I've received a lot leads on fantastic books on railroading history here and thought this book might interest some of those on this forum interested in modern rail. We've been doing a growing number of railroad electrification, mass- and rapid-transit and light rail projects at work and created a new department to organize it all. The manager bought a carton of this book for the new group so everyone would "Be on the same pages" and he got a spare for me, too, knowing my interest in trains.
Design and Simulation of Rail Vehicles is an overview technical introduction to modern rail systems. I'm not sure if the simulation stuff will interest too many, but the design and history address many of the questions discussed on this forum about modern trains: speeds of different locos, why this and not that here, but that and not this there . . . Very good if anyone cares about the history and advantages and tradeoffs ofthe differet modern braking systems, AC vs. DC, hydraulic versus mechanical versus electric suspension, various schemes for high-speed vertical and lateral stability, design of the rails and track itself, etc.
This is not for hobbyists like me: it does mention steam - the same way a modern text on mammals might mention that before them, there were these antiquated things call dinosaurs. But its history of diesels and electric locomotion, while concise, is maybe the best "big-picture" overview of railroad technology since the 1930s that I have seen.
The book is expensive, costing as much as the more expensive railroading history books I have. However, you can find it in most university libraries if you want to look it over, I imagine, and Amazon has the "look inside" feature on its listing of it on its website to help a person decide before buying.
