What do you think of these books?

I have a Brian Solomon book titled Modern Locomotives, and it is very well done with excellent photography.  The fifth book listed above by Jerry Pinkepank; he is the author of the original Diesel Spotters' Guide, so it should be a great volume.

I have "Caboose" by Brian Solomon and John Gruber. It is well illustrated and easily read.

 

I'd take a chance on any Brian Solomon book

They are sort of "trade" books.  Brian Solomon cranks them out one after another.  But they are OK.  Seem a bit pricey in that a couple of them are paperbacks.  Might make good reference books if that's what you are after.  

  I have a copy of the Greg McDonnell-Jerry Pinkepank book, Locomotives: The Modern Diesel and Electric Reference.  I'll give it two thumbs up.  Great pictures and excellent, informative text.

Those look like good books, but I haven't read any of them. I do like, however, the Pennsy Power series.

The Brian Solomon books are good, but show up at the local Bookstar all the time for $9.99.  I have three or four of them - just as much fun as those $8.00 Trains specials.

I have none of those, but I do have "Travel By Pullman" by the same authors as the above Pullman book. It's very good...more of a "being there" book rather than a reference.

It is possible that these 2 books are the same with different titles and covers. Mine was printed especially for Borders Books.

The first is pretty good in my opinion, I have it and its a good general guide to EMD units. The second is okay - not as much detail but it covers both EMD and GE and gives you a good idea what what each was doing at the same time - how closely them competed in size, type, who was better and when, etc.  The pullman book is good, particularly if you want to model interiors well.  Lots of pictures and details interior.  

 

 I don't have the others but looking at the descriptions on Amazon, they seem to be mostly picture books - not necessarily bad, just depends what you want. 

I have the E and F unit book. While not definitive, it is a good general history of these locomotives. Supplementing the text are plenty of nice illustrations. I'd certainly recommend it.

 

I also have "Vintage Diesel Power." This is a smaller format softcover book. As an overview of various types of older diesels, the book contains plenty of nice color photographs. I think it offers good value for the price.

 

Bob 

Thanks, everyone, for your very thoughtful replies.  I hope there will be more.

 

At this point, I'm leaning towards starting with the Electro-Motive E-Units and F-Units..

book since my interest is in modeling them, so plenty of color photos and some historical and technical perspective is ideal.

 

Thanks, again, for your thoughtful replies and suggestions.