Customer Reviews

Illustrated Treasury of the American Locomotive Company

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

 

 

Every family has its family photo-album, usually filled with 3x5 or 4x6 snapshots, 3 to 6 to a page, laid out in a very practical, symetrical fashion that is devoid of any hint of creativity. The Illustrated History of the American Locomotive Company is just like one of those family albums, except in this case the snapshots are of a wonderful array of steam, diesel and electric locomtives, rather than Aunt Betty riding the Teacups at Disneyland. There is a delightfully short history of "ALCO" at the front of this volume that takes up a mere 18 pages, all the better in that it leaves LOTS of room for the true subject of this book: builder's photos of ALCO locomotives. The layout of this book, much like the family photo album, is done mostly in a very symetrical 4 photos to-a-page format. The builder's photo of Union Pacific's massive "Big Boy" steam locomotive is given no more space than Lehigh Valley's tiny 0-4-0T tank engine. ALCO diesel fans do not fear, for ALCO's diesels are well represented too, even including those built by Montreal Locomotive and Bombardier. While this book does not include a photo of every engine type ALCO ever built, it does seem to include most of them! Even the handful of electric locomotives ALCO built for various railraods are included. Those wanting to know the drawbar pull, tractive effort, cylinder dimensions and other technical data have best look elsewhere, for the text accompanying each picture is limited to one line, and is of mostly useless information. For instance, below the picture of Northern Pacific's 4-6-2 #310, we find out that this is a picture of Northern Pacific's 4-6-2 #310, built in 1905 with 69" driving wheels. That's it. For those who don't mind missing out on all the techno-babble, you will find this book to be one of the foremost photo collections of North American locomotives to be found anywhere, even if they are all built by ALCO. While all the pictures are in black & white, I do wish the pictures of the diesels were in color; the B&W simply does not do justice to the lively color schemes railroad's used to paint their early diesels, especially those which hauled passenger trains. That criticism aside, this book is an absolute must for any fan of railroad locomotives. It will serve to be an invaluable reference that will no doubt appreciate in value over the years