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Dec 15, 2025 - Books

Kalmbach Publishing - All Scales - New Softcover Book

 

Kalmbach

 

Dear PWRS Customers;

 Kalmbach Publishing is excited to announce a New Softcover Book: Guide to Modeling Branch Lines by Tony Koester

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From Appalachian coal routes to weedy Midwestern agricultural trackage, branch lines offer endless opportunities for realistic, engaging model railroads. In Guide to Modeling Branch Lines, Tony Koester shows how these smaller operations can offer just as much realism, variety, and creative potential as any main line.

 

Description

In Guide to Modeling Branch Lines, Tony Koester shows you how branch lines can offer heavy equipment and modern locomotives. Inspirational prototype branches range from webs of Appalachian coal lines to agriculture-based Midwestern branches to lines serving heavy 
industries.

Whether you’re modeling a compact shelf layout or a sprawling basement empire, this book will help you capture the essence of these hardworking lines.

 

In Guide to Modeling Branch Lines, you’ll see:

  • How branch lines are operated, and how they fit into the operational schemes of their parent railroads
  • Examples of steam-era through modern branch lines across the country
  • Several model railroads built to follow specific prototype branch lines as they existed in narrow time periods
  • How an experienced modeler developed a branchline layout from concept to finish

Pages: 128

Size: 8.25" x 10.75"

 

Author Bio

Tony Koester has written many books on model railroading. Tony spent a quarter of a century designing, building, and operating (with his friends) the Allegheny Midland, a freelanced coal-hauling HO railroad. He is now hard at work completing a multi-deck HO layout that accurately depicts the Nickel Plate Road's St. Louis Division as it appeared in 1954. Tony has been the editor of Model Railroad Planning, a special annual issue of Model Railroader, since its inception in 1995. He is a contributing editor to Model Railroader and writes the popular "Trains of Thought" column and numerous feature articles.


 

Order Due Date: Available Now

Anticipated Delivery Date: February 2026
 

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