Best / Favorite Vintage Model Railroading Books Aimed at Boys

JTrains,

Here is a series of books, that to me, are timeless,

http://www.newportvintagebooks...phRailroadSeries.htm

It is the "Ralph" series of 10 railroad books.

Follow Ralph as he makes his way through life. Needing to support his widowed mother, he gets a job working on the railroad.

The books follow his life as he works hard, does right, faces danger and ........

Written in the early 20th century. Aimed at boys.

The originals are available for not a lot of money. Try Addall.com or Amazon. Many if not all have been reprinted. I myself am still looking for the last one, Ralph and the Train wreckers.

Buy at least the first one, read it yourself. you'll be hooked.

LIONEL6457 posted:

JTrains,

Here is a series of books, that to me, are timeless,

http://www.newportvintagebooks...phRailroadSeries.htm

It is the "Ralph" series of 10 railroad books.

 

Buy at least the first one, read it yourself. you'll be hooked. 

Thanks for the tip - I'll look into them for the, uh, boy. 

My suggestions are out of print. But I have seen them at train shows from time to time:

The Wonderful Train Ride  - Its a story about two children who ride a train from New York City to Los Angeles.

The story is dated, but my kids still enjoyed having it read to them. I guess you'd probably want to tell the kids that the story was about things long ago.

 I think you can read the story at the site I linked. And the site seems to have some other nice stuff for kids.

The Big Book of Real Trains - I have had at least three different editions of this book.  The oldest one, which came from my wife's family, did not include diesels. There is also an edition with a diesel and a few additional cars. I found it interesting that while all the original drawing were in color, the new ones were black and white. Finally, I had a "library edition" with a more substantial cover. I think it was the version with the diesel.

Check out the links.  

My kids also enjoyed having The Boxcar Children series read to them. (Trains were only marginally involved). We went through the first 19 books that were written by the original author.
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These were some of the ones I had read to me as a child. Train Coming! was the one I had Mom read and reread to me the most. So much that when I came across a copy in an antique store a few years ago, I held it up, cover to me, and read it word for word to my wife.

got that one tootle......

The Little Train by Lois Lenski is a good one.  It details all of the parts of an old steam engine and has a good story for a kid.  I've got an older copy from the 40's, looks like they've remade it recently as it is on Amazon.

JTrains posted:

Although my son is only 3, I’ve started to buy a couple of vintage books from the 1940s/1950s that were written with boys as their audience ...

Virginia Lee Burton wrote and illustrated some classic stories that are fun and educational, many of them featuring train subjects. The stories that aren't directly train related often have illustrations with trains mixed into the story. Some of the titles are: Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Choo Choo, Maybelle the Cable Car, Katy and the Big Plow, The Little House. Following pic is from The Little House.

"Roundabout Train" is a fun kid's story. The 2-6-4 loco looks like Lionel influence.

Some previous discussion of this same subject:

https://ogrforum.com/t...s-train-books?page=2

My favorite was "Superpower: The making of a Steam Locomotive," by David Weitzman. This book is aimed at the adolescent reader. It is an account of how a steam locomotive is designed and built, told through the eyes of a young man who has just gotten his first real job, at the Lima Locomotive Works. He is a 'gofer,' and so he finds himself visiting every part of the works, just as Lima is creating the A-1, the original Berkshire and the locomotive which launched the 'superpower' philosophy. The book creates a very attractive and, dare I say, romantic, picture of the industry and the people who worked in it. (The author did in fact go to Lima, OH, and interview former employees.) The whole thing is beautifully illustrated with engravings, which really do a great job of capturing the intricacy of the locomotive.

Haha, I just read back what I wrote! It might as well be an ad, or a blurb to go on the back cover. Well, I did read this book about a hundred times during my early teens, and a few times since, too.

I second Mr. Punnymoon's Train. My parents said that multiple copies were worn out on me. I am now reading it to my two year old granddaughter. 

It is available on Amazon for a reasonable price.

Brad

My sincere thanks to everyone for their train-related book suggestions!  This is an interesting thread but not exactly what I thought it was going to be.  My original intention was to solicit suggestions specifically on model railroading "how to"-type books that were written in days past for the boy/adolescent.  Does anyone have suggestions in this area, above and beyond what I listed in my original post?

My apologies for not making this clearer in my OP.

Considering that your child is currently only 3 years old, most of us were making suggestions for train books closer to that age group. I suspect that 1940's/1950's books written for adolescents may not appeal to your son when he gets to that age - they will probably seem funky and outdated to him. Us older people appreciate those books for nostalgia.

My favorite book in 4th grade was the blue comet. It is fictional but it is still one of my favorite books to date.

When I was your son's age, someone gave me "Clear Track Ahead."  This book, which I still have, was may favorite.  After WWII, when I got more into running a railroad  THe Bantam Books edition of Lionel's "Model Railroading," was my favorite.  The first edition was 35 cents.  When I wore that out, the 2nd edition (enlarged) was 50 cents.  Someone should reissue it.  I have a box of separated pages from the two editions.

Diesel-Electroc 4030 by Henry Billings

Loved it as a kid --- found a copy at York a few years ago

Describes running a train on the NYC Hudson Division --- Always liked Lionel New York Central F-3's as a kid and this book put me in the cab as the engineer of those diesels --- I think you'll like it

Thx

Joe S