Customer Reviews

Locomotives: The Modern Diesel and Electric Reference

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I haven't bought a Greg McDonnell train book since 'Heartland' and 'Signatures in steel' in the nineties but seeing his name on this large title convinced me. I've always loved his train photography because he has the creative knack of taking beautiful compositions with that little bit extra: perfect framing.

The fact that this book, for the armchair rail fan, presents photos for reference is no reason to skimp on image quality and three hundred throughout the pages generally achieve both aims. I was particularly pleased to see so many photos of clean units so you can check out the detail of the trucks or cab design. You'll even see photos of clean SP units from years ago when they used that incredibly dirty looking blue/gray paint scheme (actually, nothing wrong with the color, it's just that they never bothered to clean them).

A couple of really neat spreads caught my eye with exploded type photos of a GE AC6000CW, SD90MAC-H and EMD SD70ACe and photos of twelve different trucks. A simple sort of visual idea that works well. The inclusion of passenger loco units was a good idea.

Overall a very impressive book with a ton of information in photos and text. Plenty of specs about various models, too. My only criticism, very common in transport books, is the habit of writing long captions in one paragraph and some in the book are really long in several lines set to the type area width.

Congratulations to Greg McDonnell for delivering the goods with this one.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

For anyone interested in current day diesel locomotives this is the book for them. Beautifully bound, great colored pictures and for railroad history buffs, excellent information on the companies who still build these prime movers.

If you are a true train buff especially if you are interested in Diesel Locomotives, than this publication is a must have. The author has truly provided you with a great deal of info on GE, EMD and the smaller guys locomotives. The photos that go with the text could not have been better anywhere else.

this book is a must have for any modern diesel locomtive fan who what is see the differences betwen certain models of the same basic engine

This reference guide is very informative. It has detailed information about any locomotive you can think of. Excellent pics and history of each one as well. I highly recommend this guide to any railfan.

Finally an update to the Diesel Spotters Guides. I'm really enjoying the book. The histories of the locomotive builders and each locomotive are very informative.

I have many books on trains and railroading.This book is by far the most up to date as well as informative books I have in my collection.

Not much to say about this book except it is just EXCELLENT !!!!
Pictures, descriptions, organization, all extremely well done !!

Great picures and the book was in super condition. My grandson loves trains and has looked st this book for hours. This was exactly this book I wanted.

I purchased this as a christmas gift for a friend and he absolutely loves it. Great pictures and very informative! The price was right as well. Once again, thank you Amazon.