Product Description

Over the decades railway modellers have made enormous strides in their quest for realism in replicating the age of steam in their models. However, while the quality of rolling stock, scenery and electronics has vastly improved over the years, there is one area where many layouts fall down. This is the manner in which they are operated. This new title sets out to guide modellers away from some basic errors and lead them in the direction of correct operating practices by encouraging them to look to the full size railway for inspiration. This book examines various aspects of steam railway operation and explores how these can be successfully applied to a model railway. among the areas examined are track formations, signalling, traffic patterns, and train make up. These subjects are explored in both the authoritative text and the huge range of photographs which portray both aspects of the steam railway and some of the best examples of the modeller's art. Written by Bob Essery, one of the most respected and innovative exponents of railway modelling, this new book will be sought after by both those seeking a useful introduction to railway operating practice and all those looking for guidance on how these can best be replicated on model railways.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #174864 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Customer Reviews

A steam-era must for your bookshelf
I came to railway modelling with an interest in the present day railway, and only bought this book out of curiosity. Having read it, I am a convert to the steam age with its operating practices and variety of trains.
This book mostly deals with railway operations in the post-grouping steam era and is biased towards the Midland, LMS and BR(M) territory and methods. There is information on prototypical track, signalling, train formations, operations, train driving and much more.
If you want prototypical steam era layout, then this book will help you get there.

OK , but...
The title suffers from some basic editing blunders. For example, a major layout drawing has signals and junctions labelled with numerals but it is referred to repeatedly over a page of text as if it were labelled using alphabetic characters.
The author's covererage of several topics is haphazard. The approach in these cases could be summarized as: "Here are some railway photos of the steam era that illustrate this topic. Note X and Y. Consider employing X and Y in your model of this era to replicate genuine railway operations."