Author Name: Edward S. Kaminski
Title: American Car & Foundry Company 1899-1999
Seller ID: SP107
In 1899, thirteen car-building companies combined to form American Car & Foundry Co. This book is the story of a century of work by that company. This sweeping view of the work and products of American Car & Foundry celebrates the company's Centennial in 1999. Author Edward S. Kaminski covers corporate history and product development, but emphasizes the immense variety and extent of railcar production over the past century, from the original thirteen firms which formed ACF, down to the facilities of today. Chapters cover, in addition to manufacturing plants and company history, tank cars; box, stock and refrigerator cars; flat cars; open-top hoppers and gondolas; covered hoppers; passenger cars; and miscellaneous railcars and equipment. With fully 1260 photos, the great majority never before published and of considerable historic value, together with a detailed appendix on tank car specifications and drawings, as well as a complete index, this is an essential book for anyone who is a railroad enthusiast or is interested in American railroads and rolling stock.
The book presents a sampling of many thousands of freight, passenger and other railcar equipment produced by ACF, as well as other products ranging from busses and trucks, to military vehicles and yachts. Accordingly, a rich slice of railroad history is here, in the varied equipment and its owners, down through the decades in which wood construction gave way to steel, rivets to welding, and cars became far larger in capacity. The numerous plants and facilities of ACF are here too, along with a summary of company history. The book presents a selection from the enormous and superb collection of historic photographs taken throughout its history by ACF to document new cars as they were produced. As such, it is a window into earlier decades as well as into quite recent ACF output. The great majority of these photographs, 260 of them in color, have not been published previously, and many are newly discovered in ACF archives. This book is sure to take its place in libraries of railroad and rail equipment history. The painting used for the dust jacket of this book was painted by ACF employee Aurion M. Proctor for the ACF headquarters building; it is now at the Milton, Pennsylvania manufacturing plant of ACF. Students of railroad history, particularly those interested in freight cars, will want to purchase this book. Packed with photos and descriptions, this painstakingly compiled work traces the long, distinguished history of the company now known as ACF Industries. Kaminski weaves a fascinating tale of U.S. railcar development as practiced by one of the industry's premier builders. The book is a fitting tribute to ACF as the company marks its centennial.
Table of Contents: Preface (by Mike Del Vecchio). Author's Foreword. Introduction (by Richard H. Hendrickson). 1. The History of American Car & Foundry Company 2. Tank Cars 3. Box Cars, Refrigerator Cars and Stock Cars. 4. Flat Cars 5. Open-Top Hoppers and Gondolas. 6. Covered Hoppers. 7. Passenger Cars 8. Miscellaneous Railcars and Equipment. Epilogue (by Ed Hawkins). Appendix 1. Tank Car Specifications. Appendix 2. Selected Drawings. Index. 1260 photographs, drawings, index. Publication date: March 17, 1999. Retail $68.00.
Price = 55.00 USD
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