I wanted to let everyone know about a new book which was published by the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society. It is titled "Southern Pacific and the KM Hydraulics" and authored by Robert Zenk. It tells the story of the diesel hydraulic locomotives which were built by Krauss-Maffei for delivery to the Rio Grande and SP. I just received my copy today and looked through it page by page. It features wonderful photography accompanied by numerous diagrams. Most importantly, the story begins with the development of the locomotives and follows them through their construction, delivery and operation up to retirement and scrapping culminating with the preservation of the sole survivor presently under restoration. It's a big hardcover book consisting of 300 pages presented in a landscape format and looks to be very thorough in its coverage of the topic.
Ordinarily, I would wait until I've read a book from cover to cover before making a recommendation; however, I've read very positive reviews of the book and the fact that the first printing sold out so quickly with available copies of the second run dwindling rapidly would seem to support my very favorable initial impressions of the book. I didn't want to wait too long before posting this thread as I wanted to give anyone a chance who would be interested in getting a copy the chance to do so before the second run is gone as well. This appears to be one of the most detail oriented motive power books I've seen and I consider it quite remarkable we have access to so much information pertaining to a fairly obscure group of locomotives. My interest in these locomotives is the direct result of the first HO locomotive I ever owned being the well known AHM/Rivarossi Rio Grande ML 4000 which was given to me by my grandfather. Ever since I first saw that big yellow model in the display case of the 5 and 10 where we got it, I've had a fascination with these machines so I'm looking forward to really digging into this book. I purchased my copy from Ron's Books and I believe he still has a few left. Railroadbooks.biz still has it listed as well.
Bob
