Description
This inspirational book of ideas and concepts comes from well-known author and Model Railroader contributing editor Tony Koester. Featuring 15 popular columns from his Trains of Thought column, Tony walks you through all facets of looking at prototype railroads for guidance and information on modeling scenic details and operations.
Applying Lessons From the Prototype is perfect for modelers looking to design and build a new layout, or those who just want to take their existing layout to the next level by incorporating features of a specific prototype railroad.
This all-new 112-page book covers a wide variety of subjects including:
- Layout design
- Track planning
- Realistic operation
- Scenery and structures
- And more!
Author: Tony Koester
Size: 8.25 x 10.75
Pages: 112
Author Bio
Tony Koester has written 12 books on Model Railroading for Kalmbach. Tony spent a quarter of a century designing, building, and operating (with his friends) the Allegheny Midland, a freelanced coal-hauling HO railroad. He is now hard at work completing a multi-deck HO layout that accurately depicts the Nickel Plate Road's St. Louis Division as it appeared in 1954. Tony has been the editor of Model Railroad Planning, a special annual issue of Model Railroader, since its inception in 1995. He is a contributing editor to Model Railroader and writes the popular Trains of Thought column and numerous feature articles.
Table of Contents
1. Pragmatic Prototype Modeling
2. Finding pieces
3. When “to scale” is too big
4. Modeling detour moves
5. Visual variety through used and foreign-road equipment 6. Choosing a prototype or base prototype
7. Modeling as a time machine
8. An easier approach to prototype-based free-lancing
9. Correcting mis-impressions
10. Towns by the numbers
11. Guidance from the professionals
12. Lineside details
13. Modeling grades
Reviews
Applying Lessons From The Prototype --book review
Sometimes model railroaders—and would-be model railroaders—need extra help in determining how they can achieve a better, more realistic layout. Questions arise from how to run various types of model equipment from different railroads, to operating along prototype practices, combining backdrops and structures into a cohesive scene, or how to improve the aesthetics of a train layout space. There are many other not quite so cut-and-dried questions that can hamper the construction or completion of a layout.
This 112-page booklet, heavily illustrated with beautiful and inspiring model railroad photographs taken on a number of exemplary train layouts, offers dozens of tips and ideas on how to size up problem areas on your current layout, or how to solve underlying questions on a layout you are about to build. Noted author Tony Koester, who is well known in the field, is a contributing editor to Model Railroader magazine, and is well-qualified to address a wide range of inquiries that novices and more experienced modelers are likely to present.
In thirteen chapters, and dozens of model and prototype color photographs and illustrations, Koester addresses a broad range of interesting questions from choosing a prototype to model and how to achieve selective compression to upgrading train layouts, layout detailing and train operations. He provides solid ideas and solutions to tackling some of the most difficult layout problems encountered by both beginners and more advanced modelers.
—Don Heimburger, Heimburger House Publishing Co.