Railway Recollections and Guide to The East German Narrow Gauge (book)

[idlemarvel]

This book is part 101 of a series of railway, bus and tram books called the Nostalgia Series. This is the first to cover transport outside the UK.
The Nostalgia Collection -
It is quite small, soft cover, about 6 1/2" x 9 1/2", 64 pages, all colour.
It covers the Baltic (Rugen), Harz, Saxon and the "Molli" networks. Most pictures are from visits by the author in 1986, 1991 and 1992, plus some more recent 2017 pictures. Some text but mostly pictures with detailed captions. It includes some interesting pictures of short trains around the unification era, for example a 0-4-4-0T Mallet pulling one passenger coach on the Selketalbahn in 1987, an 0-4-4-0T Meyer on the Dollnitzbahn with a single 4 axle baggage car in 1991, and a 2-10-2T with one baggage and one passenger car on the Weisseritztalbahn also in 1991. Nice to know my small indoor layout can run prototypical trains! The pictures are not of the greatest quality in reproduction or composition, but they cover the ground quite well, locos, trains and stations. At £8 it is a good holiday read but not a comprehensive reference book, of which there are many.

 

[ColinK]

Sounds interesting. Where can you buy it?

 

[idlemarvel]

I got mine from Amazon

 

[MTheStrong]

This book is part 101 of a series of railway, bus and tram books called the Nostalgia Series. This is the first to cover transport outside the UK.
The Nostalgia Collection -
It is quite small, soft cover, about 6 1/2" x 9 1/2", 64 pages, all colour.
It covers the Baltic (Rugen), Harz, Saxon and the "Molli" networks. Most pictures are from visits by the author in 1986, 1991 and 1992, plus some more recent 2017 pictures. Some text but mostly pictures with detailed captions. It includes some interesting pictures of short trains around the unification era, for example a 0-4-4-0T Mallet pulling one passenger coach on the Selketalbahn in 1987, an 0-4-4-0T Meyer on the Dollnitzbahn with a single 4 axle baggage car in 1991, and a 2-10-2T with one baggage and one passenger car on the Weisseritztalbahn also in 1991. Nice to know my small indoor layout can run prototypical trains! The pictures are not of the greatest quality in reproduction or composition, but they cover the ground quite well, locos, trains and stations. At £8 it is a good holiday read but not a comprehensive reference book, of which there are many.

Hi Dave,

Many thanks for the heads up. I have ordered mine from Amazon too.

Regards

Martin

 

[idlemarvel]

No problem. I should have said a good thing (from my point of view) about the book is it is in English. I know some German but it is a struggle reading pages of the stuff!

 

[RH Prague]

This sounds good, but you mention that there are more comprehensive reference books. Could you recommend a book, preferably in English language, which would help me get more familiar with the various German narrow gauge locos?

 

[idlemarvel]

The best English ones I have are a series by Middleton Press mainly by John Organ. There are volumes covering narrow gauge Saxon, Harz, Baltic and others. They cover the history of the various lines, and the development of locos, with many pictures, mostly black and white. There's a list here for all their narrow gauge books including Germany:
Middleton Press | Narrow Gauge

The best (most comprehensive) ones in my experience are in German. For example there are two volumes about the Rugen lines by Verlag Kenning Kleinbahnreise uber die Insel Rugen, the first has pictures of every loco, passenger car and wagon on the railway, the second every line and station with track layouts. I think the same author has done Saxon railways are well.

 

[MaybachMD]

My copy has just arrived from Rail—Books.co.uk. Excellent book, thanks for the recommendation. It will be invaluable helping me plan my trip to Dresden later in the year.

Thanks

Simon

 

[dutchelm]

I found a copy on Ebay from Monster Book Shop, £6.64 including post. Well worth it.

 

[dunnyrail]

This sounds good, but you mention that there are more comprehensive reference books. Could you recommend a book, preferably in English language, which would help me get more familiar with the various German narrow gauge locos?

Look for books by Dirk Englisch all in German but many with excellent detail. He does a super one of the Harz Malletts and a very comprehensive 2 Volume Set on the Harz. The Scheers and Wall Book of the Harz Rolling Stock well worth having as well. A very comprehensive book on the East German NG Lines is Schmalspur bublished by alba, tricky to get hold of I imagine. Worth a try for any of these with Sooty ( Products – John Sutton Books and Models ) he specialises in NG Books and will likely be at the 16mm Do next month. But well worth chatting to him before hand to see if he has anything you would like reserving if you are visiting the show. English Language ones are a little thin on the ground other than those mentioned already.

 

[maxi-model]

Look for books by Dirk Englisch all in German but many with excellent detail.

Not the most convincing name for a cold war double agent - " I vill trep ze Britisher spies vis their uncontrollable urge to, how do you say, "grice" our enviable und extensive narrow gauge steam railways. Ja ?" Max

 

[dunnyrail]

Not the most convincing name for a cold war double agent - " I vill trep ze Britisher spies vis their uncontrollable urge to, how do you say, "grice" our enviable und extensive narrow gauge steam railways. Ja ?" Max

My auto correct spelt this wrong without me noticing he is Herr Endisch.

 

[65 1057]

Just for reference a low cost variation:

Schmalspurbahnlexikon Deutschland | – Übersicht aller Strecken damals und heute sowie aktuelle Pressemeldungen zu Schmalspurbahnen im Anriss –

This offers an overwiev of existing and abandonned NG lines, their locos/stock and the track.
OK - only in German, and structured by state (bavaria, saxonia etc.).

Andreas

 

[idlemarvel]

My auto correct spelt this wrong without me noticing he is Herr Endisch.

Pity, it spoils a good joke!

 

[PaulRhB]

Ta for the recommendation mine just arrived