Every rail enthusiast has imagined it - climbing into the cab of a steam locomotive and pulling open the throttle, or sitting at a dispatcher’s console as trains race across a busy main line. With Tales of the Rails, you can come closer than ever before! This book brings together 46 first-hand accounts from professional railroaders sharing stories about their jobs. Some funny, some tragic, and some nerve-wracking, but always entertaining and informative. Pulled from the pages of Trains and Classic Trains magazines, these stories span the age of steam into the 1970s. 304 Pages

Innovation! Delivery July 2026

Roundhouses, Turntables and Shops from Firecrown gives modelers and railfans an insight to railroad icons of a bygone era. To the men who worked them, steam locomotives were living, breathing machines - each with its own personality, quirks, and demands. And like any living thing, they needed a home. In Roundhouses, Turntables, and Shops, you'll get a guided tour through the labor-intensive world of the steam-era locomotive terminal: the roundhouse, the turntable, the coaling tower, the water station, and the shop. Beautiful period photographs and detailed text show how the myriad workers at these facilities came together to keep locomotives rolling, revealing a level of care and craft the railroad industry will never see again. Roundhouses, Turntables and Shops is one of many Firecrown railroading books. 208 pages.

Innovation! Delivery August 2026

Every great layout starts with a great plan. In Track Planning Made Easy by author David Popp, you’ll learn how to design your own model railroad from the ground up — whether you’re drawing your very first plan or refining your approach after a dozen builds. Step-by-step guidance walks you through identifying usable space in your home, choosing a theme, accurately drawing curves and turnouts, calculating grades and easements, and working around real-world obstacles like doors, windows, and plumbing. More than 30 plans and sketches illustrate how finished designs were developed, with tips that can be applied to layouts of any size or scale. From benchwork drawings to scenic profiles, Track Planning Made Easy gives you every tool you need to design a railroad worth building.