This is a Model Railroader publication authored by Tony Koester, a well-known model railroader and operator. The sub-title of this book, "How to run your trains like the real thing" pretty much describes what this book is about.

While this book provides lots of invaluable information about operations, it sometimes spends a little too much time with the obvious. However, since what is obvious to one isn't necessarily obvious to another, there's no telling what you can learn from this book. One thing is for sure, you're bound to learn something.

One thing that this book covers, which I really appreciate, is signaling. It presents it in a way that exemplifies what I have a hard time getting across to people who ask "How do I signal my railroad?" The answer is, I don't know - not because I don't know anything about signaling, but that signaling can be so complex that there's no way you can learn anything of value about it in a 10 minute phone call - even if I did know all of the details of your railroad.

But beyond block signaling, which is what most people think of when you mention signaling, he also covers hand signals, whistle/horn signals, and interlocking signals. I think this will be very interesting for most model railroaders.

One thing that this book expands on, which I think is becoming, or will be, obsolete, is car cards. While car cards have been the most-used method for realistic operation in the past, the advent of RailOp (extremely versatile operations software) is providing far more realistic movements, and far more interesting operating sessions. In any case, there are things to be gleaned from the explanation of car cards.

Never the less, as aptly stated in the introduction, this book will provide you with more than enough information to get you started in realistic operations. How far you go beyond that is up to you and your ambitions. And when you get tired of shuffling car cards, and want train cars to be more easily forwarded beyond the car card design, check out RailOp software. For that, eMail Eric Doolittle at eric@doolittle.com.