It's only been recently that I've had access to this book, but I've been aware of it pretty much since it's been published, and I wondered how much you could actually say about this topic. This is speaking as someone who has long been fascinated by the minutiae of military machines.

Well, it turns out that there is a great deal to say about armored trains, as the author appears to have left no stone unturned in regards to documenting their world-wide usage, though the wide-open spaces of Eurasia appear to have been their natural habitat. There's good reason to put a Soviet example of the type on the cover of the book.

As for whether you want to invest in this book, keep in mind that Malmassari is a train fan first, so that is the primary audience. I've seldom seen relatively inexpensive used copies of this work, but at least it's in print and yet to become an expensive collector's item. ( )

An exhaustive treatment of the topic. I confess I’d never seen much point in armored trains; it seemed like it was too easy to just lay explosives under the track or block them or take out a rail or just loosen a couple of fish plates and let the rails spread when the train passes over. However, author Paul Malmassari makes the point that armored trains were often used in areas like China and Russia where there were no vehicle roads, and both sides had an interest in keeping the track intact. The other major use of armored trains was by European powers trying to hang on to colonies in Africa and Asia. Malmassari is pretty specific in his definition of “armored train”; things like railway guns and FLAK trains don’t count unless the cars and/or engine are armored. Even so, there’s enough for a huge 500+ page coffee-table book.

The standard armored train setup had a “safety wagon” – a flatcar, sometimes weighted, to detonate mines; one or more infantry cars with loopholes for rifle fire and perhaps machine guns; one or more artillery cars with field guns, sometimes just firing out a door or over the side of a car or sometimes in turrets; an engine, more artillery and infantry cars, and a trailing flatcar. The engine was typically in the middle of the train. There could be antiaircraft cars, barracks cars, communications cars, and mess cars; the WWII Finnish armored trains included a sauna car. Artillery cars had to either use relatively low power artillery, or have stabilizers, or only fire down the axis of the train to keep the recoil in hand. A common expedient was just to put a tank or armored car on a flatcar; sometimes it was arranged so it could be quickly unloaded and act independently.

It was also common to have independently powered railcars to scout ahead of the main train, checking for track damage; sometimes these were fairly formidable vehicles in their own right. Several countries developed armored cars or even tanks with retractable railroad wheels for this role; once again these could deploy independently if necessary.

Every now and then a train was used as a weapon on its own; sent down the track uncrewed to collide with whatever was in the way. The Belgians used one of these to destroy a German armored train in World War I; in World War II the Russians developed a “railway torpedo”, basically a powered explosive charge on rails.

Malmassari has accumulated an impressive collection of photographs and other illustrations of armored trains for everywhere from Angola to Yugoslavia; the amount of effort here is jaw-dropping. There’s enough detail that if you wanted to build and run scale model trains, you could do so; an impressive addition to your HO layout. An appendix includes armored trains from films and other media, especially graphic novels. An easy enough read; however, although the English translation is grammatically correct there are a lot of railroad terms reflecting European rather than North American practice; for example, Malmassari uses “wagon” for “car”, “bogie” for “truck”, “bogie wagon” for “gondola car”; “trolley” for any independently powered small rail vehicle (in the US “trolley” usually means an electric streetcar drawing power from an overhead line with a “trolley pole”), and “rake” for “consist”. As mentioned, plenty of illustrations; references at the end of each national chapter. Rather pricey, even from the remainder house where I bought it. ( )

Malmassari’s book is the most comprehensive account of armored trains available. It covers armored rail vehicles from the 1850s until those currently in use in Ukraine and the Caucasus
As you would expect, the trains of the Russian Civil War and the Eastern Front of the Second World War are extensively documented. Improvised armored trains were employed from the Spanish Civil War through the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. All are illustrated here. I was unaware of the widespread use of armored trains in counter-insurgency campaigns in Africa and Asia, which are well covered.
Miniature trains, armored trolleys, and road-rail vehicles are covered. The rail torpedo is a device that I hadn’t heard of. It is an unmanned rail car with a warhead, launched down the track towards an oncoming train. The Soviet SVT was used operationally during World War II.
Various methods of ant-rail warfare and sabotage, as well as counter-measures, are described.
This is a large well-illustrated book, with bibliographic references. ( )