A "classic" of literature on locomotive performance, I was pleased to come across this book. But not for the quality of its writing. Vuillet makes the late O.S. Nock look like a master of flowery prose. Vuillet's text consists of little more than his notes transcribed. The text probably hasn't suffered in translation, as there is little to translate. This book would do nothing to dispel the myth that railway enthusiasts are little more than obsessive collectors of numbers and loggers of the minutiae of performance. So it's perhaps fortunate that the book is rare and long out of print. ( )