Dutchman looking for help translating his garden rail book into English

Gerard

Gerard

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Netherlands
Hello,

Me and my friend Rainer just finished after 3 years a 350 page book about our gardenrails in Dutch.
Based on this book i am now in the process of translating the book into the English language.
I just finished my first translation into English language and now i am looking for help from one or more native English speakers
with the know-how of the language but also especially the knowledge of model trains related English expressions.
It is a lot of text so I suggest that I provide a limited number of pages to anyone who is willing to help me.

If you can help me please send me a mail at glm@vanderschrieck.nl and i will send you a number of pages.

Gerard van der Schrieck
 
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GAP said:
Put a glossary of terms used in the book? eg points, turnout, switch a piece of trackage that allows trains to move from one track to another.
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Yes i am planning to do so. I hope the correctors come up with a lot of terms in UK English and American English.
There is an UK English index in the book. So an American has to look up his term in the American list of terms and finds there the UK term and then looks up the term in the index. Next to that we need also a glossary in UK English to explain all terms. I did already start such a glossary list, but it is not yet in the book.
 
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The first thought that came to my mind was: why? Aren't there enough books already? I've certainly had about 25 (no exaggeration) over the years. Everything you could ever want to know has already been described.

Or in other words, wasted time and effort.
 
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Paul M said:
I would have thought that the majority of American readers would fully understand the English railway terms, as we understand theirs.
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Erm Switch Point? Highball Signal? Wye Triangle? Highball Speeding Train? Hogger? Just a few that come to mind, there are many more.
 
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palmerston said:
The first thought that came to my mind was: why? Aren't there enough books already? I've certainly had about 25 (no exaggeration) over the years. Everything you could ever want to know has already been described.

Or in other words, wasted time and effort.
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I think it is more about your own particulair intrest.
Yes there are a lot of books about this subject and all books try to describe some things in a nutshell.
There are not many books that describe subjects in a extended form.
Personally, i would like to have several books on track and point work, in full detail even up to the point what the name of every bolt is and why it is used in that matter.

The best book i have about steam locomotives has a whopping 580 pages....
And it is not even the study book of my great grandfather to become a engineer....

Gerard Gerard , i received your email, it is looking good and promising.
This is going to be fun.
Too bad you did not give some homework about tracks :cool: :cool: :cool: :D
 
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Gerard, you sent me pages about DCC. By me, DCC is utter mish-mash. I know about it but I know nothing of it.

I'm a live-steam operator. Greg Elmassian, here, is THE DCC man. As, I'd imagine, many others are too.
 
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tac foley said:
Greg Elmassian, here, is THE DCC man.
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If i am not mistaken, Greg is no longer on this forum, and yes he got quite a bit of knowledge about everything that is digital.
 
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justme igor said:
If i am not mistaken, Greg is no longer on this forum, and yes he got quite a bit of knowledge about everything that is digital.
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We're only talking about proof reading, not necessarily being correct about DCC operation - we have to assume that the authors know what they're talking about (otherwise they shouldn't be writing a book).

However, agreed, if the subject is totally out of a person's wheelhouse, it may be difficult to check that it reads well in English.

Just looking to see if there are any DCC operators in the volunteers above :mm:
 
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palmerston said:
The first thought that came to my mind was: why? Aren't there enough books already? I've certainly had about 25 (no exaggeration) over the years. Everything you could ever want to know has already been described.

Or in other words, wasted time and effort.
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I sorry I can't agree with this. Yes there are probably many, many books on garden railways, I have from the 30's ( a fun read, but the advice to use asbestos is a bit dated), but then again there's a lot more advice out there from different perspectives, just a scan through this forum will show you that. And of course it will be more up to date than the last.
 
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I must have a dozen book on GR modelling but they are all different, and this one looks to be completely different to those I already have. Its focus seems to be very much on Continental G Scale with (from what I've read so far) an emphasis on LGB. Some GR books focus on steam, some on buildings, some on plants and some are more generalised .

Its been a while since a book on GR modelling has been published and things (models, ideas, methods, etc) are always changing. I don't think any GR books yet published mention 3D printing, laser cutting, Bluetooth or computer control, for example.

I'm pleased this book is on its way to be published. It might even encourage a few more prospective modellers into the hobby.

Rik
 
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dunnyrail said:
I have not received anything to review as yet. Been checking my junk mail!
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Jon, on 28 mai i send you part 2 page 51-98 (18.5Mb) of the book. Maybe i got a wrong email address? Can you mail your address again please?
In the meantime i will send you the rather large file via wetransfer.
 
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Paul M said:
If you read it and understand it, that means the author has hit the right spot.
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I might understand the English, but I don't understand the significance of all the DCC stuff. It's electric, isn't it? Of some kind? Wiring and stuff? Programming?

Terra incognita to THIS bye, I'll have to admit.
 
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The reason why we mention and explain some of the digital railway possibilities in the book is that they are so abundant and helpfull.
So we try to show the reader what he (like me when i started) will encounter after making his first step in this digital world.
The main advantage of digital driving is that you don't need any wiring any more to your turnouts and track sections. The only wiring are the single wires from the railcontacts to the decoder of for example a turnout or a signal.
Having said that you must be able to count on a whole track having no power interruptions at all caused by bad railconnections. Its my experience now for already 6 years that I have that situation because of using once fluidised copper grease in all the railjoints.
 
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