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Book Review: Mountain to Desert: Building the HO Scale Daneville and Donner River

Written by Ian MacMillan

Friday, 06 April 2007

Cover

Pelle Søeborg has been a familar author to the readers of Model Railroader, and users of products from Woodland Scenics. Pelle's new HO scale Daneville and Donner River featuring Union Pacific and BNSF has produced some very informative how to articles in Model Railroader showcasing his realistic scenery with materials that some may consider outdated. Pelle has gathered all of his efforts into building his new layout into his new book; Mountain to Desert: Building the HO Scale Daneville and Donner River

Kalmbach introduces the book as "Pelle Søeborg teaches you innovative ways to scratch build modern businesses, replicate scenery, paint backdrops, and weather cars in this packed and practical guide. How-to topics include building tunnel entrances; constructing basic terrain with Styrofoam; installing a truss bridge; choosing scenery materials; ballasting track; painting a backdrop; and many more." While this places the book into the "How-to" category, I think that while well written and informative, the book is somewhat thin when it comes down to explaining how to create some of the scenery scenery. Most of the book is written in a "I wanted this, and I went about this way to get it" format, with images that may or may not pertain to what is being talked about on the page.

UP train through Daneville. Pelle Søeborg

I was disappointed to find that most of the main How-to sections had already been published in Model Railroader over the previous years and only contained additional images that were not in the magazine. Some of the how to sections are missing sections that were included in Model Railroader. One most notably is the section on laying flex track. While the Model Railroader article was very in depth, the section in the book is missing several paragraphs on detailing and painting the track. Most of the articles are based on tried and true techniques, that have been around for a long time. I would have preferred that Pelle explained his ground covering more in depth as well as his structures. I did enjoy the section on cutting builders foam for landforms in a vertical position instead of the common wedding cake style. I plan on using this technique on my layout as well.

While a tad light in the step-bystep area, I am sure that many modelers will find the 180+ photos inspirational. Pelle's photography skills really shine in this book as all the photos are very sharp and well composed. The shots taken from a "railfans perspective" are very well done.

While the layout is HO scale, it is geared towards modelers in any scale and will provide an inspiration to many. I found myself staring at the photos for several moments, observing the detail in the scenes, and finding ideas that I want to use on my layout. While I do feel that there could have been more in the How-to part, I do think that this book would be a good purchase, if not for what is written, but the amazing photos.

Rating (out of 10): 7
Purchase?:

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