Update of an old Kalmbach Cyclopedia

[metajohn]

RE: ISBN: 0-89024-547-9 Model Railroader Cyclopedia Volume 2, Diesel Locomotives Copyright 1980, Apparently 4 Printings from 1980 thru 1989.
Dear interested parties,

I would like to call you attention to a Kalmbach Publication in need of a thorough up date and re-issue to include new locomotives introduced since 1980 (44 years ago now!).

I believe that two trends in the North American Railroading industry have conspired to make the revered, and honored Cyclopedia badly dated and incomplete in the face of the current state of both locomotive technology and the present roster of locomotives actually in operation today.

The continued consolidation of Railroad Marquees resulting in so many “fallen Flag” railroads has reduced the competition between them for new locomotive designs in some ways. In other ways the rising trend of intermodal containerized cargo from factories in the Far East (basically China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, etc.) as made new powerful motive power for the long haul cross county hauls imperative.

Trade goods destined for the US now come via rail or truck to Asian ports where the containers are stowed aboard large bulk carriers sailing the seas to the destinations often West Coast ports where containers are unloaded onto trucks which deposit them via Mi-Jack cranes into TTX, Greenbrier Well cars, Maxi-Stack 1, Maxi-Stack IV, and Husky Stack cars, etc. then a hot shot freight carries them across the US to their unloading and breakdown destination often a huge warehouse. The rest of the trip is often on delivery vans operated by USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, or Amazon.

Modern international trade has cut the time from the customer order to delivery cycles from months to weeks or days. Fulfilment centers across the US handle direct delivery to end users saving time and cutting wholesalers and other middlemen out.

But the trends are mixed as well in that new shortline RRs can form around specific freight hauling needs. E.g. the NKC, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, since 1996 runs on the old Burlington (BN) mainline trackage "and operates about 509 miles (819 km) of track in southwestern Nebraska, northern Kansas and northeastern Colorado. It carries mainly agricultural-related products, especially grains, as well as coal to the Nebraska Public Power District’s Gerald Gentleman Station which is Nebraska’s largest coal-fired power plant. It is owned by OmniTRAX, https://omnitrax.com/nebraska-kansas-colorado-railway-llc/ . The oddest thing about the NKC is that almost all of their motive power consists of the plethora of GP-38s they have bought up from other rail roads who are junking them for scrap or selling them to other RRs. The NKC has become expert in getting every last freight hauling mile out of these units with engine rebuilders in their Grant, Ne shop, and innovative rework.

In the technology realm the advent of AC generators and AC traction motors has created new high horsepower freight haulers of high capacity. Also the venerable 567 cid cylinders, grew to 645 cid, and are now being surpassed by the 710 cid cylinders. Generally DC generators provide up to 3,000 HP for traction, while AC generators or generator-rectifiers provide 3,000 or more HP. However their is now a calling for ending the use of diesel fueled prime movers. There are issues around noise, smoke and particulate emissions. Diesel smoke has come to the center of health concern issues on people and the environment.

But diesel generators are the most efficient compared to Gas Turbines or other fuel burning motors: they can carry one ton of goods and average of 480 miles on just one gallon of diesel fuel.

The list of the most powerful locomotives ever built still includes many huge steam compound or Mallet engines, but the newest diesels e.g. the US made GE AC6000CW are capable of producing over 6,000 HP! The UP had the GE GTEL third generation Big Blow producing a nominal 8,400 HP, whew. Motive power produced the MPXpress and MP54AC producing 4,600 and 5,400 HP; the Pennsylvania RR S2 steam turbine extended the life of steam for a few years, and the Voith Maxima, model 40CC is the most powerful single-engine diesel-hydraulic locomotive ever built.

But Russian railways have locomotives like the 2ES10 (dual unit) producing over 17,000 HP; China has the EQJ1 or BJ (Beijing) the most powerful diesel hydraulic locomotive ever built, the DFB (DF8DJ) most powerful single engine locomotive ever built producing over 6,400 HP; Germany’s Deutsche Bahn Baureihe 103, producing nearly 10,000 HP but has been surpassed by the DSB EG of 8,700 HP, but this has been replaced by the Euro 9000; and Indian State Railways builds and operates some high horsepower unit as well, e.g. the WAG-11 and WAG-12 each produce over 12,000 HP.

As you may have deduced here is a lot to talk about in any new or revised edition for the cyclopedia. There are enough new US locomotives to add 20 or more pages the book. The original volume also left out the GM Aerotrain which although short lived is interesting to enthusiasts and modelers. If there are other notable designs they should be included as well. For instance there now exist several proof of concept “Green” Battery-Electric powered locomotives. Several newer passenger locomotives e.g. the EMD FP-59, the Alstom and Bombardier Acela, and I am sure others exist which are not covered. And of course there is a lot of buzz that HYFROGEN is the fuel of the future as it has no emissions issues, can be created by the electrolysis of water and its only ‘waste’ product is water as well.

It would seem unlikely that Author Bob Hayden is still around to produce the new pages and revisions to older entries adding new info if any is found. Also of interest would be a brief introduction and biography of the locomotive builders, the engine makers if different, and electrical cabinet evolution thanks to modern microelectronics and computers. The intro to traction motors and bogie suspensions could be more complete in a new volume. Never or barely mentioned are diesel horns, single, dual and triple units; Trilling the horns; bells; ditch lights; Mars lights; sand systems; designed engineer safety considerations; Positive Train Control systems; communications systems, and steam generators for Passenger haulers.

ISBN: 0-89024-547-9 Model Railroader Cyclopedia Volume 2, Diesel Locomotives Copyright 1980, Apparently 4 Printings from 1980 thru 1989.

[pennytrains]

Welcome back aboard metajohn!

[charlie_hebdo2]

Are you trying out to edit a new edition of the Cyclopedia?

[M636C]

The Diesel Cyclopedia was regarded by many as well out of date when it appeared in 1980. It was a compilation of many available locomotive drawings, many of which had appeared in Model Railroader. Many of those of EMD four axle locomotives originally had incorrect rendering of the truck design, and this was altered in the drawings in the Cyclopedia. Some additional drawings of more recent locomotives were added to gve a more complete coverage, However, the drawings were intended to allow modellers to build or modify model locomotives. How many people build their own model locomotives these days?

I can’t recall seeing drawings published in Model Railroader (or RMC) of any recent locomotive models. While I might be not paying sufficient attention, Ican’t recall seeing any locomotive drawings foe quite some time. The last one I recall seeing is the SD70ACe, so around twenty years ago, or so…

With the highly detailed models being produced today, very few modellers will wish to produce models with that sort of detail from scratch. The magazines have not been publishing drawings of (say) Tier 4 locomotives, and this could be because there is less demand given that most models can be purchased ready to run now.

If publishers don’t feel it justified to include drawings in monthly magazines, why would they consider publishing a book of such drawings at much greater cost, which may have a small audience. I’d probably buy one, but I have two of each of the Kalmbach steam and diesel Cyclopedias and a number of other books covering British diesel and Japanese steam locomotives. I also have numerous individual copies of MR and RMC with locomotive drawings.

But I doubt that there is a wide market for a book of this type today, although I’d buy one…

Peter

[Volker]

There are lots of book beginning with The Diesel Spotter’s Guide up to Greg McDonnell’s Locomotives, The Modern Diesel & Electric Reference prividing technical details and production times and numbers.

Additionally there are websites that provide scale drawings of diesel locomotives:
https://trainiax.net/mescaleloco.php

Perhaps these can help to supplement the Cyclopedia Volume 2.
Regards, Volker

[Woke_Hoagland]

@Volker

There are lots of books beginning with The Diesel Spotter’s Guide…

This is a different aspect of the problem. The Diesel Spotter’s Guide in particular is an even better example than the MR Cyclopedias in many respects.

The whole utility of the original DSG was – as implicit in why it was named that – it could be carried as a field reference to spot and identify various species ‘in the wild’. That was highly useful… in the era these were published. We now live in a world of smart devices, near-ubiquitous cellular data, and soon global Starlink bandwidth, in which there is a broad and often enthusiastic community finding and posting locomotive information that can be searched and accessed nearly free. And while there are all sorts of problems with recent unit history, even the least up-to-date references will beat a printed guide that started going out of date before the galleys made it to proofing.

Take the DSG ‘update’… it was published in 1979, when I was still in college. Nearly the whole of contemporary road power has changed… sometimes multiple times… in that interval. The follow-on ‘contemporary Diesel Spotter’s Guide’ came out in 1994 – it is surprisingly reminiscent of Lionel Wiener’s treatise on ‘Articulated Locomotives’, famously reprinted as a valuable reference in 1970, but which contains only the barest references to high-speed simple articulateds at all. The whole practical history of AC drive on North American road locomotives effectively postdates 1994, although it might be amusing to see how the Republic Starships were viewed at the time of publication.

Meanwhile the costs associated with printing and stocking formal ‘editions’ of books have become high, I worry in much the same way the costs of auxiliaries began to increase as big steam was used less and less. Even print-on-demand turned out to be too high-cost a model even when it could give as high-quality a result as typical color separation printing – which I have not yet seen POD achieve. To engage in all this to get a field guide that does not need USB charging but doesn’t fit in a jacket pocket and is increasingly obsolescent…

The purpose of the Cyclopedias was to have drawings in one place, and for areas that were ‘closed’ (like the steam volume) they were and are a highly-valuable reference even for non-modelers. The problem is that if I want a large-scale drawing of a locomotive I can go to Moldover’s paint shop, download it, and have FedEx-Kinko print it at large scale for a few bucks, not wrestle a book under the enlarger or start fribbling with a pantograph or tracing paper.

I had the impression – possibly a bit naive and rose-colored – that the people making the scale drawings for MR and similar publications were doing it more as a labor of love than something generating an income. Do people still have the skill to make those drawings inexpensively enough? I know I can’t do it in 3DS.

[Volker]

@Woke_Hoagland

The problem is that if I want a large-scale drawing of a locomotive I can go to Moldover’s paint shop, download it, and have FedEx-Kinko print it at large scale for a few bucks, not wrestle a book under the enlarger or start fribbling with a pantograph or tracing paper.

Josh Moldover’s site: http://paintshop.railfan.net/
Some browsers show it as not save.

This website features among others drawings by Micheal Eby, the owner of tainiax.net.

I haven’t mentioned The Diesel Spotter’s Guide as a field guide but as source for technical details/specification that are missing on the drawings in internet.
Regards, Volker

[metajohn]

No not I. My technical writing skills have withered since I wrote tech notes and user guides for minicomputer Software back in the 1970s and 1980s.
But I am sure there are many qualified writers, draftsmen, and editors who can manage such an effort if there is a market for it.

JB