Model Trains - The Collectors Guide

by Chris Ellis

Featuring one hundred illustrations, an introduction to a fascinating and complex hobby is a guide to model trains from the golden age of Lionels, Ives, Ma+a5rklin, and Hornby to the exciting models of today.

80 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1995

Reviews

[Little Sheepling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book recalls the (rather surprising) history of the humble Model Train. It focuses a lot on the British viewpoint of the hobby (probably understandably), but also includes the US, Germany and other countries, describing the makers, gauges, models, innovations and the levels of popularity over the years in said countries etc. The book contains many very nice pictures of model trains from all around the World and from the very earliest examples to more recent ones. However at times the text is broken up by them, and they don't always correspond to what's being described in the Chapter.

The book also describes the various offshoots to Model Train collecting, as well a guide for those looking to begin the hobby with information and resources given (probably better and easier ways of doing this nowadays however).

However the "Collector's Guide" side to the book rather confuses me; as, yes the book describes rare & valuable examples, but... it's mostly in text form (internet to the rescue!) and would probably not be all that helpful to newcomers or those just generally unfamiliar with this particular side of collecting (and certain model's value may well be different to what's described in the book... maybe?).

A charming but outdated book.