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A paucity of new videos on MRVP

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  • Member since
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A paucity of new videos on MRVP
Posted by Pruitt on Saturday, November 28, 2020 10:37 AM

When MRVP started a few years ago, new videos were being posted at the rate of about one every other business day. One week would be Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the next would be Tuesday and Thursday. And so on.

As a subscriber, I'm a bit concerned. While the rate has fluctuated a bit over time, the past few weeks has been at the rate of one a week. What's going on? Saving them for the new Trains.com (which in just over three weeks will miss its advertised "coming in fall 2020")? Or just cutting back? If this is more long term, MRVP will not be worth the cost of the subscription, IMHO.

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Posted by BigDaddy on Sunday, November 29, 2020 8:39 AM

I agree, Gerry Leone has been MIA for a month or two, Trackside Adventures ended when Drew left.  Kathy Millatt seems to have come and gone, although she is mentioned in David Popp's Trains.com intro.

Now they have had to deal with the virus and the lockdowns, so it's understandable that has cut into video production. 

 It sounds like MRVP will continue to exist with the new Trains.com, at least for a while.  That tells me that the price of Trains.com will be higher.  My interests do not extend to garden railways, the toy train segment nor which railroad is buying the new SD100's.  I am not excited to pay for things I don't use.

Any bets on what time Monday morning this thread will be locked? Big Smile

 

Henry

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Posted by PennCentral99 on Sunday, November 29, 2020 10:20 AM

First....I do not subscribe to MRVP; so, the production and release rate has no effect on me.

Could be some other factors.....didn't they have some changes in the upper staff in the past year? Which could have a ripple effect on their business model? Maybe they are running out of topics? Of course, at first, there's a flurry to get videos out because they program was new and never been done.

Even the "Rehab My Railroad: Introducing Jones Island" has only had 1 Episode, which was February 2020.

Terry

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Sunday, November 29, 2020 11:39 AM

I would imagine Kalmbach Media is dealing with dozens of hurdles right now that they are trying to keep from being visible to their customers.

Things are changing, and we will just need to wait and see what happens.

Hopefully when all this virus stuff goes away, print media stabilizes, and the new web site launches, we will all see that the effort was worth it.

Until then, I will continue to subscribe to MR, FSM, and MRVP.

-Kevin

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Posted by dknelson on Sunday, November 29, 2020 11:44 AM

PennCentral99
Even the "Rehab My Railroad: Introducing Jones Island" has only had 1 Episode, which was February 2020.

Terry

Terry I think they are up to Episode 9 which seems to have been posted a few weeks ago.  They just don't mention Jones Island in the title every time.

I do recall a mention by David Popp this summer that the production of what he filmed in his basement was being done outside the office which I suspect is a continuing complication.  I'm not prepared to write off MRVP quite so quickly as it evidently morphs into the new Trains.com.  But I would agree that all the hype in the magazines and on this webside about the new and exiting and wait-for-it Trains.com has been rather diluted by the passage of time and no product.  

On the plus side the "Safety First" covid mask and Squadron modeling tweezers I ordered from the Kalmbach Hobby Store came really fast, just a few days.  So someone is on the job.

Dave Nelson

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Posted by rrinker on Sunday, November 29, 2020 12:06 PM

 We're still getting Cody's Office twice a month. A contiuation of the signals on the Canadian Canyons likely requires access to the offices, so that's probably on hold. New layout visits? Not going to see that happen for a while yet. Gerry Leone moved, remember. He is working on a new layout - the last video with him was filmed a significantly long time ago. It seems they ran out of ideas for Roundhouse a long time ago, plus having in person meetings right now wouldn't be happening anyway. I'm sure Jim Hediger has a lot more stories, but after all the years he put in, perhaps it's best that series dropped so he can enjoy some retirement time. And I'm guessing the reason we aren't getting any progress on the Sand Creek section is because that seems to be a joint project with David and Gerry and once again, hanging out together in someone's house is not likely happening any time soon.

 There have also been some other changes, so who's available to do what needs to settle down a bit. I'm sure there are plenty of things that one person can do from their home like the videos David was doing and Cody's Office. But I bet those home shot videos require a lot more editing than the ones that are shot by the whole MRVP crew. It's not easy showing the details of model work without having multiple cameras capturing multiple angles simultaneously.

                                      --Randy

 


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Posted by PennCentral99 on Sunday, November 29, 2020 1:16 PM

dknelson
PennCentral99
Even the "Rehab My Railroad: Introducing Jones Island" has only had 1 Episode, which was February 2020.

Terry 

Terry I think they are up to Episode 9 which seems to have been posted a few weeks ago.  They just don't mention Jones Island in the title every time.

Dave Nelson

Hi Dave, you are correct. There were some computer hiccups and connection lags while I was searching and it didn't pull up all the episodes. I recind my statement.

Terry

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Posted by "JaBear" on Monday, November 30, 2020 3:12 AM

There’s some pretty good informative model railroad videos here…

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/278638.aspx

Smile

 

"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Monday, November 30, 2020 11:04 AM

I go for the idea that they are not doing many videos because they don't want to have a large crew working together to create it.  People can do models in their home workshops, and write scripts online, but the actual recording requires a decent sized crew and possibly a layout, besides.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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