What Would You Want In A Toy Train Book

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

Hey Ya’ll

Even though I am 13, I am out to make the ultimate Toy Train and Real Railroad Book Combined into one.

hen you think of books, they are usually just one one subject like wiring, sceanery, layouts, stories, how to stories, price guides, etc.

Well, This Book will be a combination ofthat and more.

Here is what I want it to have

Layouts
Collections
How To Articles
Toy Train Stories
Real railroad Stories
Wiring
Price Guide
Sceanery
Toy Trains and TV
Trains in Movies and TV
Ifo on train shows
Photo Section
Acknoledgements
Index
Toy Train and Railroad Glossary
Toy Train Company History,Stories, and Stats
Track Plans

Of curse, I know this is not all of what should be in an ultimate Toy Train and Real Railroad Book.

To make it, I’ll need your help. I need you to tell me other things you would like to see in a book like this.

I’ll need your help with finding all of the needed things.
I am going to sk my parents if they will let me write this book and aloow people to contribute the things needed. If they say yes, then I will be in buisiness, but if the say no, then forget this ever happened.

By the way, have you ever sat in class and started at the textbook wishing that you had a railroadbook like his. Well, you will. It will be the same size as a textbook and be based like one.

Nick

2

Oh. By the way, there will be something about all scales in the book.

Nick.

3

Nick, I don’t want to be dissapointing, since your idea is great, but does your book have wheels included or are they seperately available?
The Book you want to write already exists and is written by a huge amount of people. It is called the internet. A lot of others tried to write books containing all scales and all subjects of toytrains, and each and every book containing all is a lot of nothing.
If you want to write a book about trains, pick one scale and dig deep into it’s roots. Those books are interesting… books that bring out something new; OR make a book specially for youngsters; about 0 gauge, where they can buy it, what do they have to know, with lots of photo’s and tips&tricks. There will be no-one as good as you are in writing “a trainguide for youngsters”.

4

Nick,

If you’ve ever read the Dummies or Idiots books, there is one for every hobby except toy trains (or model trains, for that matter). Maybe by the time you’re all grow’d up and old, one will come out.

5

Hmm,

Those are good sugestions. Well, about the ultimate book existing on the internet, alot of people do not have it, so this way, they can get all the info from the internet through one book the size of a school textbook.

I think I will dropn the price guides and real railroad stuff, as they change every day.
And, you are a genious, I will write books on evry scale (N,HO,S,O,and G) exept Z.

Then, I will do a book about real railroads. Tere will be 2 on shortlines in American, and 2 on big time railroads in america, from when the railroad was first invented, to the present day.

That will be 9 books. I think I will drop N and HO, and combine S with O as they are counted as toy trains. I will put standard gauge in there too. G and Garden Railroading will be comdined, and the shortlines will be one book, and I will drop big time railroads. That will cut work considerably by 6 books. Whew. Saves alot of time needed for school and the hobby.

This will not be a full time thing, but, I just want to combine all subjects of toy trains into one, all the subjects of G and Garen Railoading into one, all the shortlines into one.
That way, people don’t have to go out and buy millions of books to have info on every subject. And make it conveinent and time worthy (not to mention money savng) for those who need all this information and don’t have the internet.

This ook is for every body with all subjects. It will help wth projects, give you something to do, or if you are in school, read it in class when you are bored, and the teacher won’t know any better.

Nick

6

Nick, I admire your ambition. Without degenerating into a when-I-was-your-age mess, I’ll repeat something a published author told me a couple of years before I published my first book. He said to look for something you have to say that hasn’t been said. Unless you have something new and different to say, he said, it’s not worth writing another book.

That may have something to do with why he only published one book. It has a lot to do with why I haven’t published one in five years.

Another very prolific author told me to write a million words, then publish. That’s a lot of writing–I probably had 500,000 words on my odometer when I first published a book. I don’t think the specific number of words is terribly important; his point was to write a lot.

Start with what you know the most about and build from there. Since I work in the computer field, I read a lot of computer books, and I can tell when the author knows what he’s talking about and when he’s talking about something he’s seen or tried once (or was told by some PR guy from some company). Outside of academia, theory is useless. Become an expert in something and write from your own experience, and keep it lively (that comes from the experience of writing a lot), and you’ll be able to write classics–classics in your field, at least.

Oh, and to quote Saint Paul, don’t let anyone look down on you because you’re young. Someone will no doubt come along and say they did such-and-such before you were born. Just because he’s old doesn’t mean he knows anything special. How long you’ve been doing something isn’t nearly as important as how much you learn and remember.

7

The books that seem to be published these days, at least in hard-cover, are the histories of toy train companies, showing large color photos. Not much there for the operator and person interested in building a layout.

So yes, I think Nick may be on to something.

8

Thanks,

There are books on operating and layouts and how to build them, but, It gets annoying when you want and/or need those books you have to buy everal on one subject. Well, that is why this is the ulitimate book.

It will have every thing, from layouts, to collections, info on trains, sceanery, wiring, builsing the layout, trains on TV, toy train history, company history, what ever it is, you name it, and I will see that it is there.

Nick

9

I am writing a book about O- gauge railroading for low-income railroaders. It will contain the best sources for trains, scenery ideas and several pages of restorations. It will also include a sectione on layout building. It will be softcover (actually made from common paper! and cost about $2.00 I also will talk about how to get an impressive (at least to non-railroaders) collectione on a budget.

10

I, for one, am delighted to see that there are some folks out there–young ones, at that–who are still interested in actually writing books. As anyone who has ever written and published a book can attest, it is a formidable but commendable and rewarding (not necessarily in a financial sense) undertaking.

I’m sure that my good friends Roger, Kent, and ***, at Kalmbach in Waukesha, are as excited as I at the possibility of an “ultimate” train book, but I do hope you’ll be able to break away from the exhaustive research and writing long enough to spend at least some of your youthful (and fun) years just enjoying the other things that life offers.

The hobby needs more book authors–no question about that. But aspiring authors are well advised to exercise considerable care in selecting an appropriate topic to write about. It needs to be something that’s not only new and interesting, but also doable. And I’m not sure that an all-inclusive ultimate train book falls into that “doable” category–at least not in the range of the average human lifetime.

The essential qualification for writing a book on any subject is the passion to tackle the project and see it through–along with some rudimentary language skills, of course–but the focus must always be on your readers’ interests, and not necessarily tied to your own interests. At least that’s the case if you ever hope the sell the book, let alone have it be read by others.

But anyone truly interested in writing a book should be encouraged to explore his or her dream. The printed word is a powerful tool, and in book form those words are preserved and perpetuated over the course of history. It’s quite a thrill to walk into a bookstore or library and see YOUR book housed on the shelves!

The very best place to start your adventure in book writing is to find a publisher who specializes in the topic area that interests you, and to request a copy of that publisher’s “Guildelines for Authors.” These days, th

11

“And, you are a genious, I will write books on evry scale (N,HO,S,O,and G) exept Z.”

HEY! Why leave out Z? That’s one of my favorite scales, and one that is growing in popularity and acceptance. More than that, it’s the one scale in model railroading that is most in need of a new book or two! [;)][:)]

12

Hey Ya’ll

If you read my most recent reply, I decided to write one book on toy trains of all maufacturers (S,O,and Standard) and One on Garden Railroading (Not sure aboput this one fully). I think I will drop the real railroads and just focus on those.

Nick