We have have already discussed at length about locomotives that were proposed, but never built. Whether big steamers not built due to the Depression then Dieselization, or ALCO diesels that never managed to be born.

But there doesn't seem to be much talk here about made-up locomotives. As in, ones that were never proposed, but would have been good in your opinion.

For example, I had the idea for an entire alternate history about the Southern Railway ordering some ALCO-built Garratts for the Rathole Divsion.

IS there a way to move this thread to interchange?

There's not a way to move threads to a different section by regular users like you or me.

Never mind.

In the meantime I'll think of another idea or two.

Perhaps a Southern Railway 2-8-4 for DC - Atlanta freight trains through the Piedmont Region?

Just wishing of course, but I would have liked to have seen Willamette Iron & Steel in Portland, OR come up with even heavier models of their 3T geared locomotive. The difference in the 75 ton model over the more common 70 ton model was only 1/2" larger bore on the cylinders. They could have come out with some really larger locomotives to compete better with Lima's Shay had they started a few years earlier.

How about a monster 4-8-8-4+4-8-8-4 Mallat-Garratt, aka "Super Garratt" for the UP?

This type locomotive was actually proposed and patented by Beyer-Garratt, but not for this specific application. IIRC, they did actually propose 2-6-6-2+2-6-6-2's for South Africa. The late A.E. Durant reviewed the design of a standard gauge 2-6-6-2+2-6-6-2 Mallat-Garratt and determined it would have performed far better than the Erie and Virginian Triplexes AND been much more powerful.

I've always found it interesting that Garratt locos never caught on in the US. That would have been a great alternative for narrow gauge logging roads especially.

I did a simple Mallet-Garratt in the early '70s. Large deep firebox and boiler out to the loading gage; 70" drivers -- this might have been easily applicable to the UP idea, and I suspect that operating bunker-first it might actually be made to 'fit' the CNO&TP. There was a roller on the center frame supporting the boiler in case of excessive vertical curvature...

I had quite a bit of fun designing 'what-if' locomotives at that time -- a whole series of 4-8-4 de Glehn-style compounds with Chapelon-style IP injection to 'normalize' the LP thrust for accurate low- or zero-overbalance. For the latter, I had to decouple the lateral compliance from the vertical load, with special profiling on the lead driver pair a la Stroudley.

If anyone needs an actual high-speed-optimized locomotive, I have a conjugated Withuhn duplex phased at 45 degrees with Glaze-style overbalance (only the vertical component of peak piston thrust is carried in the mains) and an arrangement of 'feathers' to use slipstream for drafting and greatly reduced back-pressure. If you want additional fun you can use tunnel cranks on an intermediate frame and Shaw-style arrangement of eight cylinders for reasonable dynamic balance...