As I said the other day, I don’t buy model railroading books as a rule, but if I did, what would be the best for my buck ?.
Tracklayer
“Realistic Model Railroad Design,” by Tony Koester is my favorite. It is not a how-to book by any means, rather a conceptual reflection of the many aspects of the hobby.
It is more of a thought provking, inspirational, idea forming book, that I find insightful, and useful. As I model Northern Wisconsin, I also like “Trains, Tracks, and Tall Timber,” by Matt Coleman. This is a Walthers distributed book that has been around for 10 years or so, that covers all facets of the logging, lumber, and paper making industries. It contains great pictures, is geographically diverse, and has some unique how to modellling ideas. For prototype reference, the Morning Sun books have fantastic color pictures. I only own 7 of them, but they are priceless to me. There are hundreds of thousands of books out there, so if you enjoy reading, researching, or just looking at pictures, there is something for you. Check your local library, there might be something ther you will find you would like to buy. Remember to return the books on time though. I’ve paid the Milwaukee Public Library probably a hundred bucks in fines over the past 2 years.
“Track Planning for Realistic Operation” by John Amstrong is the best.
Enjoy
Paul
I found the Building City Scenery, The New Scenery Tips and Techniques and Track Side Buildings books very useful.
I enjoy reading the books on Bridges,tresles and tunnels.
Steve
The right answer is: It depends. It depends on what you want to study. Armstrong’ s Track Planning for Realistic Operation is good if you are designing a layout. Other books for other subjects. I have a lot of books and refer to most of them at one time or other, depending on what information I want.
Wetumka Fats
[C):-)]
I have bought and read virtually the entire Kalmbach series of how-to books. Armstrong’s book is one of the best. I would also add:
Industries Along the Tracks
Locomotive Servicing Terminals
Freight Yards
Realistic Model Railroad Operation
Building City Scenery
I recommend these books as both helpful and also interesting reading in and of themselves. You can sitdown and read these books cover to cover as opposed to using them purely for reference.
I used to own a book called electronic projects for model railroders by peter j. thorne that is now out of print and for the life of me cannot find a new (or used) copy of it anywhere…it had the old Linn wescott’s Twin T train detection circuit in it…chuck
Also, if you do decide to buy some of these books, use Amazon. The prices are better than at your LHS and Amazon now has free shipping and no sales tax.
The kind of “books” people are suggesting are more like glorified magazines. I don’t recommend getting them from Amazon. Go to a local train show and pick them up used for $1 or $2 each. I have several copies of each that I have aquired in this way.
To me, a railroad book and those most useful to model railroading are things more like “The Northern Pacific Classic Steam Era”, or “The Great Northern Railway” published by PFM back in the 1970s. One of my most referenced is probably “Santa Fe Early Diesel Daze”. These kind of books contain invaluable rosters, time lines, photos of real locations on the RR. So the best book(s) for any person is seriously dependent on which railroad they are modeling.
I second the John Armstrong books (all of them), but there is another consideration.
Some of my most useful references for modeling are not ‘model railroad’ books, they are books with large, detailed photos of my prototype railroad. When, because of time (time from modeled era to now) or distance, going down to the tracks to check some detail is not an option, prototype photos are the best alternative.
John Armstong, Track Planning for Realist Operation
Dave Frary, Realistic Model Railroad Scenery & The Pennsy Middle Division in HO Scale
Lou Sassi, Basic Scenery for Model Railroads
John Pryke, Building City Scenery
Nick
OF the Kalmbach books,
Track Planning…
Mid-sized and Manageble track plans, by Iain Rice
Model Railroading with John Allen, by Linn Westcott
And not Klambach
Playing with Trains, Sam Posey
Model Railroading Vol 1-3 by Scheinder or something
Operating your Model Railroad, by Bruce Chubb
Lou Sassi, Basic Scenery for Model Railroads
brown brass
most yelled at
Folks,
this is not meant facetiously but Model Railroader Magazine is over many months of saved issues the best of any MRR book all the more so if you also buy the annuals too.
Doug, in Utah
train index and train terms
Linn Westcott’s “ABCs of Model Railroading.” I used it to wire my layout - followed it exactly, and everything worked on the first try.
Not a true model railroading book in the sense of most above tomes, but I loved Sam Posey’s “Playing With Trains”. As a person heading into the model railroading hobby, it gave me a great appreciation for how good we all have it now, and how fulfilling the hobby can be.
Trevor
Let me second …
John Armstong, Track Planning for Realist Operation
Dave Frary, Realistic Model Railroad Scenery
John’s book enlighened me greatly on how to plan a prototype inspired layout correctly and now 14 years into the layout’s existance, I’m still quite happy with the result.
Dave Frary’s book just came out with its 3rd edition, all new and updated for the latest scenery materials (supertrees, silflor, etc).
The content in these two books is top notch and you won’t find much of it in any of the hobby magazines either, making these two books an excellent reference library addition.