David Marshall. Model Railroad Engineering (1942)

      David Marshall. Model Railroad Engineering (1942) Marshall was the model railway editor for Popular Science. This tome (there’s really no other word for it) is long on words and short on practical instructions, let alone useful illustrations. There are a number of b/w photos of various layouts, identified as Scene on XYZ’s layout, which isn’t particularly useful. In the chapter on layout design, Marshall offers diagrams of yards, but none of actual layouts. The chapter on building rolling stock describes the process in terms that assume technical knowledge and skill in the reader. Yet the chapter on signalling is a detailed entry-level discussion of the whys and wherefores, with entry-level descriptions on how to build them.
     To put it mildly, there is a lack of balance. One could argue excuse on the grounds that the art of technical writing for amateurs hadn’t yet developed very far, and the cost of sufficient illustrations would have been prohibitive. But there was already Henry Greenly’s book (published well over ten years earlier) as an example, Model Railroader had already established its style of integrating illustration and text, and Model Engineering had shown how to write clear instructions.
     Then there’s Marshall’s style, grasp of subject, and sense of audience. He gushes, writing a mixture of plain direct address to the reader and arch allusions. He delivers himself of magisterial pronouncements about what one must always or must never do. He has built a model railway (with his children, as it turns out), and clearly speaks from experience, but he often forgets that many of his readers will be approaching his book as rank beginners. He casual references to room sizes and prices make it quite clear that he has no idea of how little money most model railroaders then (and now) could spend on their hobby. His grasp of engineering principles is generally elementary, and hazy when he gets beyond that level. And so on.
     And yet his book has a certain charm. The very defects that exasperate also engage. There’s a definite personality, which is rare in technical writing. Marshall is enthusiastic, and his enthusiasm inspires. His assumptions show that he thinks of a model railroad as a representation of the real thing. He doesn’t quote Frank Ellison (although he alludes to the Delta Lines), but clearly stands in debt to him. His chapter on track planning shows that he thinks in terms of designing the layout as a whole, with the aim of operating it realistically. Every theme of modern layout design and operation is touched on in this book. But Marshall seems incapable of making his assumptions explicit, and so much of what he says would be meaningless to anyone who is not a model railroader. ** (2004)