A railway book from a different perspective. In the early 2000s, military modellers began to depict - not always accurately - the role of railways in the German war machine. German railways in World War II were an integral part, not only of strategic military operations, but of tactical ones as well. (Their role in the Holocaust should be noted; the majority of modellers quietly ignore this darkest aspect of the dark arts of war.) Military modellers somehow developed a blind spot when it came to researching their railway models, relying on inaccurate portrayals of military rail transport put out by the model railway companies whose main concern was getting new releases quickly and not always accurately onto the market. This culminated in a number of large-scale static kits of German wartime locomotives (classes 52 - the famous 2-10-0 'Kriegsloks' - and 86) being issued by two manufacturers which incorporated a lot of inaccuracies. (Or perhaps the inaccuracies were in only one kit; the second shows signs of having been copied from the first by its Chinese manufacturer, but I couldn't possibly comment.)

More recently, publications have started to emerge from European - especially eastern European - sources that aim to enable modellers to correct these inaccuracies. This book is one such. It subjects the Br.86 2-8-2T locomotive to a level of scruitiny that railway modellers, who are usually working in far smaller scales and generally taking model railway locomotives straight out of the box to run on their layouts - rarely demand or expect. Three preserved examples - one in a reproduction works grey finish - are photographed in minute detail. This is everything you could ever want or need to know about the Br.86.