Any thoughts on UK Authors/Editors?

I meet Ian Rice recently - nice bloke!

Greg.P.

Ian Rice is one of my heroes. He rights books that are entertaining and easy to understand, tells it how he sees it, never talks down to beginners. In other words well worth reading. The only criticism of his books is the lack of index. Would like to meet him, pleased he seems nice fellow. I had the chance to speak to an assistant editor of BRM at a show recently.

Not sure what the spam....comments means.

Cheers, Simon

I appreciate his writing skills, but he seems to say pretty much the same thing over and over - with slight variations - in the works I've been read. That's why I'm asking here. Both of these gents seem very good writers, but from what I've seen put their talent to limited use due to repetition.

I have the complete series on loco building and its true theres repetition, but then for each to be a complete guide thats to be expected - either that or you have to buy all of them. Think its still worth it as he uses different examples in each so there is extra worthwhile info.

Often said O S Nock only ever wrote one book, but i still think it worthwhile reading several versions of it :-)

Cheers, Simon

I've just seen a quote that suggests that Nock "wrote more books than he had read"

Paul

Iain Rice is entirely responsible for my current interest in the finer scale end of things, and in fact rekindled my interest in model railways entirely. I'd been a OO dabbler with no pretensions whatsoever that I could ever build my own track or locos or anything else. The established works confirmed that building your own stuff involved liberal doses of black magic. Then along comes Rice. I read one of his books, and his style of writing made me think "I can do that" and so I did! I have a hell of a lot of his books. These days I don't always agree with the way he does things, but doing things his way to start with will more than get you going and give you the confidence to try things your own way. I'm a bit of a fan of Rice, in case you couldn't tell :-) He's also a great bloke, judging by the odd contact with him at exhibitions when I wasn't bowing and scraping!

Yup - that's about right! I do like his Plastic Bodied Locos book though.

Its almost as though he says 'the valve gear was rubbish so heres how I made some finer stuff out of an egg box lying around' I dont have the patience to do as much as he can (skill yes, cos try, try again), but he does give me the confidence to do everything I need to.

Not fair, I want to meet him. Could someone ask him to update his books, will buy them all again.

I think this can be summed up as "You can do it." Maybe not first time or second time, but you can do it. On my photo albums I do also try to show some of my mistakes - not many people do that!

He tends to inhabit the scale shows - he may well be at Scalefour Southwest (aka RailWells) in August and/or Scaleforum in September. Both are open to all, so you might be able to ask him yourself! I think he's exhibiting at S4SW - that's a strange show that can best be described as "charming" and I always visited it when I lived in Somerset.

I have not seen that series. Which would you recommend?

LOL! I think I still have a copy somewhere!

Here's another British railway modelling writer: David Jenkinson. I bought a copy of 'Historical Railway Modelling' sight unseen. After reading the first chapter, I knew that the book was not for me, but kept it and intend to go back and read it cover to cover. The writing is that good and I reckon I'll pick up something usable.

My reading has been limited to what I can find and that has been his layout books. Anything else you can recommend will be appreciated. I have very limited opportunities to page through a copy at a local book or hobby shop, as they just don't carry the British model railway writers. Except, of course, for the stuff that Kalmbach publishes.

Great, thanks for that. I'll check on Amazon. (Modelling Diesels in 4mm Scale? - one used copy in the US for $75, Yikes! about 50 pounds at current rates.)

He had numerous articles in Railway Modeller in the 1960s/70s which were ground-breaking. Haven't read anything from him since but it was obvious he knew/knows his stuff. Of course what an author knows and how well he writes aren't neccessarily the same thing!

Greg.P.

Off hand theres three on 4mm loco kits :- chassis construction, scratchbuilders guide, whitemetal kits. Cant see the 4th which think is etched locos. recommend any and all depending on what youre thinking of doing.

Cheers, Simon

Another of my heroes ! It certainly is, tis entertaining and thought provoking, keep reading.

Another excellent author is Bob Essery. Not quite as entertaing but excellent info, esp LMS/Midland. Apart from the LMS loco profiles and other technical books, he has a series on protypical operations for the Modeller. They arent restricted to LMS but all of fab 4 and BR. I know theres one on frieght running and a general one on Railway operations and think theses a passenger and signalling. Excellent if you want to run things as there were !

If you want background on the real railways - especially locos - but a different point of view, the read W. A. Tuplin. Good writer, forthright views, knows his stuff. Has a book on each of the big 4 as well as loco developments - British Steam since 1900.

Cheers, simon

Theres always at least one supplier hoping to catch you out on Amazon. Keep checking every few days, very likely a reasonably priced copy will come up.

Cheers, Simon

Thanks for the info!! Saved your post.

Ever hear of abebooks.com? I found a copy there for $26. And the bookstore is in England. See:

they usually come up in Amazon, have bought from them before. Are you using the UK amazon site ?

Cheers, Simon

I use both for finding stuff. Have not ordered from Amazon UK yet.