Welcome to the Crowdsourcing Mornings segment! Every weekday morning, Geek Alabama talks about and features one crowdsourcing project from crowdsourcing sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and others. The hope with Crowdsourcing Mornings is to feature and help a project be successful and reach its fundraising goal. Please enjoy today’s featured project!
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I have always been interested in the first locomotives built in the United States. However, I was always frustrated by the lack of clear details about their history – who made them, where they ran, and when. The West Point Foundry Association, of New York, began to build steam locomotives in 1830. They would be the first company to enter into locomotive production in the United States.
And yet somehow, the history of the locomotives produced by the company, and how they fit into the development of the locomotive in the United States has been given scant attention, and often erroneous details have been reprinted for decades. Despite the obvious historical importance and interest of these locomotives, there just wasn’t much space given to them in books on railroading history – and often what was given was vague and of dubious accuracy. Intrigued by the lack of clear details on the subject, I began to search for answers. I sought out company reports, minute books, newspaper articles, and even letters which gave firsthand accounts of the locomotives.
The result of this research is this book. 100 pages cover to cover, in a 6 x 9 inch format. The Kickstarter goal covers the production costs for a print run of 100 books, and the (U.S.) postage for the 70 copies of the book being offered as rewards here (there will be an additional postage charge for international orders). If you fund this project, you get the book!
As of February 1st, this project has raised $1,100 of their $1,225 goal. This project has 17 days left to raise the $1,225 or it will not be funded. For a pledge of $17, you will get one book. To learn more and to pledge money, go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcanephotographer/the-locomotives-of-the-west-point-foundry?
