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Maintaining and Repairing Your Scale Model Trains
Helps any model railroader learn fundamental repair skills. By mastering some basic skills, modelers can save money on repairs and avoid frustrations that may cause them to abandon the hobby altogether! With simple, instructional information, this book covers the basic techniques needed to maintain and repair DC-powered scale model locomtives, rolling stock, and layouts. Each chapter includes step-by-step instrucitons, photos, and illustrations. Also includes various enhancement projects. The only repair/maintenance guide available.
Paperback
First published May 1, 1999
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November 20, 2012
This is an excellent reference book for anyone who is involved in model trains in a serious way. If you have, or want to have, a permanent layout with lots of rolling stock, locomotives, and complex trackwork, you will find yourself in need of maintaining, repairing, fixing, and upgrading your models. Unfortunately, most model train manufacturers do not really include "how to" guides that help you fix your models. All they do (at best) is provide you with an "exploded view" diagram of the various parts. How to fix them, where to apply lubrication, what parts to loosen or tighten -- it's very hard to find any sorts of instructions about these things. Jim Volhard does a very good job of filling in those knowledge gaps.
This book is divided into four main sections. The first two deal with locomotives (diesel and steam). The next two deal with rolling stock and then the various physical parts of the layout (track, electrical wiring, and so forth). Each section has ample photographs for reference, and Volhard takes you step by step through the repair and maintenance process. He explains all the different ways in which your models may need to be fixed or modified, and shows you just how to do it. He does a very good job of providing you with all the instructions you will need to maintain your model trains.
I have two minor quibbles with this book. First, its publication date is 1999, and at nearly 14 years old, this volume is getting long in the tooth. It's about time for Model Railroader to update it. I'm fairly sure some of the name brands Volhard recommends are no longer in production by this date, and he neglects to mention some newer items that have come on the market to give people an easier time with some of the repair and maintenance steps Volhard describes. As a simple example, he mentions the two coupler types in N scale being "Rapido" and "Micro-trains" (the latter are more true-to life "knuckle" couplers). Although these types still exist, there are a variety of other knuckle couplers (basically Micro-trains clones) that one can purchase today, such as Accumate, McHenry... even Kato makes their own now. Additionally, these knuckle couplers now come standard on the vast majority of rolling stock and high-quality locomotives, so there is much less need to replace them today than there was in 1999. As a second example, just about all the wiring advice assumes DC engines, when DCC is now at least as common and should be covered in any standard reference manual on maintenance at this point.
The second quibble is the lack of breadth in the products Volhard mentions. He basically lists three -- Atlas, Kato, and Athearn. Although these are certainly major brands, there are many, many other brands he ignores. He also seems to like picking on Athearn a great deal. Now, I agree with him that Atlas and Kato are clearly top of the line products, but many people also like Walthers Proto, Intermountain, Con-Cor, Fox Valley Models, and other brands. To restrict the discussion of locomotive types to just three companies would be tantamount to a car repair manual only covering Toyota, Hyundai, and Ford. To be fair, many of these companies use similar manufacturing processes, and as a result, it may be that if you can repair an Athearn engine, you can repair a Walthers, Intermountain, or Bachmann. But if that's the case, Volhard should say so. Indeed I would go so far as to include a table for the reader, showing just exactly which set of instructions is relevant for each of the many major brands.
Those two quibbles aside, I thought this was a very good reference book. I know understand the parts of my locomotives and rolling stock much better than I did before. I now have a better idea how to keep them running smoothly and flawlessly, and what to look for if an engine starts to sputter or stall. The book may be starting to show its age, but it is an excellent resource for anyone who is a serious model railroader.
This book is divided into four main sections. The first two deal with locomotives (diesel and steam). The next two deal with rolling stock and then the various physical parts of the layout (track, electrical wiring, and so forth). Each section has ample photographs for reference, and Volhard takes you step by step through the repair and maintenance process. He explains all the different ways in which your models may need to be fixed or modified, and shows you just how to do it. He does a very good job of providing you with all the instructions you will need to maintain your model trains.
I have two minor quibbles with this book. First, its publication date is 1999, and at nearly 14 years old, this volume is getting long in the tooth. It's about time for Model Railroader to update it. I'm fairly sure some of the name brands Volhard recommends are no longer in production by this date, and he neglects to mention some newer items that have come on the market to give people an easier time with some of the repair and maintenance steps Volhard describes. As a simple example, he mentions the two coupler types in N scale being "Rapido" and "Micro-trains" (the latter are more true-to life "knuckle" couplers). Although these types still exist, there are a variety of other knuckle couplers (basically Micro-trains clones) that one can purchase today, such as Accumate, McHenry... even Kato makes their own now. Additionally, these knuckle couplers now come standard on the vast majority of rolling stock and high-quality locomotives, so there is much less need to replace them today than there was in 1999. As a second example, just about all the wiring advice assumes DC engines, when DCC is now at least as common and should be covered in any standard reference manual on maintenance at this point.
The second quibble is the lack of breadth in the products Volhard mentions. He basically lists three -- Atlas, Kato, and Athearn. Although these are certainly major brands, there are many, many other brands he ignores. He also seems to like picking on Athearn a great deal. Now, I agree with him that Atlas and Kato are clearly top of the line products, but many people also like Walthers Proto, Intermountain, Con-Cor, Fox Valley Models, and other brands. To restrict the discussion of locomotive types to just three companies would be tantamount to a car repair manual only covering Toyota, Hyundai, and Ford. To be fair, many of these companies use similar manufacturing processes, and as a result, it may be that if you can repair an Athearn engine, you can repair a Walthers, Intermountain, or Bachmann. But if that's the case, Volhard should say so. Indeed I would go so far as to include a table for the reader, showing just exactly which set of instructions is relevant for each of the many major brands.
Those two quibbles aside, I thought this was a very good reference book. I know understand the parts of my locomotives and rolling stock much better than I did before. I now have a better idea how to keep them running smoothly and flawlessly, and what to look for if an engine starts to sputter or stall. The book may be starting to show its age, but it is an excellent resource for anyone who is a serious model railroader.
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