TRACK AND TRACK LAYING IN RAILWAY MODELLING, by Brian Taylor. Crowood Press. PRICE: £14.99

On first reading the title, I assumed this would be a book about trackwork; how to make it, lay it, wire it, and ballast it. Granted, those essential elements are described (briefly, for there are only 112 pages), but we’re also given descriptions among other things of the dynamics of train motion, forces, versines and chords (sounds like hard sums to me!), perspective modelling, photography, layout design, backscenes, where to put layouts and baseboard construction. Indeed, over half the book is devoted to these other elements. Accepted, all those mentioned are essential understanding for railway modelling, but when fewer than three pages are devoted to scratch-/hand-building track with no photographs, only quirky drawings, I questioned the validity of the book’s title. Perhaps a more-general overview of the basics in railway modelling might have been a better description? The book is full of quirky drawings, including a fire bucket and its sign, door handles, a Selsey Tramway train, harbour scenes, a Class 56 locomotive lying on its side, various buildings, a platform trolley, fences, gates, pulley wheels and cranks, plus some layout plans. I accept, there are drawings illustrating aspects of trackwork, but surely these should be in the majority? Few of the photographs (of which there aren’t many compared with the drawings) illustrate trackwork specifically, and most are of somewhat indifferent quality. The wiring and ballasting chapters are of some interest, but good photographs would have been of more use than the drawings in my view. At the modest price, it might be of use to the beginner, but experienced railway modellers will have sourced much more-specific source material.