I recieved this book today and thought I write a brief review of it.
In brief, this is a photo book mainly of various freight cars with railroad slogans as well as heralds. There is a 126 page sampling of freight cars in their general cartegories:
Hopper cars,box cars, and reefer cars. The pictures are about 40% color with the remaining black and white. There are also some non freight car items such as an REA box truck, TOFC trailers and cabooses along with reproduction of RR brochure and/or RR magazine advertisements. There's a timken and a Magnus bearing advertisement as well.
There are a few unique freight cars pictures such as
- ASRX#501 domino sugar converted X29 boxcar to a hopper car
- KFRX#5311 converted WWII troop transporter to a yellow kraft reefer
- ttx3150286 with a 40'Coors trailer.
- TLDX#5000 meister brau 50' box listing many beer brands on the side of the boxcar
- ATSF 53'flat with a lockheed wing box load.
This book has an MSRP of $32.95
IMHO, this book is ok with the various samples and some unique freight cars ars pictured. Unfortunately the book attempts to cover too much in such limited space. On the back cover the author desribes the book as;
" After WWII, railroads realized freight cars could be used to create a public image of their company and to sell passenger and freight services. That image was captured in a slogan, unforgettable word, phrase or iconographic trademark emblazoned on both side of the freight car."
With that type of statement, I was envisioning a freight car book filled with pictures from WWII to the "Turn of the Century". Instead I see a Lot of filler like the "Pink Slime" in chopped beef. Fillers such as the COORS TOFC, the REA Boxtruck, Cabooses, [not technically a freight car] and pics of reefers and freight cars from the 1930's.
With a Darth of books concentrating of freight cars from the 1960's to the Turn of the Century, I thought this book would fill some of that target time frame. Unfortunately this book does NOT.
Also stated on the the back is' model rr enthusiasts will like this book so they can model freight cars like the prototype." Well not really 
since many of the shots are broadside of the cars and NOT a 3/4 shot where a model RR also needs to see markings of the car ends as well.
For a RR library this book is OK if purchased at a discount. I would NOT put this book as a "Must Have" for Model RR's/Railfans since there is too many fillers and the book deviates from it's main purpose of showing RR Freight car Slogans and Heralds. There are many other books/ series of books to invest in for better shots/unique freight cars that are out ther and can be considered as "must haves" for any RR library.
