Customer Reviews

Chesapeake & Ohio Super Power Steam Locomotives

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For anyone interested in steam locomotives of any nationality this is one to

buy for their library. A beautifully laid out book with hundreds of photo's it gives the history and running abilities of these huge engines. The engineering background and building is well covered including line drawings,

"Mechanical Diagrams" of all the engines covered in this book. It is easy to

read which makes it hard to put down. Well worth the money.

Good things first: A few of the photos are great (but see further comments below), and there is some new detailed information here for people who already know a lot about the C&O steam engines. I also liked the technical drawings of the locos. Some of the info on the maintenance and repairs of steam locomotives may also be welcome.

On the other hand, the quality of the photographs are uneven, and many are a bit blurry. Quite a few of the photos appear to have been stretched (perhaps during the layout phase) so that the proportions of the locomotives seem strange. However, the most annoying part is that the whole book has a tendency to focus on a few, often trivial, details. For instance, you will find page upon page on why one feedwater heater was chosen for a few locomotives but not others, and why the "Allegheny" locomotives deserved their name (!). If these pieces of detailed information were extensive enough, they might have covered something worth reading for everyone, but they only cover a few aspects. There is almost nothing on how the locomotives performed in daily service, and how they were operated by the engineers and firemen etc. Finally, many sentences seem a bit unfinished, as if the author did not have time to carefully go through the finished text before publication.

All in all, the book may be of some interest for C&O modelers and enthusiasts, but others should probably steer away.

some of the editorial text gets a little political and I suspect it is speculative, as author goes on to say that there are no records surviving.

The photos are worth the price of the book however.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Super Power Steam Locomotives, is a most excellent book. There are many different types of the major steam locomotives that changed the face of the C&O. I mainly purchased this book to find out a little more information on the Allegheny. This book most certainly has that information! There are many different pictures and good descriptions to go with them! I recommend this book for any steam locomotive enthusiast!