Book Review: The Shay Locomotive: An Illustrated History

I picked up The Shay Locomotive: An Illustrated History, by Richard A. Henderson, John C. Benson, George R. Kadelak, and Steve Hauff, in hopes of learning more about one of the most common locomotives used in the Pacific Northwest. At a grand total of 639 pages, The Shay Locomotive delivers in an impressive fashion.

Perhaps the most notable element of this great effort is the detailed (and large) listing of every Shay built, segmented by serial number, company and location. Listing almost 3000 locomotives, this effort is almost overwhelming and stretches for nearly 250 pages. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend trying to read straight through this section like the others, but it is absolutely fantastic for reference. I had fun researching some of the locomotives that would have operated in my local area.

In general, the work is lavishly illustrated, with hundreds of photos from all over the globe where Shays operated. The print quality of the photos is high enough that lots of details are visible, which is impressive considering the age of some of the photos. Both the print paper and binding are of high quality, which means that the book should be an excellent reference far into the future. Unfortunately, there are some printing errors with words missing and a couple duplicated image captions for different photos, but all in all they do not distract substantially from the impressiveness of the work. All in all, it feels like one is getting good value for the price.

The history section is well-researched and detailed, providing a comprehensive history of Ephraim Shay and the history of the Shay locomotive’s development and growth. A good overview of how the locomotive was developed, built, advertised, sold and serviced is included. There is also a mishaps section detailing wrecks, which feels out of place (these sections are often placed near the end, not the beginning, of these books). The combined result is all the information you’d want to know in one volume, which is impressive.

Overall, this is a high-quality work and one that is well-worth picking up. I appreciated the immense amount of research and effort that most have gone into its creation, and recommend that anyone interested strongly consider purchasing it.