Toy & Model Trains magazine

[Benjamin Maggi]

Talk about fate! I found the "Green" on on EBay while searching, and it took about 3 seconds for me to hit the "buy it now!" Thanks Overlord for the encouraging words. Now, I just need the "Red" one.

[Bob Keller]

Well, it was published 23+ years ago ... As I said, they show up on eBay (I search "Classic Toy Trains" and "Toy Trains" back issues periodically).

[Benjamin Maggi]

Bob,

Thanks for your reply. While it is disheartening to learn that there are none "in the back" so to speak, I shall keep trying to locate them. If anyone else has them and doesn't want them, please contact me.

Thanks.

[Bob Keller]

These were one-offs that were produced prior to the launching of CTT and Kalmbach's buying Garden Railways. Only two were published. These are long gone from this end, but they do show up on eBay from time to time. Search the words "Toy trains" and the sub-category magazine back issues.

I checked around and I don't believe KPC has done an authorized PDF of this item as a promotion.

[dwiemer]

Benjamin, I don't believe I have either of these magazines you mention.  Who does the publisher ID themselves as?  Is it possible these were just a seasonal item, or perhaps special made items for say The Greatest Hobby, or something along those lines? 

Dennis

[Benjamin Maggi]

When I was a child in the mid-late 1980s, my parents purchased two magazines for me in addition to my usual Model Railroaders. Both were titled "Toy & Model Trains" magazine, and they were for a kid the most amazing magazines money could buy. There were articles on many simple starter train layouts in HO, O, and G scales, and train set reviews, and other basic articles. I distinctly remember the covers as if they were in front of me today:

1. Red background cover with a father and son looking at a LGB Mogul, lettered D.S.P.& P.R.R. pulling a yellow coach. They were only about a foot away from the engine. I spent a lot of time as a kid trying to imagine how one tender could have so many letters, and what they represented.

2. Green background cover with Santa Claus by a Christmas tree, with a Lionel train set featuring a Lehigh Valley high-nosed Geep pulling a train set (I think I later researched and found out it was a "Black Diamond" train set) in I think a figure-eight track layout.

I had contacted Kalmbach publishing and spoken to two different people who are very "up there" and knowledgable about eight years ago asking about these publications, and neither remembered what I was talking about. I wondered if I was imagining them until a friend pulled out the RED one and photocopied the cover and inside index page. The magazine cover said "Display until February 1, 1987," which gives it a date of the 1986 Christmas season.

I have never seen these since at any train shows I have been to, and random EBay listings turn up nothing. Does anybody have any extras that they would be willing to sell me? I will pay ANYTHING to have these cherished magazines again. Also, does anybody know if there were more then the two I mentioed produced?

As I said, I only have PDFs of the one, and don't know how to post a PDF. I am willing to email it to someone if they know how to post it.

THANKS!