Frank Taylor. How to Build 20 Railroad Models (1941/53)

     Frank Taylor. How to Build 20 Railroad Models (1941/53) Ah yes, the Good Old Days of building models, the ones that recent whinges about the dumbing down of Model Railroader refer to.
     Frank Taylor describes the making of everything from boxcars to cranes. He prefers brass and tin sheet (ie, tinned iron). He uses nails as well as glue to hold the parts of the models together. Most of his work is done in O scale, which at the time of writing was still number 1, and OO (1:76 in 19mm gauge) was still a contender. He doesn’t have modern glues or plastics available. Detail parts are few, and scale lumber is not even a distant dream, except for O scale, for which a “fellow with a circular saw” can cut exact scale sizes. He wrote at a time when the “local lumber yard” would cut wood to small sizes for you, when 1/16" 3-ply wood was widely available because of the strength of the model plane hobby, when “cut and shape the two pieces of the coupler pocket” was deemed sufficient help. Taylor does promote the building of culverts and other merely scenic items, which don’t after all contribute to the running of the trains. Around the same time as he wrote his construction articles, Frank Ellison was beginning his series on model railroads. His ideas and his Delta Lines changed the hobby forever.
     Taylor writes in a nice, clear, colloquial style, with occasional asides into the philosophy of building models based on the prototype, and with frequent mention of alternative materials and methods. The book is a pleasure to read, and many of Taylor’s tricks and techniques are still worth knowing. The plans and drawings are good, the photos merely adequate; the book was printed in 1953, when halftones tended to muddiness unless the original was brightly lit and contrasty. Despite the dated technology and assumption of rather more craft skills than most people posess, Taylor’s book is still worth reading, and it’s certainly inspiring. It's out of print, but if you find a copy, buy it. ***

Richard Tames. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2004)

     Richard Tames. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2004) Brunel is one of my heroes: an engineer of vision, daring, imagination, skill, and leadership. Relative to what had been done and what was deemed possible in his day, his projects were on a scale that have been equalled but not surpassed. He showed what engineers could do, and he did it mostly with the help of raw human and animal power. He led his workers by example, risking his own life along with theirs, suffering injury and barely escaping with his life when workings collapsed or were flooded.
    Brunel failed as often as he succeeded, but by showing how to plan and organise the construction of very large structures, he led the way to the kind of mega-projects that we take for granted these days. Administrative and financial difficulties played as large a role in success and failure then as now.  So did ego, and Brunel’s ego was huge. He was driven as much by a desire for worldly success and acclamation as by artistic ambition. His life was one of overwork in all ways; we know little of his family life, but indirect evidence suggests that he was at best a competent father and husband. His children did as well as children of the gentry would. His friends were few, drawn primarily from his family and from professional rivals. Brunel died of nephritis, not a pleasant way to go, leaving several projects to be completed by others. The civil engineering works designed for the Great Western Railway are his most enduring monuments.
     Tames has written short but well written sketch of Brunel’s life. He has the knack for the telling detail, such as Brunel’s comment on how well he got on with Robert Stephenson despite their intense rivalry as engineers. *** (2006)

Feldsparia: Personifications of Websites.

Feldsparia: Personifications of Websites.

This link takes you to Jon Kirchmeir's Blog. Jon died on March 19 of this year. Find out more on the page titled Jon.

Matt Ridley. Nature Via Nurture (2003)

     Matt Ridley. Nature Via Nurture (2003) Ridley’s densely argued thesis that the genes cannot work without input from the environment is a pleasure to read. Much of his research is first-hand: he has read the papers he cites or alludes to, and/or has spoken with the people who wrote them (including his own wife.) Unfortunately most of his older research is third or fourth hand; his comments on Skinner show a thorough (and very common) misunderstanding of behaviourism. (1) But that’s a minor flaw in a well-done book, one that unlike many of its kind reflects current research.
     A book that anyone who wishes to understand where biology is going should read. Some of its inferences will no doubt soon prove wrong, but that’s because the field is expanding so quickly. Something like a coherent vision of how organisms become what they are is emerging. The central message: we, like all other organisms, are the product of an exquisite interplay between what we are born with and what our environment foists upon us. **** (2006)

 See also https://kirkwood40.blogspot.com/2013/05/matt-ridley-nature-via-nurture-2004.html for an extended review.

Footnote (1): The common misconception of behaviourism is that conditioning can produce new behaviours. It can't. It can only re-direct and combine existing behaviours. Skinner called it "shaping". No amount of conditioning will make a pig fly, but conditioning could make a pig operate a car shaped like an airplane. Pigs poke at things with their snouts, and that behaviour could be redirected to push on various buttons and levers. Etc.

Chris Ellis. The Airfix Magazine Annual (1971)

     Chris Ellis. The Airfix Magazine Annual (1971) It seems Airfix produced a magazine to promote its plastic kits. This book appears to be a compilation of articles from the magazine. It’s useful even to today’s modeller, both as a source of prototype information and for simple but effective techniques for adding detail to the kits. The emphasis is heavily in military and aircraft modelling. ** (2006)

O. S. Nock. The Triang-Hornby Book of Trains. (Ca. 1966)

     O. S. Nock. The Triang-Hornby Book of Trains. (Ca. 1966) Another of Nock’s potboilers, and apart from a cursory but interesting enough survey of railways in the mid-60s, merely a listing of Triang’s stuff - which was pretty awful. Nock, obviously well-paid to be a shill, overstates the quality of the terrible products produced by Triang, which in fact cheapened the Hornby material they absorbed with that company. Thus, the book turns out to be an unwittingly instructive example of all that was wrong with British manufacture after the war. The owners understood neither the rapidly rising quality of their competition’s products, nor the even faster increase in consumer awareness of that quality, which resulted in a more or less disdainful rejection of inferior goods. * (2006)

Cyril J. Freezer. Model Railways on a Budget (1987)

     Cyril J. Freezer. Model Railways on a Budget (1987) A cursory look at how to scrounge, with enough details to encourage the beginning model railroader to continue. Some sound advice of where to trade cash for commercial quality, and where scrounging pays off , mostly in trackwork and scratch building of structures, vehicles, and locomotives. Good enough for its time, but not the best of Freezer’s work, Some of the tips are still useful, and may become more so as our economy dwindles. ** (2006)

Ralph Davis. A Commercial Revolution (1967)

     Ralph Davis. A Commercial Revolution (1967) Davis summarises the case that a revolution in import-export trade from the late 1500s to the late 1700s preceded and prepared for the Industrial Revolution. One has to trust his generalisations, since he has very few numbers to illustrate his argument. He describes how English trade shifted from exporting woollens to Europe to exporting manufactures to America, and importing and re-exporting raw materials from there and from Asia (mostly India.) The most interesting point is that the rapid expansion of capital to finance the increasingly long transport routes put in place the capital markets that financed the Industrial Revolution. Also, the increasing wealth of the American colonies stimulated the production of the manufactured goods they needed, which prepared for the Industrial Revolution. A complicated tale; Davis’s summary is clear enough. ** (2006)

Al Franken. The Truth with Jokes (2006)

     Al Franken. The Truth with Jokes (2006) Paperback edition with added chapters. Franken is a proud liberal Democrat, and he’s mad. The book discusses how Bush won in 2000 and 2004, and goes on to describe his record of corruption, deceit, and most of all incompetence. The leaders of his Republican administration are very clever, but they apply their cleverness to fantasy problems. That’s stoopid. The cost of their fantasies and stoopidity has been hundreds of thousands of lives, in Iraq, Israel and adjoining territories, and without doubt in the USA also, because of the Libertarian neglect of their duties as governors. Franken tries to lighten the tone with humour and irony, but succeeds for only a few seconds at a time. Overall, this is a depressing book. Franken did predict the swing against the Bush regime in the 2006 vote, although it wasn’t the rout he hoped for. Let’s hope the Democrats produce a vision that attracts the political middle, the people who distrust both the extreme right and the extreme left. In the meantime, we have our own version of Bush. His substance is the same, and his style is more thoughtful. But the Harper Conservatives are as fantasy ridden as the Bush Republicans. *** (2006)

B. G. Wilson. Passenger Trains of the World ( before 1966) & Edmund Hamilton. What’s it Like out there? (1974)

     B. G. Wilson. Passenger Trains of the World ( before 1966) The UK is over represented, taking up about 1/3rd of the total, but otherwise a nice little survey of passenger trains in the late 1950s and early 1960s. No date, as was the British habit back then, and annoying one it was too. Printing is average for the period. The book was aimed at youngsters, so production values had to be kept cheap. ** (2006)

     Edmund Hamilton. What’s it Like out there? (1974) Anthology of Hamilton’s early stories. His early style wasn’t one: wooden, flat, cliched, and overuse of one-sentence paragraphs. With exclamation marks, yet! But he had a powerful imagination, and as his style improved (or wasn’t edited down to the common pulp denominator), his uncomfortable explorations of identity become impressive. His later novels are worth reading by any fan of SF; this collection is of historical interest only, as a precursor of his better work. *½ (2006)

H. C. Casserley. The Historic Locomotive Pocketbook (1960) & Mike Laws, ed The Times Crossword Book 2 (2001)

     H. C. Casserley. The Historic Locomotive Pocketbook (1960) A survey of about 200 loco types that Casserley thinks have historical significance. While his write-ups are interesting, few of them persuade that their subjects are indeed as significant as Casserley believes. That is, most neither epitomised contemporary locomotive practice nor greatly influenced future development. Still, a nice little book, with lots of info of the kind that’s crucial when you need it. ** (2006)

     Mike Laws, ed The Times Crossword Book 2 (2001) Same successes and issues as with Book 1. The clues that rely on British usages and customs I can tolerate. Those that misunderstand N. American usage annoy me. Rebuses whose parts bear no relation to each whatever annoy me greatly. Those that use metaphoric definitions are simply unacceptable - metaphors cannot be reverse engineered. But I spent many happy hours doing these crosswords. ** (2006)

L. Gough. Accidental Deaths (1991) & Anon. The Yellow Book of Locker-Room Humour (1980)

     L. Gough. Accidental Deaths (1991) I read this on the way to England, and have forgotten almost all of it. It’s a hard-boiled ‘tec story, in which a number of deaths appear accidental, but aren’t. The style was overwrought, and the characters and plot obviously forgettable. Still, in my notebook I rated it ** (2006)

     Anon. The Yellow Book of Locker-Room Humour (1980) A collection of mildly risque stories, the kind that rely on innuendo and puns, etc, for their effect. This makes some of the stories quite witty. **  (2006)