James Gibb

Trains, by James Gibb, is a book of photographs of steam locomotives from around the world. It includes about 130 high-quality color photographs. In addition, many of the locomotives in the photographs are very unusual, at least to those of us in the United States. The photographs are grouped geographically according to where the locomotives are/were used or are currently displayed, using the following categories: United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australasia, and Rest of the World. Many of the photos are beautifully done and it is fun to see the unusual steam locomotives from other countries. However, I couldn’t quite figure out what the author/photographer was trying to accomplish with this book. If his intent was to present attractive photographs of unique steam locomotives, then he succeeded. However, he also included very brief, and not very useful, introductions about the development of railroads worldwide and in each of the geographic regions listed above. In addition, Gibb discussed the importance of preserving these locomotives, and most of them were photographed at railroad museums, tourist railroads, or during excursion runs. Unfortunately, his photograph captions are very inadequate. Most of them do not provide enough information about the locomotives to be useful to the reader, especially for the locomotives from outside the United States or Canada. Most do not give enough information about where the locomotive can be seen, i.e., the name and location of the museum, tourist line, or excursion runs. There are even a few photographs that do not contain any caption. Also, some of the photographs seem to have been placed in the wrong section of the book, e.g., the Canadian section contains a photograph of a Pennsylvania Railroad M1b with the Keystone on the front. Some locomotive enthusiasts may also be disappointed because some of the photographs are framed for effect instead of to show the overall locomotive or its important characteristics. Another slight concern about the book is its rather awkward size and layout, 15 inches vertical and 8 inches horizontal, making it difficult to shelve, although the large page sizes accommodates large photographs, which is a plus. Again, this book presents many striking photographs of some very unique locomotives and they may be worth a look for many readers.… (meer)