Review: Train Tech Book "EMD F-Unit Locomotives"

I recently brought the TrainTech series “EMD F-Unit Locomotives” by Brian Solomon. Well, I’m not too impressed with this $24.95 soft cover book. The type setting uses a one and a half line spacing (to pad the text), a few misplaced captions that does not match the picture. A few “we-know-it-already” such as this “Sand is used to reduce wheel slip and maintain traction in situations with less-than-idea rail conditions such as rain or if debris or oil has accumulated on the rail head.” (Page 14 under Bloomberg truck). The rare eastern based railroad (NYOW, B&M, etc) photos are a plus, but Mr. Solomon’s photos of detail close-ups fail to bring up some points (page 94 fails to point out the casted “H” item on the truck once were used for mounting a set of hydraulic dampers).

I would love to see some control stand photos from FT to FL-9, but one photo shows a F7 26L brake stand in the dark. A flash and a wide angle lens would have help.

Borrow the book before buying.

I bought the GE locomotive book by the same author a while back-- it was shrink-wrapped, so i couldn't look at it in the store before buying-- and was very disappointed. Amateurish. Potted history (of a sort any of us could compose with a few old "Trains" articles as sources... I guess that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's what I felt after spending money on it) with very little in the way of historical OR technical detail.
I think the publisher was "Motor Books"? I've been steering clear of both author and publisher since.

I looked at this one and didn't bother getting my wallet out. This author's books frequently appear on the internet auctions at greatly reduced prices a very short time after they are issued (I wonder why?).

The topic of EMD F-units and E-units is getting overworked. There were a number of excellent articles over the years, most of them written by industry insiders, that have been followed by a flood of "me too" efforts that simply recycle already known information. If you have some of the original source articles in your collection, you begin to notice the similarity, and the repetitive re-telling of the story usually does not add anything new to the knowledge pool. It would take a real quality presentation by an outstanding author to convince me to spend any more money on F-unit or E-unit books.

Quite frankly, that author doesn't know a g$d-d%^m thing about locomotives. I could say the same thing for another fellow who happens to share his last name with a well-known railroad suppliers' trade name.

This other fellow wrote an article about control stands without any reference and/or knowledge of the AAR and the "cab commitee." In other words, he completely ignored the evolution of what exists today.

Would love to know how taking pictures of locomotives makes one an 'expert' on the subject ????

A look through internet book sales listings for this author was revealing. The bio's on several listings tell how many books he has written and that he has multiple residences, but no mention of having any practical experience in the industry. The phrase "renowned international author" was noted, and one listing said he has "studied" railroads in many countries. Names of well known photographers whose work was used in some of the books are also displayed. The listings showed many titles selling for less than $10, that originally had list prices in the $30 to $40 range. Some were as low as $4. Now I can see why these books haven't been in my local hobby shop lately. They have to pay around 50% of list for the books in their stock, and then compete with books being pushed through internet discounters for only a fraction of their buy price.

I visited eBay again today, and the going price for this book in some auctions is now down around half of the original suggested retail price, only a month and a half after it came out. I suspect it will be selling at less than $10 after the Christmas season is over.

A recent look at book prices showed it is now getting down near $10. Some other sellers have it marked way up at around $30. Could it be that once a book has sat on the shelf for several years and been paged through hundreds of times it becomes "rare"?