Mike Schafer, ed. Railroads You Can Model (1976)

     Mike Schafer, ed. Railroads You Can Model (1976) A somewhat better book than its successor, perhaps because Mike didn’t get his hands on the track plans as much in this one; but most of the plans are not really buildable as shown; they make poor use of the space, and have not been designed from the point of view of a user. Many of the layouts feature shelves that wander out into the middle of the room, but there’s no awareness of the use of backdrops to separate scenes, which in several cases would enable a doubling back of the line without sacrificing scenic integrity. Still, the plans are simpler than in the second book, especially the ones of the short lines, such the Bath & Hammondsport, or the Aberdeen & Rockfish, but they still use more space than they need to.
     The DM & IR is shown in a 58x29 plan featuring a massive ore dock connected through the backdrop to an ore treatment plant (taconite pellet maker) which allows a loads in - empties out operation. The plan is interesting as an exercise, but not really buildable except perhaps for a museum dedicated to displaying the iron ore industry. On the other hand, the B & H is a point to point shelf arranged into a G, easily reduced to fit a smaller space, and using the prototype track arrangements to good effect.
     The best plan, oddly enough, is based on the Tehachapi loop. It fits into a 24x15 space, is designed to display the loop in all its glory, and to show off the heavy traffic over it. This plan is designed for the modeller who prefers to run trains in a spectacular setting. Staging yards are in the form of stacked loops. A slightly longer space would permit wider radii on the loops, and a few more staging tracks, sorely needed to enable reproducing something like the frequency of trains over this line. But the plan is fairly simple, with fewer than 20 turnouts as shown, and perhaps another half dozen with the extra staging. Scenery would be relatively simple, since the vegetation is sparse, but the few buildings and roads would have to be modelled to a high standard to make the scene believable overall. Still, the simplicity of the plan makes this a buildable project despite its large size. **½ (2003)