If you could go back in time...

Illinois Central 4-6-0 382

B&O 0-4-0T Dockside 98

Santa Fe "Blue Goose" 4-6-4 3460

Rusty

1) Southern Pacific MT-4/MT-5 4-8-2

2) Southern Pacific AC-9 2-8-8-4 (NOT a cab forward)

3) NYC Niagara 4-8-4

4) NYC Hudson

PRR J1a 2-10-4

PRR t1 4-4-6-4

PRR Q2 4-4-6-4

NYC J-3

Milwaukee Road streamlined F-7 hudson

PRR S-2 Turbine

Ok, I will play:

CB&Q Elesco FWH M4a 2-10-4

Canadian National 4-6-4

D&RGW M68 4-8-4

D&RGW L105 4-6-6-4

This should keep whoever will be doing this work quite busy for a while !!

PRR 9669, aka OR&W 5 (I think it was Second 5, anyway)

B&O EM-1 7600

A NYC Hudson, not sure which one would be best

Reading K-1 2-10-2

Record-setting Atlantic City Railroad Camelback 4-4-2 No. 1027

CNJ Camelback 4-6-0 No. 774

A NYC Hudson has been mentioned so I'll add the first Niagara, No. 6000

as long as we're just talking about steam engines...

the one George Corliss built for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.  seventy feet tall with a 56 ton flywheel, its 1400 hp output powered the entire exhibition hall continuously for six months.  George Pullman eventually bought it and shipped it to his factory where it ran for the next 30 years until sold for scrap at $8/ton.

NYC Dreyfuss Hudson (20th Century Limited)

NYC Dreyfuss Hudson (Empire State Express)

NYC Hudson J3a

As many Mason Bogies as possible.

B&O EM1 2-8-8-4

Western Maryland Class I-2 2-10-0 OR Class H-9 2-8-0

Cumberland & Pennsylvania  2-8-0 #32, built 1910 at C&Ps Mt. Savage,MD. shops, sold to the Winchester & Western in Gore,VA,in 1945, scrapped 1953. Could have been only survivor of over 30 built by that shop for the C&P.

Niagara

J-3A Hudson

J-3A Dreyfuss Hudson

J-1 Hudson

B&O EM-1

PRR T1 4-4-4-4

PRR Q2 4-4-6-4

I carefully considered this, and then I got carried away and went to seven....they are in order

I think that the western roads made out fairly well in terms of notable designs that were saved, especially UP and ATSF. So my list is oriented to eastern steam.

Any reasonable list has to include these!

The B&O EM1 is a must...and would have been saved but for a beaurocratic snafu !  Next up is the always popular PRR J1, a mill that would have been saved if the museum in Worthington , Ohio had possessed a larger facility.  And the all time champ for engines that should have been saved....NYCS Hudson 5344 J1e !   Sad truth is we could have had any of a large number of Central Hudsons, but failed to act collectively.  I can also appreciate a large number of the other choices listed above, but we are limited to three chooches !

I'll throw my hat in the ring for a NYC J3a.

Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes 24

One of the small Pere Marquette Belpaire firebox steamers from the early 1900's.

Jeff C

Overland Flyer:  That Corliss Engine reminds me of one of the Gilbert Erector set models from way back - probably where they got the inspiration. I would have loved seeing it in operation. I wonder if there could have been any film made of it in the  1890's?

Here's my three four: the PRR S-1 6-4-4-6 Duplex, the PRR S-2 Turbine, the NYC Hudson #5433 (of course), and just for fun, another vote for the B&O Docksider.

There were six J-1 Hudsons scrapped in Erie, PA. I was told by the yard manager at Luria brothers that the price paid for ALL SIX engines was $10,000. Who among us wouldn't pony up the $1600, even inflated to todays dollars, for a NYC Hudson. The engines were scrapped in 1956.

I once had a conversation with a Civil Engineering guy who worked for NYC and was a "steam man". He was told upon visiting Airline Junction (Toledo) that an operable J-3A could be bought for $8,000.

Anything Lehigh Valley

Crusader

J3a

C&O M-1 turbine

Heres my picks a sal 4-8-2 m2 mountain oil burner steamer.The rf&p 4-8-4 steamer and a ic 4-8-2.