HO Railroad from Start to Finish (Model Railroad Handbook, No 36)

by Jim Kelly

Lays out the process of creating a model railroad set-up, from the bare baseboard to the fully functioning railroad system. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890241554
• ISBN13: 9780890241554
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Kalmbach Pub Co
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.8" x 0.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

My son loves this

Having borrowed the book from the library several times, it was a pretty clear winner, before I bought it. My 11 year old son uses it as his main resource for the model railroad that it is still largely germinating inside his head, but that I have no doubt will eventually be a reality.

beautifully illustrated

As you would expect its a beautifully illustrated guide and informally written to boot. The only shortcoming for someone as raw as I am is the lack of detail in amounts used to create differing depths of colour and texture if landscape creation. Terms used eg 'latex paint' require some interpretation on this side of the Pacific but all in all I have been able to translate nearly all tools and materials. However a very basic term 'builders yellow glue' has me and a number of hardware stores in Australia a bit bemused. The book is an excellent investment and deserves your attention.

A Great Start

Building a model railroad is fun but doing more than the "oval track" needs some skills that all starters to not have. Often, modelers learn by doing and learn a lot from mistakes. This is valuable experience but it is also frustrating. This book attempts to address this problem by presenting the construction of a very modest but still well though out layout that is simple. This book is made up of reprints of a series of articles from MODEL RAILROADER MAGAZINE. It starts with a simple idea. The layout must be simple to build and not too messy. Each article covers a different facet and the result is a nice little railroad. Among the topics considered are the building of the table, laying track, building basic plastic kits of buildings, building of some basic car kits along with Kadee couplers, adding specialized track, adding streets, simple kitbashing of plastic structure kits, adding a backdrop, adding water features, weathering, building relief and scenery, control systems, scratchbuilt wood structures, metal structure kits, using mirrors to make a scene look larger, making rocks, adding foliage, building a tunnel, adding signals and operating of the railroad in a realistic manner. Each article is simple but teaches foundational skills. It is well done.

You need this book

If you are considering entering the world of Model Railroading you must have this book. It will guide you from an empty room to a fully functioning railroad. Lots of tips and step by step make it very easy for a novice to make a pretty nice layout. Î can't recommend this enough.

A Great Beginner's Guide

I had been struggling with how to start railroading for about 6 months when I ran across this book at the library. I finally have some direction and the available know-how to get going. The book covers the most basic subjects of how to get started as well as a few more advanced subjects. It's a must for new modelers!