Greatest RR company.

[AdmiralHalsey]

What RR company do you consider to be the best? Personally it's a 3-way tie between Union Pacific, New York Central, and LNER for me.

[AdmiralHalsey]

So am I really the only one who thinks a specific RR company/companies was/were the best ever?

[Gumboots]

Define "best ever".

[AdmiralHalsey]

Define "best ever".

Just post which company you think was the best one. It doesn't matter in what category.

[RulerofRails]

Taggart Transcontinental while Dagny was running it. "Best ever" is so broad that I assume it includes fictional, right? A railroad that is run for profit as well as to provide service to people in balance. In real life, depending on the people in charge some companies have done this, but, I fear, not consistently due to the nature of man.

[Hawk]

Since the original question is so broad, I'm going to say the best railroad company to me is the Georgia Northeastern.
Why? Because it's a small company and I like small companies.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Ok maybe I should of said best ever Real life Company.

[RulerofRails]

I will say the Great Northern for a US one. I also like South African Railways.

[JeremyH]

GWR hands down!

[Gumboots]

What RR company do you consider to be the best? Personally it's a 3-way tie between Union Pacific, New York Central, and LNER for me.

Apparently the LNER had the worst safety record of the "Big Four".

Westwood does however, note that he did much to develop locomotive cab signalling (abandoned by the LNER which had the worst safety record of the four mainline companies)

Just found that while I was looking for something else.

[Lone Cat]

My 'greatest' lists (excluding government owned corporates because many of them sucks!)
1. Union Pacific: Over 150 years strong. also known to pioneer new classes of locomotives (Two of them also exists in Railroad Tycoon 3--The Challenger and the Big Boy) and is the only railroad in the world to use Fuel-oil powered gas turbine locomotives.
2. Southern Pacific: Two best oil-firing steam locomotives. The 4-8-4 Northerns for Daylights, and series of Mallet Cab Forwards
3. ATSF/BNSF: Biggest user of decapods (One is named after the state the railroad serves, other took the name from the railroads itself!), One of the first railroads to use Diesel Electrics motive power.
4. Norfolk & Western / Norfolk Southern: The last class one to run coal-fired steam trains (and proven how bad Diesels really are!)
5. Great Northern: The only 'Transcontinental' built by ONE corporate (And so deserving the name 'Empire Builder'), east to west. most of the transcontinentals were built by several competing companies (and by the directives of, and numbers of helps by Federal Government... the helping hand usually earned by macchiavellian lobbyism by the likes of Leland Stanford and .... maybe Cyrus K. Holliday). and therefore the constructions began on the different ends and meets somewhere by agreements with rivals (1st transcontinentals--UP & CP , the line met somewhere in Utah, the southernmost transcontinentals were SP, ATSF, and several lesser gulf railroads later bought off by SP) Great Northerns don't need any, nor earned an attention of the federal governments.

Great Northern is the dream realized by James Hill. relive his railroad efforts by downloading maps today!

[Hawk]

(1st transcontinentals--UP & CP , the line met somewhere in Utah,

That would be Promontory, Utah, where they drove the golden spike.

[crtty]

How about the China Railway Corproration?

[Shamough]

(1st transcontinentals--UP & CP , the line met somewhere in Utah,

That would be Promontory Summit, Utah, where they drove the golden spike.

[Hawk]

Promontory Summit is in Promontory, Utah.

[IOwnTheWorld1994]

My 'greatest' lists (excluding government owned corporates because many of them sucks!)
1. Union Pacific: Over 150 years strong. also known to pioneer new classes of locomotives (Two of them also exists in Railroad Tycoon 3--The Challenger and the Big Boy) and is the only railroad in the world to use Fuel-oil powered gas turbine locomotives.
2. Southern Pacific: Two best oil-firing steam locomotives. The 4-8-4 Northerns for Daylights, and series of Mallet Cab Forwards
3. ATSF/BNSF: Biggest user of decapods (One is named after the state the railroad serves, other took the name from the railroads itself!), One of the first railroads to use Diesel Electrics motive power.
4. Norfolk & Western / Norfolk Southern: The last class one to run coal-fired steam trains (and proven how bad Diesels really are!)
5. Great Northern: The only 'Transcontinental' built by ONE corporate (And so deserving the name 'Empire Builder'), east to west. most of the transcontinentals were built by several competing companies (and by the directives of, and numbers of helps by Federal Government... the helping hand usually earned by macchiavellian lobbyism by the likes of Leland Stanford and .... maybe Cyrus K. Holliday). and therefore the constructions began on the different ends and meets somewhere by agreements with rivals (1st transcontinentals--UP & CP , the line met somewhere in Utah, the southernmost transcontinentals were SP, ATSF, and several lesser gulf railroads later bought off by SP) Great Northerns don't need any, nor earned an attention of the federal governments.

Great Northern is the dream realized by James Hill. relive his railroad efforts by downloading maps today!

So did the SP. You forgot about the Cab Forward and 4-10-2. The only two companies to use them were the SP/UP. Plus the Daylight was included in RT2 Platinum and the skin for the 4-8-4 Northern was also based on the SP GS-4 or GS-5 type 4-8-4.

I'd say the Southern Pacific during the 1940s and 1950s.

Northern Pacific also built a Transcon line without any help from firms or gov't.

[crtty]

How about China Railway Corporation?

[Gumboots]

You're talking to Americans. They'll never admit that a non-US railroad could be great.

[Hawk]

You're talking to Americans. They'll never admit that a non-US railroad could be great.

Its hard enough to admit an American railroad is great these days.