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Model Railroading with Johm Allen

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Model Railroading with Johm Allen
Posted by corsair7 on Friday, December 19, 2008 1:44 PM

Given that the folks at Kalmbach don't have any plans to reprint this book despite the fact that most of the copies of it that are available go for exorbitant prices. I finally found one at Abe Books that was at a reasonable price. I bought it. Now I don't expect that it will be in perfect condition but the seller tells me it is very good. We'll see when it arrives.

Irv

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Posted by Geared Steam on Friday, December 19, 2008 1:50 PM

corsair7
Given that the folks at Kalmbach don't have any plans to reprint this book

 

Thats good news Irv, you will enjoy it.

I cannot for the life of me understand why Kalmbach will not reprint this book!!!  Dunce

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Posted by jguess733 on Friday, December 19, 2008 2:29 PM

Several weeks ago, I emailed them and asked about it. All they told me was that they have no current plans to reprint it, but they will forward my request on to their book department. Maybe if we can show them that there is still significant interest in the book, they will reprint it. So shoot them an email the worst they can do is say no. Personnaly, and I've heard from other people here as well, I wouldn't mind seeing a book with all of JA's articles.

Jason

Modeling the Fort Worth & Denver of the early 1970's in N scale

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Posted by ARTHILL on Friday, December 19, 2008 3:08 PM

Good for you. I have yet to be so lucky. In the mean time, I hope everyone caught the John Allen Christmas card I put in another post. Not as good aas the book, but some things not seen before.

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Posted by IRONROOSTER on Friday, December 19, 2008 3:13 PM

They may have had trouble selling out the second printing (in hardback in the 90's).  Sure some buyers will buy off of eBay, Amazon, etc. at $100+ , but will enough buy from Kalmbach at $40 or $50 to cover another printing?

But it is a great book.  I have the hard cover from the 90's I bought new.

Enjoy

Paul 

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Posted by barrok on Friday, December 19, 2008 3:32 PM

 My brother had the soft cover edition -- excellent book.  Congrats on your find!  I am still looking for an edition more in my price range.  I know I would buy a copy if they printed a soft cover. The hard cover edition was just way too much.  Just my two cents..

 

Chuck

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Posted by cacole on Friday, December 19, 2008 4:39 PM

 I have a softcover 1982 edition with a cover price of $21.95.   That was a lot of money in 1982.

Considering the value of the dollar today and the increases in printing costs, it would probably be priced over $100 if Kalmbach were to republish it, even in softcover.

 

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Posted by shayfan84325 on Friday, December 19, 2008 5:17 PM

I've got my copy, but I did a search just to see if I could find a good deal.  Here's one in an estate sale in Sweden for $30.  Just scroll to item 726BT.  After you pay shipping, you'll probably own it for less than $50.

http://www.swedenfreezer.com/avr/AVR_ABEL_BRASS_AND_MODEL_SALE_2007.htm

Phil,
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Posted by richg1998 on Friday, December 19, 2008 5:17 PM

 Amazon has them used starting at $100 up to $512.

Stephen's Railroad Treasures has it used for $85.

Rich

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Posted by jeffrey-wimberly on Friday, December 19, 2008 5:31 PM

 I have one in hard cover that I bought years ago. It is a very good book. It gave me a lot of ideas.

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Posted by blownout cylinder on Friday, December 19, 2008 6:21 PM

I found mine at a used book store a couple of months ago for $40. Talk about luck! A well writtenbook.

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Posted by Marc_Magnus on Thursday, December 25, 2008 5:24 AM

Hi from Belgium,

There is a french translatation of this fabulous book and copies are still aviable at

http://users.skynet.be/pro-rail/

Look at the home page of this site and you will find the book in the data.

It's the same book with the same photos of the Kalmbach book but in french.

Good luck.

Marc

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Posted by corsair7 on Thursday, December 25, 2008 7:30 AM

jguess733

Several weeks ago, I emailed them and asked about it. All they told me was that they have no current plans to reprint it, but they will forward my request on to their book department. Maybe if we can show them that there is still significant interest in the book, they will reprint it. So shoot them an email the worst they can do is say no. Personnaly, and I've heard from other people here as well, I wouldn't mind seeing a book with all of JA's articles.

I've gotten a copy of the book and it does look good. It was a used copy but you can hardly tell that to look at it.

As for a book with all of John Allen's articles, that would be nice. I know Kalmbach has published books like that for other authors but it seems to me many will just view them as just another attempt to extract more money from the hobbyists' pockets. I don't see it that way.

As for reprinting articles, it would seem to me that it could be done at a more reasonable cost on DVD and they could also put some videos on that same DVD to make it even more worthwhile.

Irv

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Posted by corsair7 on Thursday, December 25, 2008 7:31 AM

ARTHILL

Good for you. I have yet to be so lucky. In the mean time, I hope everyone caught the John Allen Christmas card I put in another post. Not as good aas the book, but some things not seen before.

Not only did I see it but I forwarded the URL to some of my fellow club members.

Irv

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Posted by corsair7 on Thursday, December 25, 2008 7:35 AM

blownout cylinder

I found mine at a used book store a couple of months ago for $40. Talk about luck! A well writtenbook.

Mine cost me $65.00 including shipping. It's in great condition. I got mine from Abe Books. They are usually a good place for used books and you can usually pay with PayPal which is what I did.

Irv 

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Posted by andrechapelon on Thursday, December 25, 2008 10:47 AM

cacole

 I have a softcover 1982 edition with a cover price of $21.95.   That was a lot of money in 1982.

Considering the value of the dollar today and the increases in printing costs, it would probably be priced over $100 if Kalmbach were to republish it, even in softcover.

 

Nope. It would be under $50 according to the BLS inflation calculator. 

Andre 

 

It's really kind of hard to support your local hobby shop when the nearest hobby shop that's worth the name is a 150 mile roundtrip.
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Posted by Neiler on Thursday, December 25, 2008 9:50 PM

There was a website out there like gdlines.com that had copies of his articles but I can't find it now. I'm sure that I saved several if anyone wants them (not for sale or resale of course).

Neil

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Posted by Marc_Magnus on Friday, December 26, 2008 9:31 AM

Hi,

Another good sources for information and unpublished photos of the GD could be find at

www.GDlines.com

You can find there some tragic photos of burned models of the late GD.

Marc

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Posted by jecorbett on Friday, December 26, 2008 11:07 AM

Dang, I had no idea I had such a collectible. I got the 1982 softcover edition. I wonder if I could fetch $100 for it on e-bay. I don't really want to part with it, but I don't know that it is that valuable to me. If I didn't have a copy, I don't think I'd pay $100 to get one.

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Posted by corsair7 on Friday, December 26, 2008 1:27 PM

jecorbett

Dang, I had no idea I had such a collectible. I got the 1982 softcover edition. I wonder if I could fetch $100 for it on e-bay. I don't really want to part with it, but I don't know that it is that valuable to me. If I didn't have a copy, I don't think I'd pay $100 to get one.

I wouldn't pay $100 for a copr either. But $65 wasn't that bad comsidering that the soft cover book I got for it looks like it was hardly used at all.

Irv

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