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Book

Author: Jim Wrinn Title: Union Pacific's Big Boys Subtitle: The Complete Story From History To Restoration Publisher:   Kalmbach Books Country: USA Date: 1 Sep 2020 Format: Paperback Genre: Transport, History, Photography ISBN-10: 162700792X ISBN-13: 9781627007924 Rating: Rate Collection:   I Own It     I Want It  Community:  1 Wants Price Guide: Valuation Page » Search on eBay

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Notes

Union Pacific’s Big Boys: The complete story from history to restoration covers the who, what, why, and when of the 25 popular 4-8-8-4 steam locomotives. This book gives the historical background on the early 1940s development, explains why they were built, how they were used, and traces their history until they were retired in the 1950s. It also covers the much anticipated and well covered restoration of No. 4014 starting when it was recovered in a park in 2013 all the way through to its restoration and tour across the United States in the summer of 2019. Trains magazine has been published for almost 80 years, much of which has included extensive coverage of Union Pacific’s Big Boys since they were created. Everything you need to know about these popular steam locomotives can be found in this 224-page book.

Comments and Reviews

WPLives 5th Aug 2021		Review Style over substance Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2020 (My actual rating is closer to 2 3/4 stars) Union Pacific's 25 4-8-8-4s have long had a massive cult following, one which endures today with the restoration of 4014 to running order. I've long awaited a really substantial reference book on these classic locomotives, and I suppose I'll just have to keep on waiting. For the most part, this is another case of style winning over substance. Not mentioned in the product description is the fact that most of this book is recycled material. All eight chapters were previously published as articles in "Trains" Magazine; three of them are from their July 2019 special issue "Big Boy: Back in Steam." For a book billed as "the complete story," the historical and technical sections are disappointingly anemic. Although the chapters focused on earlier articulated and Superpower locomotives are fairly detailed and fleshed out, there's not much here on the design, development, and operation of the Big Boys themselves. Beyond a decent cutaway artwork and a fairly detailed specifications table, there's little in the way of technical detail; no line diagrams, no schematics of the valve gear, very few images of the "guts" of the locomotive beyond the boiler interior, a smattering of "how it works" information, and not even a labeled image of the backhead. Histories of individual Big Boys are nowhere to be found. Frankly, William Withuhn's "American Steam Locomotives" did a better job describing the Big Boys and their articulated brethren. This leaves the photographs to do much of the heavy lifting, and there's certainly a lot of them here. Thankfully, many of them are absolutely superb, depicting Big Boys and other classic American articulateds in their prime, the restoration of 4014, and its triumphant return to the rails in 2019. Most of the images are finely reproduced, with the fine grain of the black & white photographs and the superb color and detail of the 21st-century photos jumping off the page. Unfortunately, the editors at Kalmbach have totally wasted the landscape format, and many of the photographs go right through the binding. This might be acceptable in a ~70-page staple-bound magazine, but in a 224-page paperback book, a lot of fine mechanical detail disappears into the gutter. If you're a huge fan of the Big Boys, you might be able to forgive this book's flaws and simply enjoy the photographs. If you're interested in the mechanical aspects of steam locomotives, you're probably going to be disappointed. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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