NEW BOOK
Publisher: Chilton Book Company, Radnor, PA 19089-0230. Price: THE LARGE-SCALE MODEL RAILROADING HANDBOOK, 207 pages, black-and-white with full-color plates, 1992 softback edition $18.95 suggested list.
MODEL RAILROADING CHANGES so quickly, books attempting to treat the subject in an overall sense sometimes seem dated by the time they appear. If you read "all about model railroading" handbooks from even five years ago, you know what I mean. Materials, techniques, and concepts change, too, so even books about scenery, electricity, and track plans eventually need revision.
Fortunately for Chilton Book Company, large scale model railroading is still in the "toddler" stage and we hobbyists are relatively few. That means new mass-produced products (rather than changes mainly to detail or paint) appear infrequently, techniques specific to our segment of the hobby remain more static, and mainstream perspectives change more gradually.
The prolific model railroad author and editor, Robert Schleicher, has attempted to tackle the entire realm of large scale. Just as the magazine he currently edits, Railmodel Journal, is the second generation of a magazine he previously edited for another publisher, The Large-Scale Model Railroading Handbook is his second version of a book on that subject, again for a different publisher. In each case, the second effort is better than the first. The book succeeds pretty well.
It covers most aspects of out-of-the-box large scale model railroading and simple kitbashing.
Unfortunately, Schleicher has a history of allowing inaccuracies to creep into his work and they are back to plague him again. Usually, they're very harmless, such as referring to Bill Baldock's Devonshire, Snail Path & Petunia Railway as the Devonshire, Snail Park & Petunia Railroad (the fourth color page following page 58).
Sometimes errors appear to result from ignorance, such as his statement, "The dimensions for the car I feel is closest to the prototype for the LGB [4067 boxcar] model [is] the Denver & Rio Grande Western number series 4000 through 4099..." (page 160). Actually, the prototype for the LGB car is a Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge boxcar and, as every LGB collector knows, the model first appeared with Southern Pacific lettering.
In the section on Wiring and Train Control, an error arising from what seems to be a fundamental lack of comprehension appears in a caption (page 57). The caption reads, "Model Rectifier's [Model 6200] power pack includes a 'Mode' switch for slow-speed running. Do not use 'Mode' with sound-equipped locomotives." Actually, the "Mode" switch allows you to run locomotives with 12 volt motors, such as Delton products, at no more than 12 volts and those with 18 volt motors, such as LGB models, at no more than 18 volts. Running 18 volt motors at slower maximum speeds is a by-product of the 12 volt function. Damage to sound systems occurs from the kind of electrical wave form the pack generates rather than from the "Mode" switch. A few years ago, LGB officially took the position that MRC Model 6200 packs generated a pulse power wave form potentially harmful to LGB sound systems regardless of the "Mode" setting. In other words, the entire power pack was taboo, not the lower voltage setting.
The text even suffers from some basic grammatical errors.
The list goes on. So how much of the book's information can you believe? Probably about ninety percent and, generally, the errors won't hurt you. But if the locomotive model you just bought ran well only ninety percent of the time you would return it as defective. If it had a ten percent chance of blowing out your power pack, you never would have taken it home.
The other criticism involves the book's scope. Nowhere does it illustrate some of the most inspirational aspects of large scale modeling. The how-to chapters deal with simple and attainable projects because, after all, it is a book primarily for novices. Schleicher's choice of layouts is good as far as it goes and some of those layouts may inspire you. But it would seem logical somewhere to have shown what a more sophisticated hobbyist is able to produce. For example, Bob Uniack can transform a POLA water tank from out-of-the-box mediocrity to inspirational realism using only the edge of a razor saw, a hobby knife, and paints. Dean Lowe routinely turns LGB Moguls from toys into realistic appearing models with a few detail parts, a bottle of glue, a screwdriver, and an airbrush. Other hobbyists spending more time and employing more advanced tools or techniques have created awesome models and Schleicher has ignored every one of them.
Still, the book is important because it presents a spectrum of large scale model railroading. It provides a springboard to consider areas you might otherwise have passed over. So it is worth owning even if you have been in the hobby for a while. Nobody is expert in everything, and The Large-Scale Model Railroading Handbook offers enough useful (and correct) information to justify its purchase. The effective life span of most of that information should be more than five years.-RR
