Classic Steam

For nearly 150 years the steam locomotive was the workhorse of the world's railroads, but today its evocative sound, its glistening brass and the smell of hot oil have almost disappeared, only to be replaced by the mutter and reek of the diesel and the smooth efficiency of electricity. STEAM CLASSIC looks back at the fascination of the steam locomotive--the colorful engines of Britain where it all began, the great locomotives which headed such trains as the Orient Express over the European mainland, the huge monsters and great train of North America and the development of steam in Africa, Asia and Australia. Supplemented with an abundance of color and black-and-white photographs, this book looks not only at the steam engines of a century and a half ago but also the odd and unusual.