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April Fools Joke in April issue of MR?

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April Fools Joke in April issue of MR?
Posted by brothaslide on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 11:33 AM
Doesn't MR plant an April fool’s joke in the April issue every year? I know they did a review of an actual boxcar - I know it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek but was that the joke? I was looking for something more subtle.
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 11:41 AM
I thought the box car review was funny ! [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
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Posted by DavidH on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 12:07 PM
My all time favourite was one from either the late 60s or early 70s involving the installation of an airlock and the pressurization of the basement to enable the removal of all of the support columns for the first floor. This greatly freed up the track planning process . . .

David
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Posted by FJ and G on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 2:02 PM
David,

That was too funny.

A couple of years ago there was a good one on No-Track layout. The module actually looked convincingly good. All track had been abandoned & converted into a bike trail, with Starbucks coffee, etc, sadly, all too familiar in the real life railroads.

It inspired me to model a portion of my layout with an abandoned track.

But the airlock one must have been hilarious.

The sad part is that several people actually tried this and expired as the result of their homes caving in on them.
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Posted by CBQ_Guy on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 2:26 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by brothaslide

Doesn't MR plant an April fool’s joke in the April issue every year? ... I was looking for something more subtle.


Me too, but apparently they put it in MRP this year, instead.

Can you guess which article.[}:)]
"Paul [Kossart] - The CB&Q Guy" [In Illinois] ~ Modeling the CB&Q and its fictional 'Illiniwek River-Subdivision-Branch Line' in the 1960's. ~
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 9:29 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by CBQ_Guy

QUOTE: Originally posted by brothaslide

Doesn't MR plant an April fool’s joke in the April issue every year? ... I was looking for something more subtle.


Me too, but apparently they put it in MRP this year, instead.

Can you guess which article.[}:)]


Aw, you mean I gotta go buy that too?? [;)]
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Posted by dknelson on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 8:18 AM
Gee and I ordered two of those large scale boxcars! Uh-oh. They cashed my check, too ....

Dave Nelson
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 11:39 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by dknelson

Gee and I ordered two of those large scale boxcars! Uh-oh. They cashed my check, too ....
So that's why you thought model railroading is getting too expensive. ;)

---jps

P.S. I wonder what shipping cost?
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Posted by cacole on Thursday, March 11, 2004 8:49 AM
A lot of readers fell for last year's subway April Fools joke where you had nothing but a manhole cover with sound effects under it and dirt blowing out as the trains passed. Several wrote letters asking when and where those models would be available.

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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 11, 2004 11:22 AM
I'm afraid we sometimes take things too seriously.

I thought the article on the boxcar was great. After all, I never knew how much they cost. As for shipping, why not "rent out" the boxcars to haul freight to a terminal near you, then you won't have to pay quite as much to have them delivered to your front door. Too bad REA no longer exists.......
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Posted by mustanggt on Thursday, March 11, 2004 7:54 PM
I never got mine yet, and I live in massachusetts
C280 rollin'
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Posted by brothaslide on Thursday, March 11, 2004 8:18 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by joekc6nlx

I'm afraid we sometimes take things too seriously.



I enjoyed the box car article as well but it was too obvious. I was hoping for something more subtle and well hidden.
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Posted by locomcf on Friday, March 12, 2004 3:08 AM
Many years back MR had an article on building a live-steam engine in (I think) N scale. I remember reading it in open-eyed amazement, until someone pointed out it was the April issue.

More recently, I think I saw an advert for an HO scale live steamer - but that might have been in the April MR, too.

Ron
Ron McFarlane
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Posted by Jetrock on Friday, March 12, 2004 3:27 AM
Well, Hornby actually DOES sell an OO scale live steamer--so it might not be a prank!!
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 10:02 PM
I LOVED the large scale boxcar review, I ordered one , also sold kidney to pay for shipping!!!!!! How am I going to fit it in my display case?????????? HAHAHA LOL April Fools!!
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Posted by dragenrider on Monday, March 15, 2004 11:17 PM
I had to do a double take when I started reading the article. [:O] I had read the 1 : 1 scale but just brushed it off as some large scale thing. After all, I was half asleep at the time. [zzz] About a paragraph into it I was wide awake and laughing out loud. It was a great joke with good information to boot. [(-D][(-D]

The Cedar Branch & Western--The Hillbilly Line!

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 4:31 AM
My favourite was the one 10 or 12 years ago about the shortline that tried using full-size magnetic couplers![:D]
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Posted by CNJ831 on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 6:09 AM
I still consider the building of a lunar railway layout article (back in the 1970's?) the best MR has ever done. It was so convincingly presented that several readers, as I recall, wrote in about having acually built examples!

CNJ831

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