The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals [Paperback]

Marty McGuirk (Author), Martin J. McGuirk (Author)

Book Description

Series: Model Railroader | Publication Date: November 2001

Offers hobbyists a guide to modeling locomotive service, repair, and storage terminals. Also includes tips and techniques for modeling trackage, structures, and other terminal details appropriate for the steam or diesel era.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Kalmbach Publishing Company (November 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890244146
• ISBN-13: 978-0890244142
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.2 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good start for ideas...., January 29, 2008

By 

Ryan Boudreaux (Wake Forest, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals (Paperback)

This book was a quick read for me and it did have some good ideas for modeling locomotive servicing facilities. However, the focus is more on steam than diesel facilities, so I was left feeling a bit short changed. It gave some good prototype information, but then going to the train room or layout for actual model building was not enough for me. The last section on building the diesel terminal was good, but again, when I turned that last page expecting more, and then hit the supplier and manufacturer list. There were some good ideas that Marty McGuire did offer up, such as working a roundhouse into a backdrop. Overall it is a good book, but it just scrapes the surface and left me wanting more. I guess that's Kalmbach's plan, wanting you to buy another book.
The book would have gotten 5 stars from me if it had more in the way of modeling information.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent, but lacking answers to basic questions, July 9, 2011

By 

Cartoon Head (Georgia US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals (Paperback)

I enjoy Kalmbach books overall and found this one to be interesting. However, it was lacking answers to a very BASIC question that you would expect to find in a book like this (for steam or diesel):

When a locomotive arrives at the yard, WHAT HAPPENS?

That is, what are the actual steps, from the point of arrival to the point of departure on its next duty assignment?

As I am mostly interested in steam, presumably step 1 is, dump the ashes.

But what happens after that? When do they refill the tender? When do they refill with water (right before leaving or NOW)? Does the answers depend on whether the train is due to go out right away again or will be going in for service or will be sitting around for a few days? Presumably they only take sand right before leaving, but again, that's an assumption. When the train IS in for servicing, what's basic service? What's a major service and when it is scheduled? What's a power house for? How many extra coal cars are generally kept around? One per locomotive? Per 2 days service? Per 100 miles of service since last coaling? How long would water last? etc., etc.

These are the kinds of questions you would expect to be answered in a book that discussed the servicing terminal, since many of the answers influence the actual operations at the terminal. All of that is absent.

And it's similarly lacking for diesel operations.

Maybe these are obvious things that every good model railroader should already know, but for me to give it a 5-star review, that's the kind of information I'd expect.

It's kind of like having a book on freight yard design describing in detail where all of the different classification tracks should go and what should be around them, without ever describing how the different freight classifications work and why certain cars would end up on certain tracks. One of my favorite publications is the Layout Design Journal's Special Freight Yards edition, and that's what is so great about it, they explain EVERYTHING and assume nothing. There's even a good walk-through of how a yard evolves. That's what this book is missing.

I still like this book, it's got some good modeling advice, but a future edition might want to consider answering those questions and that might help to fatten up the book up a little too.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Resource, February 27, 2007

By 

John A Lee III "jal3" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals (Paperback)

Modeling trains allows the opportunity to put together a lot of fascinating machinery and buildings. People who like to build models tend to like to do that sort of thing and the instructions that come with the models are usually adequate. Unfortunately, that can leave a modeler with a really neat gizmo that he or she does not really understand in the great scheme of things. A nice sanding tower may be built but, once built, the modeler may have no idea about how it would be used in real life or where it would be most appropriate on a layout. This book explains things like that.

It does its explaining both in terms of steam and in terms of diesel equipment. It explains how real railroads operated to turn trains. Along the way, it also gives some good modeling tips.