Model Steam Locomotives

by Henry Greenly
revised by Ernest Steel

We reprinted Greenly's 1915 Model Engineering and have offered it in our catalog for quite some time. It's a remarkable book. Worth having. If you don't have a copy, you should.

Here you get another Greenly book dedicated to building live steam locomotives, and it's the same high quality. This first appeared in 1922, went through a number of editions the last being in 1954. It was in print for over 50 years!

You get wall-to-wall practical how-to. Page after page of drawings. And scores of photos (which did not reprint as well as they should have, but are still interesting).

Chapters include: choice of scale and gauge; locomotive types; principles of model locomotive design; boiler design; frames, axleboxes and springs; wheel, axles, crank axles, and crank pins; bogies, pony trucks and radial axleboxes; cylinders; valve gearing - simple reversing motions; valve gearing - link and radial valve gears; motion details; boiler construction; boiler mountings, cab and other fittings; general fitments, tenders and drawgear; firing and boiler-feed devices; and brake system.

Since this book is British, you can expect to find mostly British style locomotives. But British modelers built just about anything and everything. And you'll find some construction details on American engines as well.

A bit more expensive than a Lindsay reprint, but still worth the price. Greenly did such fine work! Get a copy. 6 x 8-1/2 softcover 320 pages

No. 1587 ... Not available at this time.

Henry Greenly's The Model Locomotive was published in 1904 and formed the basis of the first edition of this book, published in 1922. Five further revised editions appeared over the years before the outbreak of World War II, a seventh edition appeared in 1951, and the eighth edition, reprinted here, appeared in 1954. The last two editions were revised and updated by Greenly's son-in-law Ernest A. Steel, with considerable input from Greenly's daughter Elenora, but remain very much the work of Henry Greenly.

Perhaps because of the amount of work he undertook for Messrs. Basset-Lowke, Greenly's experience of designing and building model locomotives covered all gauges from Gauge 1 to 15" gauge, and the major changes between editions of this book chart the gradual increase in gauge of the models being built by model engineers, with 5" and 7-1/4" gauge practice becoming more and more prominent. However the smaller and larger gauges are also well covered, and this range of gauges is unique to this title.

Any book which effectively remained in print over fifty years has to have been top quality, and a century after the first version of it appeared, Model Steam Locomotives remains one of the very best books written on building model and miniature steam locomotives, and one which will prove an invaluable reference for locomotive builders in the 21st century.