We’re pretty excited to be publishing Ed Hume’s new book on the Climax A locomotive model. The metalworking hobby has not seen anything like it. You might call it a next-generation Kozo book. Here we have a wealth of drawings, photos, and notes that we have all enjoyed with Kozo Hiraoka’s books, combined with new techniques and advice to apply modern CNC machining to the challenges of model building. Also worthy of mention is that the book is published in color. There are 358 color photographs and more than 650 drawings spanning 268 pages.
The author uses an interesting artifice for storytelling. Accompanying the detailed drawings and fabrication notes there are learning experiences and anecdotes that are told as they occur on the campus of Live Steam University. This creates a human interest story element as the reader follows the efforts of Alan, Bill, and Chet building their locomotive models and receiving instruction from the Teaching Assistant and faculty. It is a pretty safe bet that the book has a happy ending.