... and the railroads were ready for a horsepower race.

At least a fair number of those big steamers got a second chance at life. So many of the super/modern steam engines that ran excursions barely had a decade of proper service under their belts!

The horsepower race soon topped out at 3600 hp while new problems such as wheelslip were discovered. EMD's (quite successful) big engine was the SD45, and it looked the part with flared radiators on a huge carbody, housing a turbocharged 645 engine that had been stretched out to 20 cylinders; except for the block and crankshaft it all used standard 645 parts. If you needed the extra 600 HP compared to the "standard" 3000 HP SD40, this was your toy.

I guess the Class 66 won't be taking aver the world after all.
>>132002