The author wishes to express his appreciation for the help given him by
the many individuals, including railroad officials, librarians, and
museum curators, who provided answers to many questions and confirmed
many conjectures.
Special thanks are tendered A. B. Lawson and Lawrence W. Sagle of The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., F. V. Koval of the Chicago and North
Western Railway System, W. F. Kascal and Harry B. Spurrier of the New
York Central System, H. T. Cover of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., Harry
E. Hammer of the Reading Co., K. C. Ingram of the Southern Pacific Co.,
Elizabeth O. Cullen of the Association of American Railroads, D. M.
MacMaster of the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago, H. D. Watson
of the University of Maine, George M. Hart of George School in Bucks
County, Pa., and Robert R. Brown of Lachine, Quebec—to name a few of
those whose contributions have helped bring together the facts here
presented.
It is fitting also at this time to refer to the late Charles B. Chaney,
who collected over a period of almost 60 years an immense number of
photographs, negatives, drawings, lithographs, and books dealing with
railroading. Upon his death in 1948, he left this entire collection to
the United States National Museum, of the Smithsonian Institution,
confident that in the Museum it would be put to the widest possible use
and would, therefore, carry forward his lifelong work of research in the
history of locomotives and railroads.
His confidence was well founded. The Chaney collection of railroad
material has been an invaluable source of information for the present
work.
To acknowledge the contribution of Thomas Norrell of Silver Spring, Md.,
is likewise a pleasure. He graciously consented to read the manuscript
of this work, and his authoritative comments have greatly enhanced its
comprehensiveness and accuracy.