Tony Koester

J. Anthony Koester, more commonly known as Tony Koester, is a well known member of the model railroading community. Koester popularlized the idea of proto-freelancing with his HO scale model railroad layout, the Allegheny Midland (AM), along with his friend Allen McClelland's Virginian & Ohio. Koester is an alum of Purdue University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. While at Purdue, he was also a member of the Model Railroad Club. In 1966, he helped co-found the Nickel Plate [http://www.nkphts.org Historical & Technical Society] to preserve the memory of his favorite railroad.

In the 1970s, Koester relocated to northern New Jersey to take a position with Carstens Publications as editor of Railroad Model Craftsman (RMC). It was during this time that he developed a close friendship with Jim Boyd, the editor of Carstens' Railfan & Railroad. It was Koester's exposure to eastern mountain coal railroading in the Appalachians that led him to develop the concept of the Allegheny Midland. Blending elements of Nickel Plate (NKP) equipment and operation with Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) structures and scenery, the AM would be the NKP's plausible West Virginia coal-hauler. [See [http://kc.pennsyrr.com/layouts/koester/index.php Allegheny Midland Historical Society] for photos, diagrams and other documentation of the layout.] Regular updates in the pages of RMC made the AM known to modelers nationwide.

Koester left Carstens and took a job with Bell Laboratories, editing their publications for many years. In the mid-1980s, he began a regular monthly column called "Trains of Thought" in the pages of Model Railroader, published by Kalmbach. After twenty years editing telecommunication journals, Koester took on more work with Kalmbach, and is now the editor of the annual "Model Railroad Planning," a contributing editor and the "Trains of Thought" columnist for MR. He has also written four books for Kalmbach: "Realistic Model Railroad Operation" (2003), [ISBN 978-0890244180] "Realistic Model Railroad Design" (2004), [ISBN 978-0890245811] "Realistic Model Railroad Building Blocks" (2005), [ISBN 978-0890243688] "The Model Railroader's Guide to Coal Railroading" (2006), [ISBN 978-0890246689] and "Planning Scenery for your Model Railroad" (2007). [ISBN 978-0890246572]

In 2000, the Allegheny Midland was decommissioned and planning began for a complex multi-deck version of the NKP's Third District in HO scale. Concentrating on timetable and train order (T&TO) operations, this new layout would replicate the Nickel Plate Koester grew up with in his hometown in Indiana.

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