Bibliophilia can be a wonderful, if expensive disease.

One of the most oft-cited and best resources I've seen mentioned throughout the years on RYPN are the Locomotive Cyclopedias and Car Builders Cyclopedias. These (and their previous incarnations as the Locomotive Dictionary and Car Builders Dictionary) were published periodically to highlight standards, common practices, hardware, accessories, appliances, etc. In other words, just about anything you wanted to know about motive power and car building. The originals of these tend to fetch high prices, but reproductions are available.

The purpose of this thread is to list what is available. I hope others can contribute.

1. Newton K. Gregg Reprints

Beginning in the late 1960s or early 1970s, publisher Newton K. Gregg reprinted several editions of the Locomotive Cyclopedia/Dictionary and at least one edition of the Car Builders Dictionary. The years available are:

1906 Locomotive Dictionary
1925 Locomotive Cyclopedia
1930 Locomotive Cyclopedia
1888 Car Builders Dictionary
1906 Car Builders Dictionary

These are high-quality reprints. They are hardbound, good image reproduction. Most can be found for under $100 through the usual internet sources.

2. Kalmbach Reprints

In the 1970s Kalmbach reprinted the 1941 Locomotive Cyclopedia and the 1940 Car Builders Cyclopedia. Both are high-quality reprints, even matching the embossing done on the covers of the original editions. Both have color ads and illustrations. (Note: 1941 is the second to last edition of the Locomotive Cyclopedia where steam is given wide coverage).

3. Periscope Film, LLC

Periscope Film, LLC has done a soft cover version of the 1906 Locomotive Dictionary. I have a copy. The quality is mostly good. Not as good as the Newton K. Gregg edition, but very affordable. They have also reprinted several other railroad-related titles.

4. CD-ROM Versions

Various venders have made available pre-1924 editions (expired copyright) of these publications on CD-ROM and/or DVD-ROM. I do not own any, as I prefer real books. Perhaps one of our readers could comment on the quality and usefulness.

5. The Electric Railway Dictionary

Lest we not forget our traction-minded brethren, the 1911 edition of this book was reprinted by Newton K. Gregg in the 1970s. Periscope Film, LLC has also reprinted this in soft cover. I have the 1970s reprint. Like the other Gregg reprints, it is pretty good. (Who knew there were so many kinds of bell-cord hangers?)

6. Third Party Reprints

I've seen these for sale on Amazon and eBay, but it appears that third-party printers are printing digital copies of copyright-expired books, such as older cyclopedias, slapping generic covers on them (usually images of a pocket watch or compass) and selling them. I haven't bitten and bought one, but has anyone else? Care to comment on the quality?

To flesh out the CD portion of the listing a bit:

The 1906 Locomotive Dictionary, 1911 Electric Railway Dictionary, 1921 Maintenance of Way Cyclopedia, 1922 Car Builder's Cyclopedia, and 1922 Locomotive Cyclopedia are offered on CD by Rail Driver: http://www.raildriver.com/products/cyclopedias.php

These are clean scans with a well thought out index and a scaling utility to print drawings to scale, and I am very happy with the two I own.

The 1946 Car Builder's Cyclopedia is available on DVD from Vintage Literature Reproductions of Canada. Not sure if they have a web site, all their links seem to go to a E-bay store:

http://stores.ebay.com/Vintage-Literatu ... 7675.l2563

This is a two DVD set of bloatware PDF files, page scans include the yellowed paper background, so are likely hard to print cleanly. It is, however, the only edition of the Car Builder's Cyclopedia that post-dates 1922 available on disk, since these later editions are still under copyright. No clarification if this is a licensed copy or not; I don't really care as I own an original (which is very crunchy) so this is my fair use archival copy.

Dennis,

Thank you for your input. Raildriver also reprints some books, inluding the Reading's guide to firing a steam locomotive.

I should add that Newton Gregg also reprinted excerpts of various cyclopeidas as "Trian Shed Cyclopedias." These show up time to time, geared mainly for modelers. Each booklet covered a specific area like "Locomotive Photos from the 1912 Cyclopeida" or "Diesel Locomotives."

I may bit the bullet and get one of the third-party reprints of a cyclopedia, to check out the quality.

David

I should also add that Simmons Boardman reprinted the 1878 Car Builders' Dictionary in 1948 or so. These show up through the various online vendors from time to time.

The 1878 version was also reprinted in softcover in the 1970s, but I cannot remember the name of the publisher. I have a copy at home.

The following are currently on Google books and can be downloaded and reprinted for free at any time by anyone with a printer, paper and toner.

1906 http://books.google.com/books?id=I8U1AQAAMAAJ
1908 http://books.google.com/books?id=quZSAAAAMAAJ
1912 http://books.google.com/books?id=08U1AQAAMAAJ
1916 http://books.google.com/books?id=O8Y1AQAAMAAJ
1922 http://books.google.com/books?id=oMY1AQAAMAAJ

I am not 100% sure but I think the that the copyright rules are such that after a certain number of years they go to the public domain, so in 25 years or so we should have all steam based locomotive cyclopedias available for free to download.

The only thing is I think that Disney every couple of years gets them to push back the copyright date to keep Mickey and Minnie from becoming public domain. Really there needs to be some sort of compromise I think, that allows companies who are actively maintaining a copyright to renew at a decent cost, while allowing great books like this to fall into the public domain.

The 1879 Car Builders' Dictionary was published by Dover Publications in 1974. Got my copy several years ago, probably via abebooks.com for a not unreasonable price.
A friend has an original copy of the (I think) 1892 edition, which I found absolutely invaluable in solving riddles with my restoration of AL1040.
Cheers, Bob

my LHS had a 1938 locomotive cyclopedia, no idea yet if original or dupe, but its in great shape, and full of data.