Customer Reviews

Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive (Railroads Past and Present)

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This book is an absolute " must have " for anyone with a serious interest in steam locomotives.
J Parker Lamb, a former Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Texas At Austin has written this supurb book touching on locomotive history, theory, design, and engineering principles. This is a well illustrated and comprehensive text that summarizes the development and evolution of steam locomotives across the United States. Most of the major railroads and many lesser known roads are well represented. It seems to have covered all of the major variants of American locomotives including many I have never before encountered.
At 190 pages, and about that many delightful photographs, this is an authoritative work I can not commend highly enough to anyone whose interest goes beyond nostalgia and general appreciation and on into serious study. Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive does justice to the memory of these magnificent machines. Even if you just want to learn something about the topic, this is a fine place to start. The photos alone are worth the price of the book!

If you've been curious about how steam locomotives developed in North America the way they did, and why they disappeared, then this is a nice book to start with. It explains why the thermodynamic efficiency of a steam locomotive can only be about 18% with superheating and a 300 psi boiler pressure. However, in actual practice, the thermal efficiency is around 6%. Compared to the 30% thermal efficiency of the internal combustion (e.g. diesel) engine, the steam locomotives have a long way to go. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, such considerations meant that steam as we knew it was doomed.

However, in this day and age, the ability to burn alternative fuels besides oil may allow the steam locomotive to make a reappearance in a more modern guise.

J. Parker Lamb does not get this far in his analysis, as it looks primarily backwards from the earliest of steam locomotives in North America to the last ones of the 1950s and 1960s. The reasons for their evolution are well explained and lavishly illustrated. It's a very good book from that perspective. The quantity of physics and math equations are kept to a minimum - perhaps a little too few for those with a more technical inclination. However, it should be understood that this is a book for the general public, and not mechanical engineers.

Lamb concludes that steam's low thermodynamic efficiency along with the diesel's ability to be used modularly - i.e. several locomotives controlled by one engineer - gave the the diesel the overwhelming advantage. That was indeed true when the diesel took over 40-50 years ago. But if you read Porta or Wardale's work, you will realize that steam locomotive evolution is far from over. Modern techniques such as the Lempor exhaust, and the gas producer combustion system can more than double the typical steam locomotive's efficiency, and prevent a lot of the fuel from going unburned up through the stack by a very strong draft. I still hope for the return of mainline steam, but Lamb doesn't hold out that hope - my only disappointment with the book.

I bought this book with the Oxford book "How steam locomotives really work", which is a more detailed technical text that is also excellent. Both are recommended highly if you care anything about the steam locomotive and want to add to your knowledge.

This book is primarily for steam train buffs, but also shows the progression of steam power to electric and diesel in the U.S. Written from an engineering perspective, it is both interesting and informative. The photos alone are worth having this book in your collection.

The advertising says that this book, written by an engineer, gives an engineering perspective of the evolution of the American steam locomotive. While there were moments in which the author provided some background (such as providing a very rudimentary explanation of steam tables), I was disappointed to find that it was more a history of the development of the steam locomotive through the various types of locomotives and what they brought to the table. But, I had been hoping for a more in-depth discussion of the engineering facets of the various theories and devices employed to pull the most work out of the steam.

The beginning of the book was promising. The author gave a nice background of basic steam engine priciples and the application of steam engines to locomotion. Unfortunately, as the book progressed, it became evermore a recitation of the evolution through the various types of locomotives. To be fair, he did spend some time explaining, for example, how the development of the bigger firebox affected the ability of the locomotive to provide sustained power, but even that discussion could have provided more.

I would really have liked to see more detailed discussions of such things as the thermodynamic effect of feedwater heaters, the differences between feedwater pumps vs. injectors, the differences between fire tube and water tube boilers (he did mention some differences, but I would have liked to have seen more depth), to name a few.

Overall, it's a good read and nicely informative. I would recommend it to a non-engineer who has limited knowledge of steam locomotives, their basic principles and their devices. For myself, I was looking for something with more meat.

If you're interested in learning how the steam locomotive developed and why certain types were built, this is the book for you. The author divides locomotive types into first, second and third generations and shows not only how they progressed but what needs cropped up that required that progression. For those with an engineering bent, he provides diagrams showing how locomotive performance was measured, and even if you aren't an engineer, they're pretty easy to follow. Finally, he shows how advancing technology caused the steam locomotive to die out. The book is interesting and enjoyable, with lots of good pictures.

This is an excellent book on the development up to the last steam locomotives in America. It is well written, provides broad coverage of the field from the earliest days to the last ones of these awesome behemoths before they were knocked out of the ballpark by diesels. Prime reading for Railroad Buffs!

This book provides a very comprehensive overview of the development of steam locomotives. Some readers may find it too technical, but for anyone interested in really understanding steam power, this is the book to get.

This well illustrated book describes the basic engineering and thermodynamic principles by which a steam locomotive works without getting into a lot of obscure technical detail. It takes the reader through the types of technical improvements made over about 100 years to fit American railroading needs which were quite different from European conditions. It also describes the basic reasons why the steam locomotive lost its primacy to the diesel locomotive. It is done in an easily readable style with good uses of the illustrations to support the text.