I should have thought of Karen Parker's site earlier. She's pretty creative with what-if photos and drawings. Thanks for locating it!

At the considerable risk of having this thread go crazy, it seems appropriate to bring up that the New York Central was considering at some point a duplex drive variant of the Niagara, to be in class C1a:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 93&t=75097

Ducking under the desk. . .

Oh my, I knew it was a possibility the thread would go crazy, but I didn't expect this. . .

Actually, it's surprising how plausible some of these "fantasy" engines are. With the exceptions of the PRR T-1 as a Garratt, the Erie Quadruplex, the NYC 4-8-4 and the proposed C1a 4-4-4-4 styled for the 20th Century Limited of 1938, and one or two others, most of these machines could have existed, or nearly so. One--the Reading 2-10-4--would have been an alternative to the T-1 4-8-4 (in other words, if Reading had opted for this one, there would be no T-1s). Most intriguing to my eyes are the NYC "3600" 2-10-2s (a good looker for a 2-10-2) and the A-2a 2-8-4s (only changes for that one are Box Pok drivers and a booster).

Then there was that third-generation "J-4" Hudson, supposedly based on the NYC S-1 and S-2, which is big enough to remind me of C&O's L-2 and L-2a 4-6-4s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake ... _and_L-2-A

http://members.pioneer.net/~fitzrr/303.jpg

http://lewrail.rrpicturearchives.net/sh ... id=2379398

Also of great interest are the copies of publications that are also on this site; among them are a partial copy of a Baker valve gear parts catalog and a course on locomotive firing:

http://www.railarchive.net/bakervalve/partscat.htm

http://www.railarchive.net/firing/index.html

Again, we must be grateful to the people with the passion to collect and share this material via the internet.

I submit that this site puts all others to shame on the subject of crazy fictional steam locomotives:


http://www.kropplenburg.de/rsr/pages/ModernExp.html

Here's a pic of one example:



This guy really takes the cake for imaginative steam.

Do the German designs use the Tross stay bolt, or have the mud troughs? (runs and ducks for cover)

Just like to say thank you to Hugh (whodom) for his kind compliments of Feb 22, 2012. I only discovered rypn the other day by chance after Googling "Kropplenburg."
Regards
Artur