Anyone have a good source for European locomotive info?

There are many great books on European locomotives, but it would probably be easier to find the most detail one class at a time.  Which particular locomotive classes are you most interested in? 

 

Wikipedia is often a good place to start a search. Most often there are useful links to other articles and reference material.

I'm mostly into just steam but I found lots of details in biographies of the "locomotive geniuses" of European steam.  The US seemed to have no equivalent of Andre Chapelon and Sir Nigel Gresley, even though we ultimately turned out bigger, heavier, more powerufl locomotives: our icons seemed to all be Railroad barons, not design engineers.  Anyway, I have two or three biographies of each man plus one about the design teams for German speed record steam in the Nazi era which ended up having long discussions about the whole history of German steam, and some bios of Gresley and Chapelon are full of enough details to choke a horse - not just diagrams but long discussions of why this loco had this type of valving, etc., and how and why Gresley went to his particular design for three cylinders, etc.  I browsed Amazon and bought all of these used at prices like -- really, often just 50 cents plus $5 shipping, etc. 

I'm not exactly sure which classes I'm interested in yet. I am finding it interesting just to see the different motive power other than what we are use to seeing in the states. This is just kind of a side project for me now so I'll keep it simple with photo's and county's of origin but I will check out some of the sources you both suggested. Thank you.

Hi, Chris.

 

I have quite a few books and videos about foreign railways. Give me some time so I can put together some recommendations for you. Would you happen to have a proficiency with any foreign languages?

 

Bob

It also depends on what country as each contry has it's own types.  Have you settled on a country?

Hi, Chris.

 

There are a number of specific recommendations I can make for learning more about European railways and equipment. For this post, I’d like to concentrate on UK equipment as there’s a veritable plethora of material covering British and continental railways.

 

One of my truly favorite books is “British Rail Standard Diesels of the 1960s” by David Clough. The book traces the design, development and operation of the various classes of British diesels which replaced steam. Supplemented by excellent black and white photographs, the text is informative without overwhelming the reader with technical data. For British diesels, this book is an excellent starting point. It is available from Amazon from whom I purchased my copy:

 

http://www.amazon.com/British-Rail-Standard-Diesels-1960s/dp/0711033730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360256156&sr=8-1&keywords=british+railway+standard+diesels

 

Ian Allan publishes several series of motive power titles which are very interesting. Included in these series are “Locomotives in Detail” for individual classes of steam, “The Power of” books which cover specific steam and diesel types and several volumes of “Diesels in Depth” (self-explanatory). Another recommendation I can make referencing British locomotives is “The Book of” series published by Irwell Press. As with the aforementioned Ian Allan series, each volume these books is dedicated to specific class of locomotive…Deltic, A4, etc. These books are consistent in quality and provide a superb look at their respective topics. If you like books heavy with color photography along the lines of those published by Morning Sun, Ian Allan offers many, many wonderful titles too numerous to mention.

 

As far as purchasing British books, they are not easily found in the states. As mentioned above Amazon, stocks some titles so you can begin your search there. Use keyword searches such as “Ian Allan” and “Irwell Press” and it should give you the selection of what is currently in stock. The other recommendation I have is to go to UK based bookseller www.thebookdepository.com. I have purchased the vast majority of my British titles from the BD. The BD offers free worldwide shipping along with an expansive selection of UK titles. The website gives you the ability to order in US dollars so, combined with the free shipping, the price you see is the price you pay. The BD usually ships within 48 hours of order placement and, depending upon how quickly customs is moving, you should receive your order within 2 weeks. I’ve received many of my BD orders within 5 days. Here’s the BD link to the train section:

 

http://www.bookdepository.com/.../Trains-and-Railways

 

When you have some time, peruse BD’s selection. You can click on each title to get more specifics such as number of pages and type of photos (color/b&w). If you have any questions about a particular book, let me know as I may have it and can tell you what you want to know.

 

I hope this helps. Next, I’ll put together some information regarding continental suggestions for you.

 

Regards,

 

Bob

While one can never have too many books on locomotives -- my gf might disagree with that statement -- I'd suggest using the internet as a start to help focus your interests.  As examples:

   A.  For French motive power, an oogle for ' SNCF materiel moteur ' will yield a number of sources, including an excellent overview on Wiki;  it's in French, of course, but the minimal text will allow you to review most classes of current and recent diesel and electric motive power.  Once you find a type of loco you like, further searches will find more photos and info.

   B.  For modern electrics, such as the Taurus and Traxx that MTH, inter alia, have produced, www.railcolor.net is unbeatable, and in English too.  Info and eye candy in one location.  You can see for yourself how quickly the color schemes MTH picks are outdated !

 

But be warned:

   -  "The more you know, the more you don't know"

   -  You wouldn't want to reach the point where you lie awake nights wondering if MTH will put the correct number of front windows on the orange Austrian 1020 vs the other three versions -- would you ??

 

Best rgds, SZ

Good Day Chris,

 

Check out the….....Voith Maxima 40. This is my favorite European modern engine.

 

Regards,

Frank

 

 

 

Thank you everyone for all the great suggestions. I'll have more time tomorrow while being snowed in by this monster storm heading are way to do some research. As far as country I guess I will start with British and maybe German rail. I have the MTH Taurus and I would love to be able to translate the German dialog to English. I can catch a couple of words but that's it.

Hi Chris, living in Europ, I am a Dutchman, I know something about European trains and models. But be aware. I just collect books about railway and tram in Holland, Germany and some Switzerland and I have about 20 meter bookshelfs loaded with books. So much is published that it will be hard to get an overview. But Internet will be of great help. You can start visiting sites of railwaymuseums. Most of them have pages in English.

For example:

http://www.spoorwegmuseum.nl/home.html

https://www.deutschebahn.com/s...t-cae-slave1-belfort 

http://www.verkehrshaus.ch/

http://www.nrm.org.uk/

http://www.norsk-jernbanemuseum.no/

Well and there are more. And wikipedia is a very good source.

If you have any questions email at info@blik-en-speelgoed.nl

 

 

Excellent!   Thank you Rob.

Hi Chris,

was that the dispatcher to driver dialogue you're referring to?

Anyhow, if you need help to translate, I can do that.

 

Kieffer

Hi Kieffer. Here is the video of my Taurus with the dialog.  Thank you for your help.