The Model Railroad Book That Made The Biggest Impression On Me... Now Forgotten...

I can relate!!

Do you remember the cover of the book by any chance?

Here is one, many were talking about on one of the groups on facebook.....

Ah, the Morgan book.

I thought it was, but this book has a lot of photos, whereas the book I'm referring not as many, mostly drawings (with projects like how to make water towers out of cans, and what). Sadly, the book I'm referring to was rebound, so it had a pretty long history in my local school system. It was withdrawn before I could check it out again.

Is it either of these two books? The one on the left dealt with American Flyer, and the right one was Lionel. The second photo shows pages from the Lionel book.

Artie, you nailed it.

It was the Lionel book. I remember those drawings.

Which means I must now track it down!

Thanks!

...and on page 20 the book on the right hand side of Artie's post does show a model railroad with track running through house walls.

...and there it is!

@Artie-DL&W posted:

Is it either of these two books? The one on the left dealt with American Flyer, and the right one was Lionel. The second photo shows pages from the Lionel book.

Yep - me too. I still look through them - both the Lionel and AF publications. They take me back. I can honestly say that Lionel's Model Railroading stimulated my interest more than any other single publication, to this day. Of course, I was an impressionable 10-year-old. It made me a Hi-Railer, rather than a Toy Train guy.

I had the 1958 (?) edition with the N&W J on the cover.

Well, stimulus check or no, book ordered.
Good thing I enjoy ramen noodles...

I still have my original boyhood copy of the Lionel/Bantam Books volume--Third, Enlarged Edition, 50 cent cover price (there were a number of editions published over the years in the 1950s or so). I also have the more current reproduction of that book. The repro copy is in pristine condition, while my boyhood copy is not in the greatest shape due to a whole lot of use, over and over again, way back when. I keep it on my bookshelf, but have it wrapped in plastic wrap to keep it preserved as best I can. That book means more to me than any of the several hundred railroad and model railroad books in my bookcases here in my home office.

Attached is a quick photo of the cover of my original volume (still wrapped), that I thought might bring back fond memories for others. This edition was circa. 1950, I believe.

RRLittle, glad I could help. Like Allan, I keep them in a plastic bag, as the pages are separating. I do like to bring them out once in awhile to reminisce.

Loved looking through the Lionel book when I was a young guy in the 1950's.  Bill Makel

This is maybe the best forum thread of this evening. I love a happy ending to a question.

But how bout that timeless classic, "Twenty years an O Gauge Junkie, or One Man's Journey Through Withdrawal and Rehab."

I agree with WRW. What a nice ending!

I think I understand now why the school library copy was rebound - I'm guessing it was very popular when it hit the shelves!

This one for me. In school I would dream and draw up track plans.

I have enjoyed reading this topic! It brings back many memories. I read all of these books as a little kid, and I still have them. They had a strong effect on my model railroading and my enjoyment of this hobby. And I still read them for fun.

Like Alan, I have an original 3rd edition, which is falling apart, and I also picked up the reprint that was done back in the early 90's. Found it, new-on-the-shelf, last year.

Great book and great thread.

Please check out Archive.org and their book section.  You will find this as a"book to borrow"  and you will find many other fascinating things to download for free - as a pdf or even Kindle  I've found some great 19th century locomotive catalogs with great illustrations.

Model railroading : Lionel Corporation. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Hey BMT,
As an astronomer (that's my other thing), I spend hours over at Archive. Amazing resource. Just found a car cyclopedia there, looking at all of these wonderful turn of the last century goodies. Glad it exists!

My early childhood inspiration came from:  

Cheers, Dave

The book that got me hooked years ago was John Armstrong's "Track Planning for Realistic Operation". I read and re-read that until it fell apart, then I bought another copy. By then, I was doodling track plans and had a file full of them. I was building an HOn3 layout and we moved and it got shelved.

But John's book never left me and I used a new copy to build my current hi-rail layout. I used his formulas for  charting track geometry standards with spacing required and the standards have saved my bacon time and again.

So I have built two layouts based on that one book. I think that says it all.

Don Merz

@SPSF posted:

This one for me. In school I would dream and draw up track plans.

That was fun drawing those great plans with lots of turnouts and "impossible" configurations.  Then when you actually started track laying, suddenly curves and turnouts just could not all fit on that unbelievably small 4 x 8 sheet of plywood

I have several of the Model Railroading books in various conditions.  The bindings are very brittle. I looked at one so much I punched a hole is the upper corner and put a big ring so I could flip through the pages.  One day, I would like to figure out if there are differences between the printings. My 6th edition has "Revised ......by experts" on the cover so I wonder what those changes were?

Here’s mine:

@stangtrain posted:

Here’s mine:

Yep, that's it. Yours is in good shape compared to mine - it's still complete but in a plastic bag to keep the pages from going astray.

I refer to my reprint of it from the 90's(?) when looking through it - but Lionel did the reprint poorly and all the photos and graphics are fuzzy. Really inexcusable and off-putting.

The book that influenced me the most was the Kalmbach Publishing Linn Westcott book, HO Railroad That Grows.  I have it in one of the boxes under the basement stairs that have been there since we moved to this house and I didn't have room to for books on a bookshelf that I may not use soon.  It is in about the shape as some of the books displayed by others above.  I don't know how many times I read it and I did build an HO layout based on the concept.  I know I have it, but it has been over 40 years since I opened the cover.  I gave it a lifetime of reading when I was a teenager.

Someone mentioned Westcott's book on the legendary John Allen way up there. Yeah, boy howdy. Made me long for a basement.
Which in Florida is a bad idea.

I need to look into Ellison's book. I've read a lot of anecdotes about him, I'd love to find out more about his approach.

For me, one of the most inspiring things in the Bantam book were the pictures of some of the model railroads - particularly the photos on pages 18, 97, 125, and 259 of the 4th edition.

  I used to try to imagine having enough space to build a layout where any one of these scenes was just a small part of the overall setup. It turns out these settings were just temporary dioramas (I think it was Roger Carp who wrote about these pictures and the people who built the dioramas and took the photos). Imagine my disappointment - I've never been the same since ()

Yep, mine is also falling apart and in a plastic bag.

A few years ago I purchased the reprint.

I still refer to it for things like wiring accessories/signals.

@stangtrain posted:

Here’s mine:

Thanks for this memory!   I bought the same book for $75 cents from Bantam when I was in elementary school.  I thought it was the coolest book ever!  Sadly,  somehow over the years it was lost.  

There is something else from my first days as a model railroader that was a constant source of inspiration - Railroad Model Craftsman.
I loved that magazine. What I especially loved was that it was only 60￠ (in 1974).

There were a few articles I remember from those days. E.L. Moore's famous "rhubarb plant" in the July, 1974 issue comes to mind. That was the same issue that introduced lightweight foam scenery, if I recall (I had that issue for years).
It might have been that issue that talked about a vast O scale layout that used outside rails, but it was the construction of the diesels that I remember them writing about most. They made wooden forms and used sheet metal to make the locomotive shells by hammering them over the form.
This was another one of those projects that when I ran it by my mother was met with a resounding "aren't you happy with the little trains you have?!?"
Even then I suspected I wanted to go O scale.

This was my go-to book in grade school, Harry Zarchy's Book of Model Railroading.  Fifty years later I read in the paper where the school was closing and went back to my hometown to visit one last time. I even got to see one of the nuns who had taught me, she was still there and could still probably take me in a straight fist fight.  She invited me to look around for a memento so I took the old Westclox clock off the wall of my old classroom and then headed to the library to find this book. Still there ! Kind of rudimentary but still fun to thumb through. Those check-out dates from 1966-1972 were probably all mine.

@RRLittle posted:

There is something else from my first days as a model railroader that was a constant source of inspiration - Railroad Model Craftsman.
I loved that magazine. What I especially loved was that it was only 60￠ (in 1974).

There were a few articles I remember from those days. E.L. Moore's famous "rhubarb plant" in the July, 1974 issue comes to mind. That was the same issue that introduced lightweight foam scenery, if I recall (I had that issue for years).
It might have been that issue that talked about a vast O scale layout that used outside rails, but it was the construction of the diesels that I remember them writing about most. They made wooden forms and used sheet metal to make the locomotive shells by hammering them over the form.
This was another one of those projects that when I ran it by my mother was met with a resounding "aren't you happy with the little trains you have?!?"
Even then I suspected I wanted to go O scale.

E.L.Moore!!  I loved his articles!  The one I remember  most was the molasses mine!!  Mine, cars, and whimsical tale about it!  RMC was the first train magazine I found in about 1967-68.  I passed up all the comic books in old Nick Brown’s magazine and tobacco store in Mars, Pennsylvania 3 miles from where I grew up and found RMC.  It was really my start in the hobby.  Nick’s store was dusty and smelled of tobacco, but everyone’s mum and dad knew Nick sold only clean magazines and no tobacco to minors.  He wore the little coin belt to make change like bus drivers wore.

I saw one O gauge outside third rail layout in person many years after seeing many in the magazines.  It belonged to famed layout designer John Armstrong in Silver Spring, Maryland.  This was in the late 1980s to early 1990’s.  I saw all his famed ideas, reverted loop, vertical switch, Edward Hopper Nighthawks, Point of Rocks station, manana trees.  He had a couple younger fellows running trains for the guests.

I loved the writing of David P. Morgan in Trains and would recommend getting some old magazines if you never had the chance to read his work.

Growing up, I had this, by Linn Westcott, as a hand me down and still have it, I thought it was great. Although HO, it was still interesting and well done.

Tom

My book was Frank Ellison on Model Railroading. He explained the purpose of the railroad and how to incorporate it into your model line. His Delta Lines was O scale so that is what I ended up working in.

Still have my copy from 1959- just about worn out.

Leon Butler

@PRR8976 posted:

I loved the writing of David P. Morgan in Trains and would recommend getting some old magazines if you never had the chance to read his work.

Growing up, I had this, by Linn Westcott, as a hand me down and still have it, I thought it was great. Although HO, it was still interesting and well done.

Tom

That’s it, Tom!!  I read that over and over and had it on the layout while I built an adaptation!  My copy id deep in the closet under the basement stairs

@trumpettrain posted:

Thanks for this memory!   I bought the same book for $75 cents from Bantam when I was in elementary school.  I thought it was the coolest book ever!  Sadly,  somehow over the years it was lost.  

Gee, I can join the "me to movement"!

For some reason seem to recall sent away 25 cents to somewhere early 50's.

Ron

I need to amend my 70-year old recall.  I pulled my copy out and it cost 75 cents.  So must have tape three quarters to the card stock that I posted away to get this copy so many years ago,