Book Review: Canadian National Steam Power

Canadian National Steam Power book

I recently read the book "Canadian National Steam Power", written by Anthony Clegg and Ray Corley. This book was an authoritative work on CN's steam locomotives. It was written in 1969 and is a little dated, perhaps. I am not a steam locomotive expert by any means, but it was an interesting read.

The book starts with a brief history of CN, especially of its major founding railways - the Canadian Government Railways, the Grand Trunk Railway and Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the Canadian Northern Railway, and the Central Vermont Railway. All of these railways eventually became part of the Canadian National Railways, which became today's CN.

There was a lot of discussion about renumbering of locomotives as the railways merged together, along with different classes of steam locomotives and retirement of old locomotives as the CNR came into being.

Other, smaller, railways were also merged into the CNR, such as the Kent Northern in New Brunswick and the Inverness Railway in Nova Scotia.

There is a tremendous amount of data in this book. As I said, I'm not a steam fan, but I think it would be a great resource for those who enjoy steam locomotives.

I enjoyed reading the first half of the book, with the details on the history of the CNR and the steam locomotives that were acquired by the CNR both before and after it was formed.

The data section left me a little cold, but at the risk of repeating myself, I'm not a steam fan.

You can find this book on Amazon and maybe at your local library.

PS - you could instead buy Canadian National Steam! by Donald R. McQueen, which is based on this book based on Clegg and Corley's original book. There are also eight roster books that follow on to that book.

See my other book reviews