Reference pages

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Tony Koester’s recent Operations book

In 2003, over a decade ago, Kalmbach issued a new book on model railroad operations, authored by Tony Koester and entitled Realistic Model Railroad Operation. Although it contained rather less than half as much material as its predecessor, Bruce Chubb’s masterful Kalmbach book from 1977, How to Operate Your Model Railroad, the new book contained much better model photography and had the quality writing we have come to expect from Tony Koester. And of course it reflected the many changes in model railroading since 1977. Still, I continue to urge those beginning to learn about operation to obtain a used copy of Chubb’s book, just because it is so complete and informative. Here is the cover of the Chubb volume, which as I said is well worth acquiring if you don’t have a copy.  


      What replaced Chubb’s book in the Kalmbach universe, what you might call a summary version of the material, authored by Tony Koester, was designed by Kalmbach partly to get this title into the style, size and price point of their other softbound books. One could criticize the reduction in content, but the book was probably a great help to many, simply in that it was much briefer and illustrated with photographs from a range of model railroads, while maintaining the definite connection to the practices of the prototype which Chubb had emphasized.


     But just as one could recognize in 2003 that many things had changed since 1977, the same was true in 2013 since 2003, and Kalmbach again asked Tony Koester to re-do the book. Last spring Tony completed work on an updating and revision of the book contents, and it was issued as the Second Edition of the same title. The new version captures many new ideas and approaches, while replacing a few older aspects of the topic.


     The new volume nicely encapsulates, among other things, all the changes in thinking about waybills in model railroad practice, in a new Chapter 7. Tony has generously given credit to many of those who have contributed to these ideas, including me, and I think his presentation in that chapter is sound and complete (as is the whole book). The new edition will be a welcome discovery to those not yet involved in operation, and is likely to have a few thought-provoking sections even for the experienced operator. I warmly recommend it.
Tony Thompson

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review Tony. This 2nd Edition is on my WTB list, but I feel better knowing that it really is an updated version rather than just repackaged. I do have the Chubb book (Oh how I choked on its price when it came out - but I've never regretted it!) as well as Tony's 1st edition Ops book as well as numerous others I've picked up through the years. But Bruce's and Tony's are by far, the best.

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  2. I'm still an armchair operator, so not actually used any of this stuff yet. I like the Koester book because I think it is (or will be) more practical for getting up and running. I picked up the Chubb book at a recent rail show, and it was awesome! Packed with details--so much that its a slog to read through. But I'm a geek and love the extra details. My recommendation is to reach for the Chubb book for the extra color commentary around the topic at hand.

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  3. Readers should not confuse Bruce Chubb's book with Model Railroader's special issue titled, "How to Operate Your Model Railroad" published in the summer of 2012.

    Unfortunately, I can't post a photo of this cover.

    George Corral

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  4. George, thank you for reminding me about that 2012 Special Issue. It deserves separate mention, and I will devote a short blog post to it in the near future.
    Tony Thompson

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