Alan,
You are NOT wasting anyones time. I, for one, know exactly what you mean.
It isn't possible to consider the really early examples of British locos as, for want of a better word, they were "experimental". They were all different and it was a case of adding all the bits together on some sort of chassis to make some sort of useable loco. It was only in later years, when the typical loco shape had been established, that engineers could start to make them pleasant on the eye. It was then that British locos (in my mind) started to excel and the Wainwright D Class locos are a good example of this.
Most "foreign" locos have a more cluttered appearance than ours and none more so than the U.S. monsters. Although an attempt was made by some overseas railways to design a good-looking loco I think this came well below functionality and ease of accessibility in their list of priorities. Even my beloved Swiss steam locos score badly in the appearance stakes because of all the visible pipework but I still think they are better than many of the German and French examples.
Although British attitudes towards loco design did change over the years I think that even the later examples from the Big Four and B.R. were sleeker than most of their foreign counterparts........or maybe I am just biased?
