Customer Reviews

EMD Early Road Switchers: GP7 - GP20 Locomotives (TrainTech)

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Here's a good basic book for any model railroader who models the 1950s and on. Rail fans who are intersted in early GP locos will be somewhat disappointed at the incomplete coverage. The GP series of locos by EMD were the most widely sold locomotives in history and hundreds are still running on short lines and regional railroads. There are lots of pictures, but more of the original locos and fewer of a few current ones would have been nice. In fact, that is the major problem with this book -- far too many pictures and too much copy are devoted to a few GPs still running on 2 or 3 short lines, mostly in the Northeast. More extensive coverage is needed of the locos as they were used when new in the 1950s and early 60s.

I bought this book and I was extremelly happy with it but it has a few Shortcomings. For one it is a book in the self professed "TRAINTECH" but not one diagram or technical diagram or drawing of the locomotives can be found. As another reviewer wrote, there seems to be a lot of coverage of current operations w/surviving examples but less of the locomotives when they were first operated. I also feel that there were significant examples of "Geeps" that deserved mention and/or an illustration or two. Some examples include CN's GP's w/Flexicoil trucks and a smaller fuel tank, the US Army's GP7L which had a huge Winterization Hatch w/a small fuel tank and AAR switcher trucks which were later rebuilt into another notable unmentioned and unpictured example when they were rebuilt with AAR-B (road trucks salvaged from ALCO RS-1's) and some recieved new cabs and all got chopped noses.

Despite the short comings an excellent Volume!!!!

I found this book very informative, pictorally and factually. It's worth having in your reference library if your a model railroader or fan of early EMD 'Geep' Locomotives. While not every picture is taken by Mr. Solomon, they are all of high quality and certainly useful in modeling after a prototype. Was slightly disappointed to not see the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac's GP-7s (They origially had four, in a very stylized paint), or the rebuilt one still in service today (used by the Old Dominion Chapter of the NRHS and Buckingham Branch RR), I could overlook that for the plethora of other useful tidbits in here.