“Industries Along the Tracks”
Author: Jeff Wilson
Publisher: Kalmbach Publishing
ISBN: 0-89024-582-7
Retail Price: $19.95
Pages: 88
Pictures: Color / Black and White
This review was originally published in the NMRA Midwest Region Spring 2006 Waybill. by Mark N. Goedert
“Industries Along the Tracks” is a basic look at the history, processes and how railroads interact with industry. The book does a great job covering the; Grain, Petroleum, Coal Mining, Automotive, Produce and Livestock industries. Author Jeff Wilson shows us how railroads interact with the six industries and presents them to us through explanatory diagrams, text and pictures.
The overall look and feel of the text is the high quality we expect from a Kambach book. All of the chapters have very good photos of buildings, structures, cars and sidings. The photos are a mixture of color and black and white depending upon the era. Sketches and diagrams compliment the photos to fill in the gaps of our knowledge. Some of the diagrams in the book did seem familiar to me, as if they were used in another text, however this feeling did not detract from the value of the book at all. The layout of the book is attractive and overall the text does not bog you down with details.
You can really describe this text as six mini-books covering industries served by rail. Each chapter could stand on its own as a basis for an entire book. Jeff does an excellent job covering the basic information we need for each industry to model a convincing scene. The book does not focus on a single scale, anyone modeling from Z to G can use this book. The book provides us with a general history of each industry so the era covered is fairly wide. A chapter could have some pictures dating back as early as 1912 through the modern era. The coverage is not thorough, so you won’t see 10 pictures form each decade but you will see a good summary of photos throughout the history of the industry.
This book was brought to my attention by a friend and structure aficonado Phil Schoenthal who recommended that I take a look at his copy. As I perused the book it was the nature of how each industry structure was coverered that caught my attention and led to the purchase of my own. Each chapter is well structured to provide you not only with the history but a recommendation of how you can lay out the structure and spurs for a typical industry. Then Jeff talks about the specific cars you can spot at each industry with photographs of typcial rolling stock. When you read into the discusion of rolling stock you will pick up nuggets on how to identify proper rolling stock for the industry. Even though I don’t model the grain industry I can now discern if a hopper is designed to carry grain, sand or plastic pellets. In additon to industries Jeff provides an index of models available at press time to emulate structures for various industries. The list of model kits can be found as an appendix in the back of the book.
If you are in the process of building a layout, module, or diorama this book can be very helpful in building an accurate industry. Each chapter has enough information about each industry to build a convincing scene. Additionally Jeff provides side bars with additional suggested readings to futher the depth of your knowledge for some but not all industries in the book. I was not wholly interested in some of the chapters but I did find them to be an interesting read. You could also use the text as a “touch up” for an industry already on your layout and even improve how the industry is switched from an operatons point of view. To say this book is for planners or scenery builders misses some of the additional value the text can provide.
I recommend “Industries Along the Tracks” for the quality and history of industries served by rail. This book will appeal to most modelers and planners building a layout or scene. If you thought twice about buying this book I hope you will reconsider and add it to your modeling library.
