Locomotives: The Modern Diesel and Electric Reference

Overall a good reference for identifying modern-vintage locomotives produced by GE, EMD and others in the US. Brief histories of each supplier are informative, including notes on which roads were buyers, and in some cases disposition of units to other roads. Technical content on the design features and operation of modern diesel locomotives is pretty thin in this treatment. The book concludes with a brief treatment of electric passenger locos from principal suppliers. Printed beautifully in a large format with very crisp photos -- in all a good buy.

This reference guide is far superior to previous Diesel Spotter's guides in that the format is larger, the paper quality is superior, and the pictures are large and in color. The author and spotter's guide authors acknowledge that superiority in the Forward, but all of the guides are invaluable in identifying locomotives and examining them for details that are important in model railroading. There are some improvements that could be made to make it worth five stars. In describing differences, the author gives a general description of differences that force a reader to dig for examples when the author could easily provide them. For example, a photo of an SD70M on page 163 mentions a blower bulge much smaller than that on an SD60. If the author had added, "See the protrusion just ahead of the 'SOO' letters on the SD60 shown on page 155," a reader would quickly see the difference. Another solution would have been to show a small black outline of the locomotive being described, with a circle or arrow pointing the feature being described. That would assist novices who may not readily identify dynamic brake grids, radiator flares, or sight gauges.One editing mistake was to introduce the genset locomotives on page 201 but not describe what they were until page 217. This would puzzle any reader not up to new technology for 16 pages worth of reading. All in all, though, the book is a great complement to the original spotter's guides.

This is a very well written, high-quality book filled with top-class pictures illustrating all locomotive units covered in the period. However, it is quite a surprise the absence of KLW and its products in the list of locomotive manufacturers. Just for the record, EMD sold about 80 or so DDM-45 diesels to EFVM - Vale railroad in Brazil during the 70s, equipped with meter gauge trucks. They were actually SD-45 units modified to D+D configuration using smaller traction motors. This was necessary because de original traction motors of the SD-45 wouldn't fit in the meter gauge lines of EFVM and also because EFVM requested EMD to keep the load axle below 20t. They were very successful locomotives.

A great picture book loaded with a lot of engineering, technical, and business descriptions. I highly recommend if you are researching the railroad industry.

A very detailed and well written description of all the main locomotive manufacturers in the US. It updates the previous edition with many photos and technical information on the latest technology being employed across the nation's rail systems. I am very pleased with this version as I thought the first edition was outstanding. This follows with the same quality and level of detail

Good photography accompanied this well written chronology. My 10 year old nephew absorbed the information. He's a model train junkie.

The book is a tour de force of illustrations and narration on locomotives in current use. It is organized according to manufacturer, gives a bit of history behind each model, provides data tables that spell our the variations available for each model, and often tells what railroads use them. I bought the book so I could learn how to recognize the models in current use, ideally using cues that differentiate models and especially manufacturers. The book does not focus on differentiation so in this one aspect I am disappointed, and that accounts for my 4- as opposed to a 5-star rating.

Looked at this book for a long time, glad I finally ordered. A must for RR fans.

Ok I was quite surprised with the amount of different liveries and types of loco's that the US of A has got running about. This book has very good quality photos and is printed on good quality paper.If you are planning a trip to the US then this book will wet your apitite for all things trains.All in all a quality book at a very nice price.

The book is wonderful. Unfortunately a few pages were damaged

Bought as a present and I am told it's full of excellent, colour photos and information.

Brilliant book, I refer to it all the time for my American railroad modelling. Great photos and comprehensive information.

Helps with type recognition. Information duplicated between text, tables and photo captions. Good photographs. Dated 2008 so inevitably becoming out of date.