Trinity River Bottoms Boomer Finally received Winter Classic Trains delivered this week to my address in Germany. Better late than ever. Re Subscriptions. Lots of problems continue since customer service was moved from Waukesha to Tampa.
Finally received Winter Classic Trains delivered this week to my address in Germany. Better late than ever. Re Subscriptions. Lots of problems continue since customer service was moved from Waukesha to Tampa.
Johnny
I was in B&N again yesterday. I couldn't resist reading Jim Shaughnessy's article about how his father got him interested in trains. I enjoy not only his pictures and articles, but I'm also appreciating his commentary on TellTale Videos. Right now I'm watching him on the video about the St. J & LC.
Anyways, in the current CT, we have the picture of his father and the fireman in the cab of one of Rutland's beautiful 4-8-2' s! When I see such pictures, I think," Shaughnessy, you lucky so and so, you were actually there to ride and photograph those engines." I hope we get to enjoy his work for many more years!
Fr.Al It's Thursday the 7th, ten days after I saw CT in B&N, and still no magazine!
It's Thursday the 7th, ten days after I saw CT in B&N, and still no magazine!
Last month, I received a request to renew my subscription (it had not expired)--I responded quickly--and received another request a week or two later. I am coming to believe that there are serious problems with the subscription records.
Yes, I missed out on Interurbans, steam, and mixed trains. I think South Shore is the only surviving Interurban. They also haul freight, but now only with diesels. I'm thinking if I ever go West to Chicago again to take Amtrak to Michigan City, Indiana. Then detrain and take the South Shore into the city. Anyone here ever done that?
Fr.Al I think the Summer 2012 or 2013 issue of CT was predominantly Interurban, which upset one person enough to write to the editor. And yet, it wasn't ALL Interurban. Let's keep it mixed( and maybe a predominantly mixed train issue in the future?) I like all the classics, steam, diesel, and electric. Now, even the RS-1' s I grew up with on Rutland successor VTR are pretty much history.
I think the Summer 2012 or 2013 issue of CT was predominantly Interurban, which upset one person enough to write to the editor. And yet, it wasn't ALL Interurban.
Let's keep it mixed( and maybe a predominantly mixed train issue in the future?) I like all the classics, steam, diesel, and electric. Now, even the RS-1' s I grew up with on Rutland successor VTR are pretty much history.
Right, that was the Summer 2013 issue, and I remember the irate letter "CT" got over it, which absolutely mystified me.
You see, I didn't have much interest in interurban railroading myself but that issue thoroughly fascinated me! This was an aspect of "steel wheel on steel rail" I knew little about, so I really soaked it up, learned a lot, and gave that issue high marks. So much so I still have it and re-read it often.
So long as the production values are kept high and the writing's well-done I really don't care what's in the issue, it's all good. I haven't been disappointed yet.
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Trinity River Bottoms Boomer December 1st and I'm still waiting for my subscriber copy of Winter CT. What a bummer!
December 1st and I'm still waiting for my subscriber copy of Winter CT. What a bummer!
Still waiting on mine as well. Did note that the Winter CT is in stores already, so much for the advantage of a subscription.
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I was in Barnes & Noble Monday and noticed it there already. Oh well, I'm about to head out to the Post Office now.
I'd like if they went bimonthly and expanded the From Above feature, especially of shop complexes. My pet peeve is that B&N gets their issues before I get mine as a subscriber.
You are showing your age if you remember the All Diesel issue that one subscriber ripped in two pieces and returned to DPM! About the same time Trains ran a pix in the news page of the Maidenform ad with a pretty lady with her hands up in the air with the caption "I dreamed I stopped them in their tracks in my Maidenform bra! Oh to be able to return to my innocent youth.
Deggesty Miningman I'm in as long as they don't do an ""All Diesel issue"...ever. If there such an issue, would you do as one subscriber to Trains did to the first all-diesel issue--he tore it into the pieces and returned it to Mr. Morgan? (That issue did have an item, with picture, about a steam locomotive in the news section.)
Miningman I'm in as long as they don't do an ""All Diesel issue"...ever.
I'm in as long as they don't do an ""All Diesel issue"...ever.
If there such an issue, would you do as one subscriber to Trains did to the first all-diesel issue--he tore it into the pieces and returned it to Mr. Morgan?
(That issue did have an item, with picture, about a steam locomotive in the news section.)
I tend not to like all-one-thing issues, even if it is a topic I like. SO no all narrow gauge, no all FLorida roads, no all GP7 issues. I do like special focus issues, but not entire issues. The all Big Boy special issue was interesting, but wasn't a regular issue.
My wife buys hundreds of rubber duckies, and hands them out to kids. Oriental trading Company has tons of them colorfully decorated. Soldier ducks, princess ducks, US presidents ducks, pirate ducks, Octoberfest ducks, etc. One of my favorites though was 1920's ducks. A flapper, a businessman with mustache, a guy in fedora, all redered as ducks. But the detail was they were all rendered in black and white...because well everything was in black and white back then.
I don't mind B&W photos in the mag as color photos were the minority back in the steam era.
OvermodI was amused to find that I instinctively 'colorized' many black-and-white pictures and programs while viewing them
On my end I always remember Schindler's List in color when I think about the movie. I think that may be a form of synesthesia or something.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
CSSHEGEWISCHWhy not?? There's a lot of Classic Diesels out there, starting with IR-powered boxcab switchers through FT's through various E's and PA's.
Preston Cook has mentioned 'the edge of history' (which is about 50 years after significant events ... the point at which you can last expect the people who were moving, shaking, or involved in the events to coherently remember what they knew or saw). Note that in less than two years, we will have reached that point for Alco ... ALL the domestic locomotive production of Alco, diesels and all.
The problem with the original 'all-diesel issue' and with any prospective regular issue of Classic Trains is that it socks poor subscribers who think diseasels are wicked anathema not just in the eye but in the pocketbook ... a bit like having Southern Baptists receive an issue of their favorite newspaper with nothing but pro-abortion articles. Special or commemorative issues -- have at it! But not one of the quarterly issues, and I'd argue not one of the bimonthlies of an expanded version. Better to take up key topics involving diesels, or inherently including only diesels if appropriate ... and balance the issue with things either 'more for everybody' but addressing all the 'quadrants' represented in the readership.
Another artifact of this is the "well-known" theory held for so many years at the dawn of scientific psychology that people 'dream in black-and-white'. That was largely driven by the fact that most experience beyond the personal was presented to people in black-and-white media, from woodcuts and daguerrotypes right up through early television.
I was amused to find that I instinctively 'colorized' many black-and-white pictures and programs while viewing them; there are people at RyPN who went beyond this and could (or said they could) see 'color' in pictures taken with various emulsions by knowing the relative intensities inherently 'filtered' by the chemical characteristics (one effect being the disappearance of clouds in pictures taken with some Kodak emulsions). I am not sure how this relates to making some emulsions particularly visible-red insensitive to allow darkroom processing, but I'm told there was a relation.
BaltACD To all extents possible Classic Trains needs to find as many color photographs as possible. Looking at everything in black and white gives me the impression that life in the WW II era and before was 'lived' in black and white. A false reality, however, all the images of the period being B&W make it seem so.
To all extents possible Classic Trains needs to find as many color photographs as possible. Looking at everything in black and white gives me the impression that life in the WW II era and before was 'lived' in black and white. A false reality, however, all the images of the period being B&W make it seem so.
Reminds me of the old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where Dad is explaining to Calvin how the world used to be black and white.
https://www.flickfilosopher.com/wptest/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/calvinhobbescolor.gif
Jeff
I am for seeking out original color images.....NOT colorizing existing B&W images.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Why not do both, publish the original B&W next to the colourized version for a comparison.
That ought to make everyone happy, including the paper mill!
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Interesting.....I actually really like the black and white photos, the builders photos are especially stunning but if they colourized many of the black and white's I would have no objection whatsoever.
Would think that with today's vast colour spectrum technology great things could be done. Purists would complain however.
Sign me up.
BaltACD To all extents possible Classic Trains needs to find as many color photographs as possible. Looking at everything in black and white gives me the impression that life in the WW II era and before was 'lived' in black and white. A false reality, however, all the images of the period being B&W make it seem so. History Channel's 'WW II in Color' gives a 'new look' to the war - a war that was covered by 99.9% B&W images. Color brings reality home, expecially to a population that has grown up with nearly all images - photographs, film, video, TV and everything else being shown in color. The same needs to be done with Classic Trains to all extents possible.
History Channel's 'WW II in Color' gives a 'new look' to the war - a war that was covered by 99.9% B&W images. Color brings reality home, expecially to a population that has grown up with nearly all images - photographs, film, video, TV and everything else being shown in color. The same needs to be done with Classic Trains to all extents possible.
+1
I believe Classic Trains can expand to a bi-monthly publication and still retain the content and respect it has become known as in the railfan community. I'd like to see Trains Illustrated return too, published twice a year, with each issue containing 100 pages. Ditto with 100 pages for CT. I'll support both regardless of any required increase in the price of both.
I used to buy Trains every month, but I have gotten to picking it up at the news stand, reading the Ask Trains feature in the back of the issue, and putting it back on the shelf. I can only read so much about unit coal trains and Amtrak management. I usually find CT interesting.
make it more often? Sure, if it doesn't mean watering it down.
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