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Locomotives The Modern Diesel & Electric Reference Second Edition Greg McDonnell
Locomotives The Modern Diesel & Electric Reference
Second Edition
Greg Mcdonnell
Softbound 272 Pages
Copyright 2015
INTRODUCTION
WHAT ARE THESE DIESELS?
The headline appeared on a full-page ad in the February 1967 issue of Trains magazine and with it, a photograph and a promise. The photo was a Don Wood image of Pennsylvania Railroad Alcos, Baldwins, EMDs and FMs of every imaginable shape and size crowding the shop tracks in Altoona, Pa. The promise? "Just a glance through the all-new Diesel Spotter's Guide and you'll know their makers, model numbers, wheel arrangements, and horsepower." The first all-encompassing guide to North American diesels, Jerry A. Pinkepank's 304-page manual was, for diesel fans, just what the doctor ordered.
For a kid in school, filling the prescription was another matter. Money was always in short supply, and there were Beatle albums to buy and 45s and film and Trains magazine. It was a big day when the package marked with a Kalmbach "K" and a 1027 North 7th Street return address arrived in the mail. Pinkepank made good on the publisher's promise. In the pulp pages behind a glossy color cover adorned with the faces of SOO GP35 722, L&N C420 1306 and Santa Fe U28CG 358, the Diesel Spotter's Guide told all, from the oft-disputed difference between a GP7 and a GP9 to a detailed description of the Alco Blunt Baldwin AS16 to the GE U50. It was the best $3.50 I ever spent.
Forty years and half a dozen editions of the Spotter's Guide later, locomotives and railroading have changed immeasurably. The three units that graced the cover of the original DSG have long ago been scrapped, and the railroads that owned them have been swallowed up in mergers; GE, still considered a newcomer in the road-diesel trade when the first Diesel Spotter's Guide hit the stands, has been the number one locomotive builder in North America for more than 20 years ... and $3.50 will buy a good cup of coffee.
Railroading, nevertheless, remains as exciting as ever, and the fascination of locomotives is undiminished by the consolidation of the continent's major railroads into a handful of supersystems. Through it all, Kalmbach and authors Jerry A. Pinkepank and Louis A. Marre maintained the standard established in 1967 with continuously updated versions of the diesel reference book known to generations of locomotive fans as simply "the DSG." This book aims to uphold the standard and honor the tradition of the Diesel Spotter's Guide.
This book picks up new locomotive production where Louis Marre's Diesel Locomotives: The First 50 Years (Kalmbach 1995) leaves off and updates the information first published in The Field Guide to Modern Diesel Locomotives (Kalmbach 2002). However, its starting point is not a single date. Electro-Motive coverage begins with the 1972 introduction of the Dash 2 series and all models cataloged at that time. This includes the SW1000, SW1001 and SW1500, switcher models that predate the Dash 2 but remained in production beyond 1972. General Electric coverage begins with the Dash 7 series, introduced in 1977. Wabtec's MotivePower Inc., along with its Morrison Knudsen/MK Rail/Boise Locomotive group predecessors, which began building locomotives at Boise, Idaho, in 1991, is also included, along with Alstom's Hornell, genset switchers from National Railway Equipment Co., RailPower Technologies Corp., MotivePower Inc., as well as locomotives from Brookville Equipment and ACS64 electrics from Seimens.
All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
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