Well, I have a friend who has been photographing freight cars extensively for the last few years. He has around 14,000 digital freight car photos. The idea is to print a reference book of each car type in alphabetical order by railroad/lease company. Subject matter would cover anything and everything. Any type of paint scheme, graffiti, you name it. I think it would be a great resource for any modern modeler. Format would be 4-6 shots per page and anywhere from 25-250 pages, probably softbound. Captions would include location and date. Plain and simple with no "BS." Price is TBD, but should not be expensive. So, what do you all think??? Thank you for your input:tb-biggrin:
You got my vote, although I don't model todays railroads. Back in '89, someone made a nice colored picture book about the railroads across America, and I'm glad they did, since I reference it quite a bit. In the future, someone might be doing the same with your book, since they might want to model this time frame. And even though we all have the internet to look at pictures, I think a book would be quite convenient to have. Just my thoughts =) -Mike
I would buy one ... but if it were available as a pdf or ebook ... I would gladly spend the money on that too! Cheers Adam
If it had more than just location and date I might be interested. At very least the car reporting marks and number (in case it's not visible from the photo) and build date would be nice. Overhead shots would be a huge plus. My interest in books wanes sharply past the $50 mark and it would have to be good quality to even get to that figure. The Internet is a formidable competitor here, and the information better be solid. This isn't always the case on the Internet, and that is his competitive advantage. But a good book on freight cars would be a purchase for me.
Change to captions Great input so far, thank you! A change to the caption contents: Changed to include, date, location, railroad the car was on, reporting marks, and previous owners if known. Additional information would be added if required. Keep the suggestions rolling:tb-biggrin:
I voted no, because it's out of my modeling era. It might be a very worthwhile project, but it's just out of my era.
Freight Car Book As one who knows a little about books--I hate to be a killjoy, but books like the one you are proposing are extremely expensive to publish. And, while all of us here are obsessed with trains, a high percentage of the book buying public is not. If you've been to a train show I'm sure you've seen rows and rows and books about trains. Like the hot dogs at the food stand, they are way overpriced, but they don't sell as well. By all means, "follow your bliss," but a book with page after page of freight cars that to the average person all look alike is not going to have a public that will return the publisher's cost. As in all things, I could be wrong. Nah. eagle37
Voted yes, but.... I voted yes, but I have to add this: A book on modern equipment would be nice, however, as soon as it's published, it becomes outdated. As others have said, the audiance for such a book would be quite narrow. Perhaps an E-book? Something that could contuinually be updated? Just thoughts... PHL
