Ugliest locomotive

Whats the ugliest locomotive you have ever seen?
I think this one takes the cake.

Any one else have some pictures of uglies?

Ouch!

I've seen some bad "nose jobs" but that is just nasty.

The GE BQ23-7 is usually near the top of most "ugly locomotive" lists.

Santa Fe's CF7s weren't pretty by any means, but they were elegant compared to that horrid CP Rail Alco!

That nose job does take the cake, but you have to admit, those BQ23-7's are pretty freakin ugly.

didnt the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay have an RS-1 with a nose job? I wish I had that photo, it would be a close second to the CP loco

Railpac -
Thanks for posting that pic. Yeh, those BQ23-7's were probably the gooniest diesels of our time. Curious...is there a railfan or employee nickname for these ugly ducklings?

would the green goat be eligible? If you count that extra long nose they call a long hood? :D

Among the ugliest are the Crandall Cabs on the C&NW, which were a homebuilt nose built on old C&NW and UP E-8 B units for use in the commuter pool. Sorry, I don't have any pictures.

Rick

I found a picture of a "Crandall" E8:



All in all, I think they were much easier on the eyes than some of the units mentioned above!

For the new ones, the GM DE/DM 30s made for the LIRR are awful looking.

Yes I agree BQ(big queer)23-7 are ugly as are most any GE passenger
engine IMO. Steam wise its the SP cab forwards. Lets not even talk
about the foreign stuff.

STEAM ON

I remember those GE BQs...they were used for local switching in a town I lived in when I was a teenager...oh yeah, no doubt about it, "BQ" sure doesn't stand for "Beauty Queen"...but there's another model that, to me, is in a tie with it for ugliness in a production model and one that surpasses it in horror...The "just as ugly" locomotive would be another GE monster and that'd be the C 39E...that great big square hump behind the cab always looked hideous to me, like railroad's version of the Humpback of Notre Dame...but the ALL-TIME ugly duckling would probably have to be Seaboard Air Line's Baby Face Baldwin locomotives...they looked terrible to begin with and later, SAL put frog-eye headlights on them...
Nobody has touched on this yet, but the MKT had some pretty homely makeshift Alcos, too.

What about those BL2s, regardless of paint job. Somebody actually signed off on that before it went into production.

Hmmmm,

Actually, I think I've found another project with that CP unit, what was the final disposition of that thing? I kinda like it. The BQ23-7 ain't that bad looking either, it's a very UNIQUE looking locomotive. (But then again, I'm biased... I always cheer on the underdog.)

Personally, I'd say anything coming out of the EMD and GE shops these days are less than stellar designs. I can appreciate and understand the aerodynamics, safety, sound dampening and other criteria that dictated the design of these things, and maybe in a few years they'll grow on me, but for now, they don't really impress me, asthetically speaking.

And I still cringe at the sight of those Crandall units too, those have got to be the top (bottom?) winner for the "ugliest" moniker.

Ugliest locomotive of all time?
no contest!
the infamous Alco C-855

Almost ANY road-switcher type locomotive- Diesel or electric! ( I'm an un- reconstructed fan of streamlining)