If you have decided to do a little reading about the Chessie System or model railroading here are some of the references I use. You don't need to buy all these books, I have found most of the modeling books available through Kalmbach publishing at my local library. Try your local library before you go out and buy a book you may not necessarily need to buy.
Chessie Books:
Chessie System: Diesel Locomotives, by Jerry
Doyle,
1999, Walsorth
Publishing. (The best book, bar none, on Chessie
Locomotives.
Perfect for the modeler or the railfan. All color
pics. A
must
have.)
Chessie
System: Cumberland Action, by Thomas A. Biery, 1999, The
Railroad
Press.
(Great book for Cumberland Area stuff. A must have.)
Chessie
News, Chessie System Historical Society. Oct 1997
issue.
(A newsletter dedicated to Chessie. Lots of good prototype
and
modeling
articles. It comes free with CSHS membership. A must
have.
Back issues are available through CSHS web site, see links page
for
address.)
B&O
Cabooses, Dwight Jones, TLC Publishing, 1998. (A
great book
about
B&O Cabooses. No doubt the single best source on the
subject.
A must have if you are going to do any accurate B&O
cabeese.)
Western
Maryland Cabooses, Dwight Jones, WMRHS publishing,
1991.
(The
best caboose book around. This book tells you everything
you
wanted
to know and more on WM cabins. A must have.)
East End:
B&O's Neck of the Bottle, by Hollins and Roberts,
1992,
Barnard,
etc. (The only book I know of dedicated to the East
End.
Very
rich on history and the actual building of the line. Some
good
Chessie
era stuff in it)
Chesepeake
& Ohio Diesel Locomotives, by Shaver and Gilliland,
1994,
McClain
Publishing (A one stop shopping book on C&O
locomotives.
Tells
just about everything you ever wanted to know about each
specific
locomotive
the C&O ever owned. A must have. Available from
C&O
Historical Society)
Chessie
System "All Time" Freight car index, 1997, by Randall
Fields,
Broken
Plate Publishing (Lists all the freight cars Chessie owned and
there
new
CSX numbers. Available from Chessie System Historical
Society)
Baltimore
& Ohio roadway maps IV, B&O lines Weverton, MD to
Cumberland, MD,
1988. (Great reference for all the East End track, can get it
through
the
B&O Museum)
Western
Maryland Diesel Locomotives, TLC Publishing, 1997, Stakem
and
Stakem.
(A good book, but not the greatest. I was hoping for more
when I
got this book. It is written in very choppy sentences and
there
really
aren't that many Chessie pics.)
Diesel
Era Jan/Feb 2000, a magazine that covered all the WM
diesels.
(good one stop shopping on WM locos)
Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad Diesel Locomotive Roster, by James
Mischke,
Panther
Hollow Press, 1998. (Excellent reference book on all B&O
locomotives
and their dispositions. Above is a pic of a typical
page. A
must have.)
Chessie System
Equipment Fleet
Roster,
by Chessie System,1983. (Excellent reference book on all Chessie
Freight Car types and classes. Includes brief
descriptions,
measurements of doors, lenghts, payloads, etc. A
must have for any Chessie Fan. Available occassionally on
eBay.)
Chessie's
Road, by Turner, Dixon, and Huddleston, 1986, McClain
Publishing.
(OK,
lots of pre-Chessie stuff, a little Chessie stuff)
The Chessie
System, by Adam Barr, 1997, self published (soft back,
color photos
of all sorts of Chessie stuff, not much writing)
The
Chessie Era, by Thomas Dixon, Jr., 1990, TLC publishing
(OK, mostly
black and white pics)
History
of the Baltimore & Ohio, by Jacobs, Smithmark
Publishing,
1989.
(An OK book. Interesting overall view of the B&O,
little on
the
East End or Chessie. You can live without it.)
Chesepeake
& Ohio Historical Magazine, C&O Historical
Society,
July/Aug
1999 issue. (Not as good as you might think based on the
pic.
In my one year in the C&OHS this is the only magazine that
came
with
Chessie on the cover. Chessie was only mentioned in
passing, with
no real coverage. I dropped my membership due to the lack
of
Chessie
coverage. They concentrate on the Steam/Diesel transition
period.)
Diesel
Locomotives of CSXT and Predecessors in Color, by Nuckles
and
Dixon,
TLC Publishing, 1993. (OK, not great. Lots of pics
of all
the
railroads that make up CSX. Chessie, B&O, C&O, and
WM
have
maybe 10-12 pics in the whole book. You can do without
this
book.
I think it is available through the C&O historical society.)
Chessie
Timetable No. 3 Maryland Division, Effective: 12:01am
March 1,
1980.
(Not as much info in this as I had thought, but good info on
train
speed
limits and restrictions. It does not have a complete
schedule of
trains across the East End like I thought it would)
Chessie
Train Handling Rules, Effective 1980. (Not as much
info here
either as you would think. Good reference on speed
restrictions
for
certain types of locomotives. Lots on brake systems and
starting
a locomotive. Some diagrams on locomotives)
Modeling Books:
Painting
and Weathering Railroad Models, by Jeff Wilson, 1995,
Kalmbach
Publishing.
(Great how-to book. Perfect for the beginner.)
Diesel Detailing
Projects, by Kent Johnson, 1995, Kalmbach
Publishing. (Great
book on how to detail the locomotives)
Modeling
the Chesepeake & Ohio, by Garry J. Burdette, 1993,
C&OHS.
(OK book. Mostly pre-Chessie stuff. Available
through
Chesepeake&Ohio
Historical Society)