In 1892 Charles Heisler received a patent for a new kind of geared locomotive. Equipped with twin canted cylinders, the engine utilized a driveshaft to power outboard axles and connecting rods to power the inboard axles. As a result of this `vee-twin¿ arrangement, the Heisler was one of the fastest geared steam locomotives, providing more power with lower operating costs. Over 600 Heislers were produced from the 1890¿s until 1941, when the Heisler Locomotive Works closed its doors. This reproduction of the company¿s illustrated catalog dates from the 1920¿s. It shows the full line of Heisler products and presents a compelling argument for their use.
William Warden began photographing logging railroads in West Virginia in 1957. This book explains--and illustrates with both color and black & white photographs--the operations of logging railroads in the state from about 1940-1960. It includes a fascinating look at the rapid and haphazard laying of track, the challenge of getting up the mountains, and the hazards of derailing locomotives. Warden's book addresses the romance of back woods railroading. With puffy white clouds in an azure blue sky, a Shay type narrow gauge geared locomotive on the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company's logging railroad hauls a train of logs toward the mill in June 1954. This scene is typical of the interesting West Virginia logging railroad operations that are portrayed in this book. In another Ely-Thomas Lumber Company scene, Shay No. 5 prepares to cross Manns Run, near the end of this narrow gauge logging line's life in October. William E. Warden began photographing logging railroads in West Virginia in 1957. He prepared this book to illustrate and explain the methods and operations of logging railroads in West Virginia in the last twenty years that they ran, ending about 1960. West Virginia was one of the nation's largest producers of lumber beginning in the late 19th Century and extending into the middle third of the 20th Century. It had hundreds of logging railroads carrying huge quantities of timber to mills for processing into finished lumber, which was then shipped all over the United States, again by rail. The lumber industry in West Virginia began its decline when the great stands of virgin forest began to be depleted, and by the 1950s, there were only a half-dozen or so operations left still using logging railroads. There remain many logging and lumber milling operations in the state, but today the logs are taken from the forest by motor truck to modern, highly automated mills. The romance of back woods railroading holds a particular allure and nostalgia today, even as it did when these last few lines were still operating. We are lucky that Bill Warden and others were there to photograph the last decades. The book treats in detail five of the last and largest companies to use logging railroads and illustrates each line in some detail. Also included are chapters about logging in West Virginia and the locomotives that were favorites of the loggers--the famous geared Shay, Climax, and Heisler types. Today tourists can experience some of the logging railroad flavor by riding the Cass Scenic Railroad over the old line of the Mower Lumber Company out of Cass, W.Va.
Between 1900 and 1950, Americans built the most powerful steam locomotives of all time--enormous engines that powered a colossal industry. They were deceptively simple machines, yet, the more their technology was studied, the more obscure it became. Despite immense and sustained engineering efforts, steam locomotives remained grossly inefficient in their use of increasingly costly fuel and labor. In the end, they baffled their masters and, as soon as diesel-electric technology provided an alternative, steam locomotives disappeared from American railroads. Drawing on the work of eminent engineers and railroad managers of the day, this lavishly illustrated history chronicles the challenges, triumphs and failures of American steam locomotive development and operation.
Historic North American Locomotives traces the historic development of North American locomotives from the early 1800s through today. Considered a photographic book with the look and feel of fine art, 100 locomotives are profiled using descriptive text and richly detailed and colored photographic imagery. A well-researched introduction provides the reader with a historical perspective. The author/photographer includes high-quality photographs, created through various techniques that vividly capture the distinctive features of the locomotives. From the 1805 Trevithick portable boiler to modern, high-speed locomotives such as the 2013 GE Genesis, the reader will enjoy viewing a variety of locomotives that are not usually shown together in one book.
