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

Although indirectly related to trains was a book (still have but packed away) my dad bought 67 years ago when I was about 7 years old.  I think the title was "Fun with Electricity" and cover showed a boy and girl looking at a simple motor.  The book discussed batteries, lights, switches, magnets and simple series circuits etc.  At the book's end it combined almost everything with building a simple motor.  I built that motor and it worked, sorta.

That little book was my start getting a lifelong interest in electricity that led to electronics and engineering.  And the train connection (gotta stay on topic!) of course, wiring up my HO (when I was 10 YO), N, O train layouts (after college) and designing signal systems and programming (after retirement).

One final thing about this book (I borrowed the image from above somewhere).

Way back in the 80's I built 3 structures based on photos in the book. These are old models, kind of ragged, made of balsa, card stock and glue. Not fine scale modeling, to say the least. They are still on my layout, though. 35+ years old!

This oil terminal is a lift-out part of a still-larger lift-out section, and hides the handle. Need to repair that sign on the "oil tank".

Below -  sand tower - need to do something about those wires to the tracks....photos are unforgiving, but this is in a corner...

"Freight house" from the book. The stores department and yard office on my layout, however.

Yeah, I must have multiple copies of the iconic Bantam Book, none of which, if I recall, are in one piece!  Most of them came along with collections of trains that my wife and I accumulated through the later years.  You can tell from their condition that all of their owners perused them dozens-to-hundreds of times in the search of inspiration...and more!

And, yes, they were the stuff from which many a dream began.

...Such as the photo spread on the Police Athletic League's group of FOUR!!!! layouts in Rochester, N.Y., each one representing one of the four seasons.  Wow!...what a fortunate group of kids to have access to FOUR great layouts.  I wish I had seen them...under construction as well as in operation...in person.  I often wonder why more isn't written about them in, say, this Forum?  I'd love to hear any first-hand accounts.

As other responders above have indicated, I, also, in my younger years (50's) made some crude trackside details, a building or two per the artists' sketches or a photo of someone's layout.  Wonderful experiences all.

I have the books by Frank Ellison and Warren Morgan...and many more by Armstrong, Westcott, etc..  Great reads even now in the septuagenarian years.  However, I never had a copy of Zarchy's book.  The date stamps in that book are a great testimony to the popularity of such books to young kids.  What a great memento!

KD

Weirdly enough, I remember my uncle having a Walthers catalog in the mid 70s I wore out. It featured a small traction layout that inspired my own traction layout armchair designing, and an article on the Oscar and Piker, which made me excited many many years later for the RMT peeps.

The other book(let) I remember was the small Atlas RR pamphlet for HO railroads you can build. I set up most of those, up to (but not including) the "L" chaped layout. That pamphlet was well worn and falling apart. It was done up in shades of blue, but I cannot remember the title.

Greg, I have that small, blue Atlas booklet at home. I’ll check back this afternoon with the title.

Hi Greg, as promised; is this the book? I have so many, including Westcott’s HO Railroad That Grows, Armstrong’s Track Planning for Realistic Operation, and several of Sweetland’s photo books on the Lackawanna and EL. Lots of inspiration!

@D500 posted:

Way back in the 80's I built 3 structures based on photos in the book. These are old models, kind of ragged, made of balsa, card stock and glue. Not fine scale modeling, to say the least. They are still on my layout, though. 35+ years old!

They look "fine" to me. There's something about an old model like that with the dust and faded colors and signs falling off that makes it even better. You did exactly what the author was hoping for .

@dkdkrd posted:

...Such as the photo spread on the Police Athletic League's group of FOUR!!!! layouts in Rochester, N.Y., each one representing one of the four seasons.  Wow!...what a fortunate group of kids to have access to FOUR great layouts.  I wish I had seen them...under construction as well as in operation...in person.  I often wonder why more isn't written about them in, say, this Forum?  I'd love to hear any first-hand accounts.

It's not too late - you can still visit this display.

@ADCX Rob posted:

It's not too late - you can still visit this display.

That's fantastic that it still exists.

I was fortunate enough that my local public library had two memorable model railroad books for me.  One was by Barton K. Davis and was a model railroad construction book - scratchbuild an FM loco, passenger cars, signals, etc. It even had a couple of layout plans to spend hours considering. Pretty powerful stuff for the mind of a 10-year old kid (and older).  The second was one of the Louis Herz model railroading books that was also filled with great information.  I constructed my first two position signal from drawings in the Barton Davis book, and hooked up the relay for it using Louis Herz' wiring diagram.

  It's taken years, but I now have copies of both of these books.

Dale

@ADCX Rob posted:

It's not too late - you can still visit this display.

..........

THANKS!

Something to plan for...when life settles down a bit more.

Meanwhile, seems like it would be a great spread for a future edition of OGR!...maybe??

With a reflection on Lionel's Bantam Books spread on the same that inspired many of us into this hobby for life!

Just a thought....

KD

@dkdkrd posted:

..........

Meanwhile, seems like it would be a great spread for a future edition of OGR!...maybe??

With a reflection on Lionel's Bantam Books spread on the same that inspired many of us into this hobby for life!

Just a thought....

KD

An idea I would certainly pursue for the magazine IF someone who is handy with a camera will come forward to gain permission and conduct a first-rate photo shoot.

@Artie-DL&W posted:

Hi Greg, as promised; is this the book? I have so many, including Westcott’s HO Railroad That Grows, Armstrong’s Track Planning for Realistic Operation, and several of Sweetland’s photo books on the Lackawanna and EL. Lots of inspiration!

Thats the one!

@Pennsylover posted:

I was fortunate enough that my local public library had two memorable model railroad books for me.  One was by Barton K. Davis and was a model railroad construction book - scratchbuild an FM loco, passenger cars, signals, etc. It even had a couple of layout plans to spend hours considering. Pretty powerful stuff for the mind of a 10-year old kid (and older).  The second was one of the Louis Herz model railroading books that was also filled with great information.  I constructed my first two position signal from drawings in the Barton Davis book, and hooked up the relay for it using Louis Herz' wiring diagram.

  It's taken years, but I now have copies of both of these books.

Dale

Hold on, hold.

Scratchbuilding an FM loco?!?
Let's just say my curiosity is really piqued here!

The earliest "Biggest Impression" in my RR reading world was the Model Railroad continuing story line featuring construction of the Tuxedo Junction in the mid fifties.  I was fortunate enough to have come across those issues in a pile of old magazines at a local train store.

That was a HO model RR construction series built around modeling the terminal in Atlantic City, NJ.

@G-Man24 posted:

They look "fine" to me. There's something about an old model like that with the dust and faded colors and signs falling off that makes it even better. You did exactly what the author was hoping for .

Thanks - and I agree, though my weathering effects were purely unintentional - natural, even. Reasonably competent "old" layouts - anyone's - and their layout elements begin to take on a history all their own, apart from what they were trying to model.

Certainly, there were other books, especially when I started getting back into model railroading in the 1980's, when I went with HO. I owned a copy of Sutton's book, Westcott's history of the GD Line, a lot of Armstrong (it helped that I worked in a hobby shop for a bit).

But there was another book that also got my attention, and this one was in my high school. At the time, I had discovered E.P. Alexander's "Civil War Railroads & Models" on my high school's library shelves, inexplicably under history (I worked in the library for credit, and pointed this out. It was corrected the following year). As Alexander built in O, my interest turned to that scale, forget at that moment my bedroom was smaller than a quarter of Imelda Marcos' shoe closet. It so happened that we had another book with the title "The Complete Book of Model Railroading" by Jim Buehner, a fairly recent book at the time. There were some images in there of an O gauge pike that used 3-rail and modified Marx and Lionel equipment.

Sadly, there was no way I could shoehorn even a simple O-27 layout into my room, even under my bed (which was also storage). Still, it was also an inspirational book.

My first model train book was the "Bantam 50", 50-cent Lionel Book, but I don't think it had the N&W "J" on the cover. I think it had an older B&W picture with some added color, maybe a 685 or other plain-front, center-headlight steamer. I read it until it fell apart. I was fascinated by the PAL layouts and The Delta Lines. That and the Lionel and Flyer catalogs were all I knew about until a friend gave me an assortment of 1955-1957 Model Railroader magazines in 1959. I started to spend my hard-earned allowance on the occasional MR from then on and added HO to my attic empire on 1961 with a Mantua "Big Six" 0-6-0 metal kit on my 14th birthday along with a 36-inch loop of Atlas track.

I’m glad to read of others who were influenced by books like HO Railroad that Grows and magazines like RMC and Model Railroader like I was.  I too went with HO as I wrote above.  Yes hard earned allowance of a quarter a week, then Dad gave me 50 cents an hour helping him with painting, roofing, and other big jobs.  I also got  $2 for mowing a neighbor’s and my grandma’s yards, each took over two hours to mow.  Dad taught me to learn to save and appreciate what I bought.  

@Mark Boyce posted:

I’m glad to read of others who were influenced by books like HO Railroad that Grows and magazines like RMC and Model Railroader like I was.  I too went with HO as I wrote above.  Yes hard earned allowance of a quarter a week, then Dad gave me 50 cents an hour helping him with painting, roofing, and other big jobs.  I also got  $2 for mowing a neighbor’s and my grandma’s yards, each took over two hours to mow.  Dad taught me to learn to save and appreciate what I bought.  

====> knowing nod here.

Well, I have given this the proper amount of thought. My exposure to trains was limited to the space under the Christmas Tree for a long, long time. I bought a garage sale box of HO track that came with the basics. When I went to the Ben Franklin to spend my lawn mowing monies I spotted Model Train magazine on the way to the Fishing-lures-poles-hooks and such.

Then, and only then did I find out that some folks had extra track for their layouts.

and additional trains.

and engines. and buildings, and bridges, and Tunnels, "Oh MY!". Oatmeal containers tunnels are my favorite go-to.

Soooo, when I buy my favorite Rail Road Book, it will be Greenbergs, how to repair Post War Traditional everything. And my Favorite on the internet place to be is Here!

Add my name to the list for this book!

In addition, I'll include 2 books that are not really books, but I wore the corners off the pages thumbing through them countless times: the 1960 and 1962 Lionel catalogs. I got my first set for Christmas 1962, and begged my parents to buy more, especially engines. Unfortunately that never happened. I had to wait until I was in college before I could buy something additional and with my own money.

Chris

LVHR

This is a fun trip down memory lane!  Do I have to just pick ONE?  The local model railroad club in the basement of a retirement home was probably the biggest influence overall.  Plus Top Hat hobby shop in Quincy, Illinois.  I have a newer version of the HO Railroad That Grows that we definitely used - and I'm still using some of the 3/4" plywood my brother and I built his HO layout on back in the late 70's early 80's!  Here are pics of my sentimental favorites:  Bruce Chubb's How To Operate a Model Railroad and Bill McClanahan's Scenery for Model Railroads were my most influential, perhaps.  What beautiful pictures!  I daydreamed a LOT as a kid.

Oh - and I still have a copy of O Scale Railroading Magazine from 1982 when the "article" about my Lionel science project was published!  Fun with trains even when your name isn't spelled right!

For me it was in 1967...a copy of Model Railroaded with the feature on John Allen's Gorre & Daphited.

@Ahitpy posted:

For me it was in 1967...a copy of Model Railroaded with the feature on John Allen's Gorre & Daphited.

That would've done it for me!

Well, I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news.

The good news - the Lionel book arrived in great shape.

The bad news - while it is one I know I checked out from my initial period in 1974, it is not the one I was looking for (((sniff))). Still, this book brings back a lot of memories as well. I think it was like the second or third one I checked out (not the school library, but local public library, and also rebound).

Alas, the search continues!