Could someone please explain what these volumes actually are? I’ve never actually seen one but I keep getting references to them when asking about prototype information.
After spending much time online I have not found any reviews about them nor any description about what is actually in these things. I have learned that they are big - 1,000 plus pages - very expensive, hard to find, and began being printed every 4 years since the 1870’s.
What I’m needing - references to rolling stock and motive power 1900 - 1950. Photos, scale drawings, etc.
Question - If I get a Car and Loco Cyclopedia printed in the 1970’s, will it have all the reference material from decades past in it OR will it only have reference from that printed year? In other words, would a volume from 1970’s have all the reference let’s say the 1960’s versions had but with new and updated references?
I hope to own one of these volumes in the near future if they are what I’m looking for. It seems they are THE source for trains reference.
Description: This edition contains more than 1100 pages of state-of-the-art technical resource information, with extensive descriptions, as well as, high quality technical drawings of freight cars, passenger cars and locomotives in use today and those still in the planning stages. The most versatile, powerful and professional railroad research tool available. Simmons-Boardman has produced several editions of the cyclopedia since 1879.
That’s like about a 10,000 volume set for that range of years.
In early years there was a car builder’s cyclopedia and a locomotive cyclopedia.
They only cover the new stuff and the stuff they were selling that year or was representative of what they were building. Its not comprehensive. A lot of it is stuff that was proposed to be built. A lot of the book are parts. So they might have 20 pages on boxcars and 50 pages on doors, soor latches, hinges and rollers.
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No it would be mostly current stuff. Its NOT a history of cars. Its a SALES catalog sorta.
So, if I understand correctly, If I wanted a good source of loco and car data from 1900 to 1950, I’d have to get a volume for each year? Must be alot of advertisements in these pages.
Seems to me this is NOT the kind of publication I’m searching for.
What I was wanting to obtain is a source for modeling trains in the 1st half of the 18th century. If the Car and Loco Cyclopedia is not the right publication then what is?
I’d recommend getting a copy of “The Postwar Freight Car Fleet–North American Freight Car Designs from 1898 to 1947” by Larry Kline and Ted Culotta. It’s a start.
Also handy is the quarterly published “Official Railway Equipment Register”. It lists “every” freight car in operation at the time of publication. If you go to www.westerfield.biz , they’ve got copies available on CD.
The previous post was about freight cars. Now something about locos:
For many/most railroads, you can find a locomotive roster. This gives you the locomotive number and, frequently, the build date. So, once you pick your favorite railroad(s), you can get a good fix on what locomotives were around for any particular year. Keeping in mind that freight cars traveled all over the country, you’ve got a list of cars (from the ORER mentioned above) that could have been on “your” railroad. You can modify the final tally be considering that railroads closer to yours are going to supply more cars to your railroad than more remote railroads.
Passenger car figuring tends to follow the same approach as the locomotive one, though there was some interchange of passenger cars. Still, it’s handy to get a list of cars that “your” railroad owned. Incidentally, “early” ORER’s listed passenger cars, too; so you can check there.
So, now you have a lot of numbers, and you need to turn them into reality: pictures, sir, pictures. A good start is to get books on your railroad. There’ll usually be pictures–usually locos. But, again, that’s a start.
The basic answer, though, is to get books on your subject and study them. But then, your question suggests you already know this.
Think of it as a sort of Walthers catalog for prototype railroaders and purchasing agents, since it includes all the accessories such as brake shoes, wheels, and all manner of appliances, with advertising. But the advertising is very very interesting!
Going back many years there was a Car Cyclopedia and a Locomotive Cyclopedia. They are now merged and have been for some time; I am not sure when they combined them. You might not think this makes much difference but there is a lot of differences between the 1966 Car and Locomotive Cyclopedia and the 1970 edition. I model that era and really need both. I really should get an older one from the 1950s too.
Over the years the Train Shed Cyclopedia folks (Newton K Gregg) would select portions to reprint – say Flats, Gondolas and Hoppers from the 1931 Car Builder’s Cyc, or Tank Cars from the 1922 to 1943 Cycs, or Signals and Signal Systems from the 1911 Railway Signal Directory. I think for what you want I’d explore finding the various Train Shed Cyclopedia volumes. And don’t forget the old Model Railroader Cyclopedias from the 1940s.
Dave Nelson
It is incredibly helpful to have a “Cyc” from your era (or just before it).
Yes, google.books has a couple cyclopedias you can look at online or download for free. I believe the newest version you can get is the 1909 edition, but it will direct you to the closest library that has a hardcopy of newer versions as well. Just type in “Locomotive Cyclopedia of Modern Practice” and look for the full view entries. I believe it is very detailed on an Atlantic Locomotive, to the point where you may be able to actually build one, but has items for most locomotives of that era as well. For freight, replace locomotive with “car builders”.
Some years ago Kalmbach published a copy of the 1940 or 1941 Car Cyclopedia (I’m too lazy to get out the box mine is in to check the exact year). That particular book contained cars from several years prior to the publication, up to the time of publication. To cover a time period of 50 years, you will need more than one Cyc. You might try a large local library, like a university library, to see if they have a transportation section. Another almost good source would be if you could find a copy of “NEB & W Steam Era Freight Car Modeling” sold some years ago by the Rensselaer Railroad Shop. It is not an easy read, it wanders more than a little, but with some patience, is a decent source for informantion of frieght cars in the time frame you are interested in. Those two sources have allowed me to create freight cars typical of the time period around 1940. With the shortages of materials during World War II, many older cars were still in service because they could not be replaced. These cars are included in the Rensselaer volume.
I hope this is of some help. I find these sources are a great help to me, but I tend to kitbash, or to scratchbuild, many of the very detailed cars on my layout. Mixed in with the old Silver Streak, Central Valley and Blue Box kits, they improve the look (I hope) of the trains that run on the layout. OK, I do have some Westerfield and Sunshine Models cars, I have become less driven with age.
As has been noted look in Google books for early copies. These are not rosters. You could buy every one every produced and if you wanted to find a picture or drawing of a RDG 195000 class boxcar, chances are you wouldn’t find it.
Similarly if you were looking for a locomotive drawing you probably would find a few of that wheel arrangement but not of every class of every railroad.
Isn’t really one source. Look for books on specific eras or cars. An excelleant reference for coal cars is “Coal Cars, the first 300 years”. A good general reference for cars up to WW1 is White’s “American Railroad Freight Car”. “The Great Yellow Fleet” covers reefers.
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