A. C. Kalmbach. Model Railroad Track and Layout (1952, 5th edition)

     A. C. Kalmbach. Model Railroad Track and Layout (1952, 5th edition). Apart from the dated technology, which reminds us of how much easier it is to build a layout these days, Kalmbach’s unarticulated assumptions about a layout are the most interesting. He recommends studying the prototype for examples of good track planning; and discusses several examples of “good” layouts in terms of their operation. But it was Frank Ellison that drew the what to us now seem the obvious conclusions: that a layout should be designed as whole, as a stage for the trains, whose operation should simulate that of the prototype as closely as possible. It was, I think, no accident, that Ellison’s articles were published Kalmbach's Model Railroader, since Ellison articulated what was in Kalmbach’s mind, and which his text in fact foreshadows and implies.
     The technical details of track building, layout construction, and electrical work have mostly historical interest. These matters have been refined and simplified so that most people nowadays will have little difficulty building a layout that works. *** (2006)