I'm not at all a fan of streamlined steam, albeit with two exceptions.

The Gresley A4 is one I do like. It was sound rather than merely stylised, and I believe Bulleid had a hand in it as well. Although that aerodynamic soundness was probably compromised when the side-skirting came off during the war, that de-skirted form is my favourite configuration rather than the original fully-skirted shroud.

The other is the Dreyfus form over the New York Central Hudson. Just masterful. Again, the war was hard on the original execution, but the 1938 20th Century Limited in its entirety with a Dreyfus Hudson up front was a beautiful form; no-one in North America came close.

The rest of them do nothing for me at best and are revolting in the main, to be honest. Inverted horse-troughs and bathtubs or just clumsy in proportion. Some that are fan-favourites in America, like the SP Daylights and the N&W J are just awful, the former a gawdy minger that screams California bad-taste (Orange and red? Really?) and the other with its busy little wheels looking like a cross between a centipede and a Zeppelin.

Not that the picture in Britain was much different. The LMS Pacifics were alright I guess but nothing that either offends or inspires. And Bulleid's "Spam Cans"; the nickname pretty much covers it, though they do commit a further sin by covering up a truly handsome locomotive in both the destreamlined Battle of Britain and Merchant Navy classes.

Now, to cement my place as an opinionated heretic in the railway enthusiast world, I'll say a diesel was much easier to streamline and many more were at least visually effectively done.