Another useful publication on Operation

In a previous post, I commented on the recent Second Edition of Tony Koester’s Kalmbach book, Realistic Model Railroad Operation (you can see that post at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/03/tony-koesters-recent-operations-book.html ). Within that post, I also praised Bruce Chubb’s book, How to Operate Your Model Railroad, first published in 1977, a large and immensely informative book which is no longer in print.
     A comment to that post by George Corral mentioned that Kalmbach has also issued another publication with the same title, How to Operate Your Model Railroad, as a Special Issue of Model Railroader in the summer of 2012. Here is what the cover looks like:

     This issue is still available for purchase, direct from Kalmbach, at this link: http://www.kalmbachstore.com/modeltrains-railroading-model-railroading-special-issues-model-railroader-magazine-special-issues.html . It costs $7.95, and I would definitely recommend it. A number of the pieces in it, by Andy Sperandeo, were drawn from his column in Model Railroader, entitled “The Operators,” and others come from a variety of past articles in the magazine. One could thus say that it is in large part a collection of previously published material; still, having it all in one place is convenient, and I think that in this form, its impact is greater than the sum of its parts.
     In my opinion, overall, it is a valuable and very readable publication. I can recommend it in particular for its compact presentation of the basics of model railroad operation, especially if you don’t know too much about the subject already.
Tony Thompson