Many years ago Linn Wescott published a book with various track plans.
One of those was for a "Milwaukee Road Beer Line".
If I recall the book had a blue cover with Santa Fe blue/yellow freight engines on the cover.
Does anyone know of this book and where I can get a copy?
I foolishly loaned my copy to a friend and it was never returned.
I have one of the books in that series and it may be the one you are referening to. I believe the cover photo was taken on Tehacapi Loop and if I remember right, an SP loco was on a siding. I don't recall the Beer Line being one of the railroads featured but it has been a while since I looked through it. I don't have access to it right now but could look to see if the Beer Line is in it. However, my old railroad books are keepsakes. I wouldn't want to part with any of them.
You might check on e-bay to see if it is offered. You might get lucky there.
Either you are looking for the wrong book, or there were two by the same name. The soft-cover book I have is called "Railroads You Can Model". It is a 72 page Kalmbach book edited by Mike Schafer. It has a blue cover with two pictures. The upper picture has an ATSF unit on the left and a SP unit alongside. The lower photo has a model DM&IR SD9. The ISBN number is 0-89024-526-6.
There are 9 railroads featured. However, there is not a Milwaukee Road Beer Line. The closest alcohol-related railroad in the book is the Bath and Hammondsport, but they hauled wine around.
The beer line subject you mention sounds like the subject for the latest model railroad project in MR.
Maybe there was another book that fits the description of what I have.
Regards
(Oh, the book copyright date is 1976. Don't know if that qualifies for your definition of "many years ago".
There were two books:
http://www.amazon.com/Railroads-you-can-model/dp/0890245266/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237919445&sr=8-8
http://www.amazon.com/More-Railroads-you-can-model/dp/0890245347/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237919445&sr=8-6
Bill
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig"
You should try your public library. If they don't have it, they can order it for you via an interlibrary loan.
And then there was this one as well: Classic Railroads You Can Model, which was a compilation of the more popular articles from the original books. I believe the Beer Line article is included.
Dan
In the amazon online reader you can see the table of contents. The railroads included are:
New York, Ontario & Western
DM&IR
Wabash (N&W) mixed-train branch line
B&M's Gloucester branch
Virginia & Truckee
GM&O doodlebug line
SP's Tehachapi Loop
Monon
McCloud River Railroad
PRR's Horseshoe Curve and Gallitizin tunnels
Maryland & Pennsylvania
Milwaukee Road's Beer Line
So this is the one you were looking for.
Chris
Lancaster, CA
Check out my railroad at: Buffalo and Southwestern
Photos at:Flicker account
YouTube:StellarMRR YouTube account
If you go to the Model Railroad index on this site http://index.mrmag.com/ under books you can find most of the model railroad books printed with information about each. They are also included in the index so you can search that as well.
Enjoy
Paul
"Classic Railroads You Can Model" is kind of a "best of" compilation from "Railroads You Can Model" and "More Railroads You Can Model". The Beer Line story is in "Classic Model Railroads You Can Model", I believe the story was originally in the second book, "More Railroads You Can Model" IIRC.
Rasilroads You Can Model was a series of articles that appeared now and then for years in Model Railroader magazine, and before that, in Model Trains, Kalmbach's magazine for beginners. Some of those articles were gathered into the soft cover books "Railroads You Can Model" and "More Railroads You Can Model." And as mentioned above, Kalmbach has published "Classic Railroads You Can Model."
I don't recall if the Beer Line article is taken from one in Model Trains, or the wonderful article in a 1952 Trains magazine. Or maybe edited from both.
There were many fine articles in that series that never made it into any of the books.
Dave Nelson
A while back National Geographic came out with a boxed set of maybe 18-20 CD-Roms that had every issue of National Geographic back to the very first one. I've sometimes wondered why Kalmbach and Carstens don't make MR, RMC, Trains, etc. available in something like that. I know as someone interested in both railroad history and model railroad history I'd buy a complete MR set on disk.
Thanks to all who responded with their information.
I have located the softcover book "More Railroads You Can Model", Mike Shafer, Kalmbach, 1978.
Many thanks to "Ironrooster", "Stilson4283" and "Alfadawg01" they were spot on.
Well...better late than never I dug out the books.
"Railroads You Can Model" came out in 1976 and "More Railroads You Can Model" came out in 1978. "Milwaukee Road's Beer Line" was on pg. 46 of "More Railroads You Can Model". The Bibliography in the back says "Based on "The Beer Line" by Andy Anderson, MODEL TRAINS, April 1955. Text revision and new track plans by George H. Drury." It also references "The Beer Line that made Milwaukee famous" by Wallace W. Abbey in the Aug 1952 issue of "Trains and Travel" (which is what they called "Trains" mag for a while) and "Cement Plant Railroad" by Martin Boyce in the June 1952 MR.
Interestingly there are plans for two versions, one a 4' x 8' with option for continuous running, and the other a 2' by 10' switching layout.
Thank you for taking the time to help me out.
I located a copy of "More Railroads You Can Model" at Amazon.com.
I was surprised to see just how many copies were available.
I've orderd a copy from Amazon, too.
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
I noticed this book at the Milwaukee Road Historical Society website, $20 but only 30 copies left!!
http://www.mrha.com/item-detail.cfm?ID=pub5
wjstix I noticed this book at the Milwaukee Road Historical Society website, $20 but only 30 copies left!! http://www.mrha.com/item-detail.cfm?ID=pub5
I have it and I like it very much. It has information on the northern part of the line that is not included in the Classic railroads you can model book. Get it while you can. While over there, check out if their book on Chicago is still available. Milwaukee Road hired a professional photographer and it has lots of nice arial pictures.