Reference books for older trains

I recently purchased a secondhand 2001 edition of "Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Trains 1945 - 1969 " (Volume 1 locos and cars) for $20. It strikes me as a well-written book with lots of interesting information. The 2001 edition appears to be an improvement over previous editions, with neater layout and better organization. The prices on some later editions are staggering.

Like C.W said, get as many editions of the same guide as you can.

One will have an excellent comparison of F3s, then the next edition will omit that and add a section on 6464s or FM Trainmasters. Same for the prewar guides.

You can never have too many guides, not for prices, but for the info. They all have some errors, but with experience and the guides you can learn a lot.

Jim

The Train Collectors Encyclopedia  Traintique Edition Volume I by William M. Vagell is interesting. mainly, Lionel Standard Gauge. I believe Volume II has a little more info and color photos.

Harder to find, but very interesting are a six volume set put together by James Tuohy and Tom McComas in the early 1990s.  I cannot find my copies right now, but I believe they were titled "Lionel Trains: A Collector's Guide and History."  This may have been the first comprehensive documentation of Lionel's products.  Superseded by even more detailed guides from themselves, Greenberg, Doyle, but still particularly good on the history and broad understanding of the products.

I believe they may been reprinted at least once (in fact the 1993 or so set may be the reprint of an earlier work), but are not currently available.  It might be worth contacting TM and seeing if they have any available, or know a source.

I agree with Landsteiner, the six volume TM set is well worth having.  It was reprinted at least once in softcover.
The original volume was spiral bound with some sort of plastic binder and covered postwar. For some reason they called it volume II and made the prewar book volume I when it was published.

IMHO, the best of the set is volume IV, which covers the first ten years of the modern era. There is a lot of information about who, what, and why.

Volumes V and VI cover the archives and advertising (I forget which is which).

The books show up on EBay at very reasonable prices. Just be certain to check whether the book(s) being sold are hard cover or soft cover.

I haven't finished reading my copy, but hey, you might find it interesting.

Both the T&M series of books, and the Greenberg Guides are the preferred choice of reference.  Neither one is perfect, and both have errors or omissions, which you would have to check them against each other.  The books with values are ignored, because a person with a well versed background in either Pre or Postwar, would get a better sense of value from auction sites, and what that item recently sold for.  

I only own Vol. 1 of T&M Prewar, and there are things missing from their book, that I can find in the Greenberg book Vol. 2 of Lionel Prewar 0 & 00 gauge.  I have one locomotive that I have studied exhaustively for over 6 month, namely the Lionel 1688E, and the two other castings of the 1588 & 1668.  Almost nothing is listed in the T&M book, Greenberg lists 8 variation of the 1688/1688E, and I have actually found and documented 19 variations of that loco.

It boils down to how extensive you want to research, as to Rarity of an item, variations, basic history of issue date, etc..  Just try and search for the books that you think will help you, and do some judicious shopping for the best value at a price you can pay.  The Greenberg book I bought was listed in the $80-140 range, and I just kept looking and found it for $30.  You can never have enough reference books.

The Doyle books are primarily good for photos of items, but he also doesn't show a lot of variation, that are known by the other publishers.  I doubt very much if Doyle will issue any NEW material, of which his most recent was 2007 editions.  Paul V. Ambrose brought a law suit against Doyle, and Krause Publishing in 2009, to bar either of them using Ambrose's material, which both had done.

When looking for old or out of print books I usually start here. http://www.abebooks.com/

Some information in earlier editions of the Greenberg Guides are sometimes not repeated in later editions . an earlier edition had a nice article on the evolution of the Berkshire locomotive which was not included in later revisions. You may want to consider looking to own a few editions of the same book depending how deep you want to go into the subject.