Hi, I was wondering what books you could recomend, both on real trains and the hobby trains. Please give as full title as possible since it can be hard to find them otherwise!
Magnus
Check the Kalmbach online listing of their books. They have them for almost anything, pick those that cover your interests and place your order. Your request was too general in nature for a specific answer.
Bob Boudreau
Ok, well I would like books about engines, cars and specific railroads. Also on stations, bridges freight yards and so on. pretty much anything about trains! So if any of you have read ANY book on trains or american history or geopgraphy for that matter please recomend it. I guess I can’t be to specific since I’m not very specific in what I want, the only thing is that if it’s on any of the above ad you like it, I want it. Besides Kalmbach, what other publishers are there that deal with modell trains.
Oh, the books van be about both modell and real trains.
Magnus
There are literally thousands of books available on both real and model trains. Look in the magazines at the ads for the book sellers to get some idea. As Bob said, you are going to have to refine your request significantly. Model train hard cover books tend to get out of date fairly quickly, so unless your interest is older toy trains, I would avoid those. Kalmbach updates and/or replaces their soft cover “how to model railroad” booklets every few years. Carstens is another publisher I know of; there are many others. Almost every railroad that existed in the U.S. has at least been featured in a chapter or two in some book. The larger and/or better known railroads have several (or many) books written solely about them.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
playing with trains: a passion beyond scale by sam posey. its good, he talks with some famous modelrailroaders, after retiring from racing.
GEARHEAD426
If you want to see how many books might be available, just do a search on Amazon.com “railroad”; I’m sure you’ll get thousands. Many will have descriptions of the contents too.
Bob Boudreau
Every issue of Model Railroader and Trains carries extensive advertising from a variety of book vendors, as well as announcements of newly published books. You can find reviews for many books in their indexes, I think.
Here are a few links that I find have fairly comprehensive listings of books to browse: that are on-line:
http://www.crrm.org/train_books.htm
http://www.mcmillanpublications.com/
http://www.motorbooks.com/Store/CustomPage_6131.ncm
I’m only a customer with these, and a (inactive) member of the CRRM, but these listings will give you some idea of the wide variety of material available.
You can find many older or out-of-print books on:
http://www.abebooks.com/
Of course, there are many options – on and off line – in buying books.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I agree with Railphotog, this is still so general it could mean any of the hundreds of books I have on my shelves.
However since you did mention history specifically, I found an interesting book when I was doing research for my graduate economics paper on betterment accounting. It is called “Passage to Union How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929” By Sarah H. Gordon. This is a book that shows how so many aspects of current modern America Life was a product of the railroads. It is fascinating reading.
Since you mentioned stations, I have one in my collection that I make reference too all the time. It is called “Santa Fe Depots, The Western Lines” by Robert E. Pounds.
Then there is “Zephyr, Tracking a Dream Across America,” by Henry Kisor. It is the latest addition to my personal collection. It is excellent with the exception of a few rabbit trails expounding his liberal social prejudice and agenda. Oh there was another bad section where he gets on a rabbit trail about writing a novel set on the train. The book explores the Amtrak Calfornia Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco and the people involved on the train and at the stations along the way. Highly recommended.
Then of course there is the “must have” reference for identification of diesel locomotives. It is “The Second Diesel Spotter’s Guide” by Jerry A. Pinkepank. A quick manual with all t
Texas Zepher your answer was just the kind I was looking for, since I basically am intrested in pretty much anything concerning history and railroads I want you to give me YOUR favorite book titles based on that. I know it’s a broad term but since I live in Sweden Ican’t get a hold of every book you say, so asking for extremly specific books will generate a few answers, of wich I probably won’t be able to get a hold of many. The problem is that my company will pay for any books, BUT they have to be purchased in Sweden. So even though alot of books can be ordered, not all of them can, especially very specific ones.
Thank you ALL of you for taking time to answer my post, I apreciate it.
Magnus
There are two books that I feel are worth reading. The 1st is Playing with Trains by Sam Posey which someome has already mentioned. I received a copy from my nephrew a couple of Christmas’s ago when i decided to get back into this hobby. I’ve read it twice so far and i will probably continue rereading it every once in a while. It is quite inspiring. The 2nd book is called Empire Express - Building the First Transcontinental Railroad by David Haward Bain and published by Penquin Books. It’s a little slow in places but for the most part it’s a good read. Enjoy.
GUB
For modeling I recommend these:
Basic references:
Dave Frary, The Pennsy Middle Division in HO Scale.
Lou Sassi, A Realistic HO Layout for Beginners.
Specfic topics:
Track Planning - John Armstrong, Track Planning for Realistic Operation.
Wiring - Andy Sperandro, Easy Model Railroad Wiring.
Scenery - Dave Frary, How To Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery.
Scenery - Lou Sassi, Basic Scenery for Model Railroaders.
City Scenery - John Pryke, Building City Scenery for Your Model Railroad.
For prototype references start with, Kalmbach’s The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. This book gives a brief discription of most North American fallen flags, and points you toward sources for more information. I also like Morning Sun Publishing In Color and Trackside Around series. Both series are filled with photos, diagrams, and other information about specific railroads (In Color), or geographic locations (Trackside Around). MBI Publilshing also publishes a large number of good references.
Nick
Magnus,
Pay a visit to your local library. Many of their titles may be old ones, but since your interest is so general you should find a few that you will enjoy. After a while you can order more on inter-library loan.
If you are interested in books about modeling railroads, I list a few of my favorites on my website:
http://69.49.234.114/SR&A/Tips/Books.html
Take a look if you’d like.
Karl
I recommend-
Track Planning for Realistic Operation and Realistic Model Railroad Operation. I’m sure I could recommend others, such as, Realistic Model Railroad Design but I don’t own themn yet!
Lillen, if you want to read something on trains and its got Brian Solomon’s name on it you ain’t gonna go wrong - his book titled Signalling is a real masterpiece!!
Some of my favorites:
The Ma & Pa - A History of The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad by George Hilton.
Buy it here http://www.maparailroadhist.org/merch.htm to help the historical society.
Interurban Interlude by E.J. Quimby. Out of print but you can get it from used book dealers.
Creative Layout Design by John Armstrong. Also out of print.
Enjoy
Paul