Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive (review)

Few technological artifacts have the emotional appeal of railroad locomotives, particularly steam locomotives. Few technological systems have had as large an impact on history as the railroad, symbolized by the steam locomotive. Indiana University Press is one of several academic presses that seem to have realized this in recent years and published books oriented toward railroad enthusiasts. J. Parker Lamb's Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive falls squarely into that genre.

Lamb starts by defining the terms used in steam locomotive practice, from "firebox" to "crosshead." The first two chapters detail nineteenth-century locomotive development, with an emphasis on the United States but including some British content as well. As might be expected from an author who was a mechanical engineering professor for many years, the role of engineers and the engineering profession is stressed, a relatively unfamiliar aspect of an otherwise well-known story. The third chapter is an interesting but somewhat out of place thermodynamic and technical analysis, complete with equations, charts, and graphs. As such, it serves as a reminder that locomotives were designed by feel and educated guess even while following basic physical principles.

The next six chapters look at twentieth-century developments in American steam locomotives, and Lamb emphasizes the "superpower" era from the late 1920s to the end of steam locomotive construction in the early 1950s. Enthusiasts are likely to find all of their favorites here, from the Nickel Plate's Berkshire type to the Norfolk and Western's J type. Of special interest are the accommodations made during wartime to get new locomotives out on the rails as fast as possible. Two appendices that detail the construction and maintenance of locomotives complete the text.

There is much to like about this book, but it falls flat in some respects. Lamb presents a good chronicle of twentieth-century American steam locomotive development, especially of some paths not taken, such as the experimental compounds of the Delaware and Hudson and the Baldwin Locomotive Works in the 1920s. However, he often fails to ask questions that many Technology and Culture readers would want answered. Why, for instance, was compounding abandoned in the United States when it was embraced in Europe?

Lamb does provide the reader with a wealth of data about the number and types of locomotive produced, ably summarizing developments in steam motive power. Worth mention, too, are the photographs that accompany the text. In addition to having been an engineering professor, Lamb is an accomplished railroad photographer; several of his own photos grace the pages of his book, and he has chosen others well. Of special note are photos of service and repair facilities. Indeed, Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive is somewhat of a hybrid between an enthusiast pictorial and a scholarly history. There is an index and bibliography but no notes. Because the text appears to be based almost entirely on secondary sources, serious scholars will find little that is new, other than perhaps the thermodynamic and engineering analysis of steam motive power. Those familiar with Alfred Bruce's 1952 The Steam Locomotive in America may find many similarities. Lamb does bring together the currently accepted story of twentieth-century American steam locomotive development, but does not push the envelope either in terms of new research or interpretation.

As a detailed introduction for those who do not have an extensive background in twentieth-century railroad history, Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive is adequate but not exceptional. I sense that the ultimate success of the book, like the steam locomotives detailed within, is likely to be not tonnage hauled, but revenue generated.