Using Cyclopedias for
Model Railroading
The Locomotive, Car Builders, and Maintenance of Way Cyclopedias are full of detailed plans and photos of prototype railroad equipment. In addition to the plans and photos, detailed explanations and specifications of the equipment are covered in the text. As historical records, they are interesting by themselves, but to the model railroader they are an invaluable source of the original data that was used to build and design the prototypes.
Plan books for model railroading were published as far back as 1936 with the first edition: The Model Railroader Cyclopedia. The 7th edition was first published in 1960 and is still available today in two volumes (its 16th printing). The purpose of these books is clearly stated by A. C. Kalmbach in the foreword of the 1938 edition:
The Model Railroader Cyclopedia was first issued in 1936 with only one idea, to give plans and information about real railroad equipment for use as prototype in building models. The book does not touch upon construction methods or upon model railroading technique, but sticks strictly to this original purpose.
We digitized these books with exactly the same purpose: to provide the drawings and photos for model railroading scratch building and detailing in a cost effective and usable form. Technology has made using these drawings easier.
The 1938 edition of The Model Railroader Cyclopedia states "Only an ordinary ruler or architect´s scale is needed to take off any dimension from a plan in ½", 3/16", or ¼" scale. The 1960 edition mentions "photocopy house" or "blueprint firms" to print copies to a scale other than the published HO.
Today, digital flat bed scanners are available in most offices and on many home computers. The plans from printed books and magazines can be quickly scanned and reprinted to scale. The RailDriver™ Cyclopedias eliminate the scanning step. All the picture files were scanned and professionally corrected to provide the best prints — even at large scale. The Scale Print Utility is included for free to make accurate scale prints of any drawing quick and simple.
The true advantage of these CDs and a home computer and printer is that the plans can be scaled and printed quickly, at very little cost. These prints can be laid out on the workshop table, or glued directly to the brass, wood or styrene you are cutting out. If paint is spilled or a new template is needed, you can just print again. If you find in your freelance work that a part of a cab or other detail needs to be different than the original size, then you can just print a new template at the special scale.
The exact nature in which the prints are used will be determined by the techniques of each individual modeler. We often make a print, glue it to wood or styrene with rubber cement, and jig saw right through the print and piece — instant cutting lines. A duplicate drawing is easily printed for the next piece.
We also hang a large master print taped together from several sheets to keep the "big picture" in mind. We have used this technique for everything from recreating a full size GP-38 control stand to scratch building the cab walls and many other parts of our Philadelphia & Reading Six-Wheel (0-6-0) Switcher in 1/29 scale.
More Information:
RailDriver™ Scale Print Utility
Our Scale Print Utility is included free on every RailDriver™ Cyclopedia. Scale Print easily opens picture files and prints them at your model scale or any scale or size you define.
