“Realistic Model Railroad Operation ”
Author: Tony Koester
Publisher: Kalmbach Publishing
ISBN: 0-89024-418-9
Retail Price: $19.95
Pages: 96
Pictures: Color
This review was originally published in the NMRA Midwest Region Winter 2005 Waybill. by Mark N. Goedert
“Realistic Model Railroad Operation” is a new look at how we can incorporate what real railroads do on our model railroads. This book is written by Tony Koester who is a well known author and modeler. Tony has done a great job covering the wide ranging aspects of train and model operations.
The book is a fresh look at model train operations and not a compilation of magazine articles. Overall the book is astetically pleasing with many color photos of model and prototype subjects. The book has a lot of color pictures of prototype and model trains with a good portion from the author’s former train layout, the “ Midland Road”. The photography throughout the book is excellent and is one of the reasons why I purchased the book. This is not to say that the book focuses on eastern railroading, the topics and photos covered cover most eras and railroading from coast to coast.
The book covers topics ranging from waybill and time table train orders to the use of staging and classification. The range of the material is fairly broad to appeal to different styles of operating a layout. I like the second chapter which presents the reader with a quick-start guide to operations. It is a nice overview of operations and it is done on a small layout that could be built on a piece of plywood. This is encouraging to modelers with a small space becasuse it illustrates that you don’t necessarily need a large train layout to enjoy operations.
The chapter on car forwarding is well done, Tony touches upon the use of switch lists, car markers and waybills to generate movement on a model railroad. I like the way he presented the use of waybills because the samples are well documented and clear. The text describing how the waybills work may take a bit of concentration but you need to walk through the entire life cycle of a waybill and freight car to really understand how it works.
After reading this book I learned that one of the the key factors to operating your layout is initially knowing where your railroad is geographically located and which railroads connect to it. Tony presents a small map at your fingertips to determine which railroads operated in different parts of the United States. You could use this map to get a rough idea on which railroads could connect to your model empire. Once you have your location figured out the rest of the operating scheme seems to fall into place.
Tony also makes a point on the importance of interchange and staging yards, an entire chapter is devoted to it. When looking at the waybill examples the cars are moving on and off the layout as though they are interacting with other railroads across the United States. Having a staging yard or interchange track is critical to the illusion that you are moving freight and equipment to other destinations “beyond the basement”.
verall I really like this book, I am biased in the fact that I model an eastern road however this aside the text does stand on its own very well. If you want to learn “How to run your trains like the real thing” this book is essential in getting started.
