BOOK REVIEW: Trackside With "Mr. Alco"

This is a brand new book about George Hockaday; authored by Len Killian and Jim Odell. Published by Morning Sun Books.
I just received my copy of it and had a chance to look at it and I must say, I am impressed. The Color photos are excellent and subject matter is incredible as it shows view never before published of the Alco Plant and locomotives in places that no longer exist.
For those younger readers; George Hockaday was a service engineer for ALCO from 1956 right up until the plant closed. He then went on to work for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad for many years as a CMO.
After leaving the D&H, he started to offer field service for owners of ALCO locomotive anywhere in the United States and Mexico.
I had a chance to meet this man before he passed on and I must say that he was an ALCO expert in his own right.
I highly recommend this book if you love ALCO's. You won't be able to put it down once you start reading it.

Just adding Morning Suns' webpage: http://www.morningsunbooks.com/alphalis ... kside.html - This book is near the bottom of this list.

Thank you for your review, Alcoman. It sounds great.

Finally had a chance to look through mine at length and it's quite interesting. George Hockaday took some amazing shots, and seeing brand new locos headed for what are now "fallen flags" reminds us of how much things have changed.

The authors did a nice job on the layout, as it follows Goerge's career through ALCO, D&H, and later adventures.

If there is one weakness, it's the horrible lack of decent proofreading. A couple text errors can be forgiven as the authors may not have fully understood some factual items. But the typos and other glitches in numerous captions detract from what would otherwise be a truly stellar book.

Have seen Hockaday´s short interview in the Alco - trilogy videos, this man has no blood in his vains cause they are filled with Alco lube oil.....

Glad to see somebody had the foresight to get an interview on tape. The vast majority of people who have played a central role in the locomotive building industry pass away with little or no notice from railfans until they are gone. It is particularly sad since we have these chapters of so-called "national" historical groups located all over the place that make very little effort to reach out to these people. We have squandered the opportunity to access most of the knowledge of the people who designed and built the first generation diesels just as completely as we slept through the opportunity to learn from the steam locomotive designers and builders before them.

MX