Would Anybody like to see more of live steam or other large gauge in MR?

[pmsteamman]

I belong to a group that runs a live steam railroad just like any basement layout I have ever visted.

[lupo]

VERY INTERESTING!!
do you have a website dedicated to your live steam railroad?
wich scale is it HO?

[Eriediamond]

Yes, cause when I win the lottery I will buy a live steamer. A surely enjoy them.

[vsmith]

Seeing that I'm doing large scale indoors of course I would. MR does large scale every now and then but I believe they tend to leave the largescale outdoor stuff to their sister magazine Garden Railroads, and the indoor stuff to Finescale Railroader and Shortline and Narrow Gauge Gazette. But they do show interesting stuff when they publish large scale.

[pmsteamman]

lupo, I dont own the property we run on I'm more like the hobo of the group, but here is a site for one of the rr's I run on, www.whitecreekrr.com . Erie, you dont need to hit the lotto, I model in 1 1/2" scale (ride on) and we built a number of flat cars out of plywood and 4x4's, tank cars out of pvc pipe and steel, but for the most part cars are aluminum, steel and abs plastic. Many friends have let me run their steamers, from a bigboy to a 0-8-0 switcher. We operate just like any HO, O, N, etc, group, with locals, run-through, yard, and passenger trains(personal favorite), that run on timetable-train order system and some block signals. Let me know if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

[Anonymous]

Only if Model Railroader retains the same level of Z, N. HO, S & O scale coverage as they do now. There is plenty happening in thses scales to warrant keepng MR as it is. Kalmbach has publications dedicated to outdoor/large scale/and ocasionally live steam, narrow gauge/more craftsman level of modeling , & tinplate and they do an excellent job staying focused on those topics in those specialized publications. If anything, "Garden Railways" is too much about 'gardening' for me but thats not the issue here. Look at what has happened to Kalmbach's Scale Auto -- it got side-tracked into featuring too much die cast metal 1/18 scale "RTR" (sic) vehicles that have nothing to do with scale modeling. Many of their former advertisers have stopped advertising, the modeling articles have decreased in number, as well as in my subjective opinion, in quality, and the page count has decreased considerably from when they were focused on what that publication's mission was in the first place. What next in MR - tinplate, LEGOs and Brio?

[lupo]

thanks pmsteamman!
Looks cool! And as you brought it up so :
Did you ran a Bigboy on large scale, real steam?? [wow] [tup] you must be a happy railroader!
how is that, what size does that bigboy have what is the pullingpower of a model BB?
tell us all about it !

[pmsteamman]

lupo, yes real steam. The engine weighed around 2300lbs and pulled about 6000lbs of train. It was quite a experience, one I would love to do again.

[Anonymous]

Man!!!!!!!!!!! You're lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Bill, Model RR ought to be called N and Ho monthly[:p] they do feature occasional O and every so often S. S is what i model in, but i subscribe anyways and apply knowledge gained from other scales to S. I read all kinds of posts from Z-G in the forums. Fact of the matter if it is a model RR then I will read about it. I subscribe to model RR, S gaugian, and garden railways. I am going to do the garden thing
though.

[IRONROOSTER]

Personally, I have always enjoyed the occaisional (very occaisonal) live steam articles in MR. But I have to admit that one every 2-3 years is probably about right. I think there's a magazine called Live Steam that covers it. I would like to see more coverage of S scale and O scale (as opposed to tinplate/hirail which is covered in CTT) in MR. I suspect the problem is that more folks submit N and HO articles than the other scales.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

I like to see the magazine cover this end of the hobby, also. Impressive stuff you guys build!

[Supermicha]

I think they should inlcude more of all! This magazine has too many advertisements. When i compare it with model railroad magazines from germany, the model railroader looks like a catalogue for model trains, not like a magazine with information about trains, layouts, tests and so on.

Micha

[Anonymous]

Supermicha, You brought up a good point, with all those advertisers why is the subscription price as high as it is? Cahrge the advertisers more NOT THE READERS!

[CBQ_Guy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by pmsteamman

I belong to a group that runs a live steam railroad just like any basement layout I have ever visted.

Your group must meet in a very large basement!

But seriously, folks... I was just thinking of live steam, is it 1 inch to the foot scale -- the type you can ride on? -- today. The thought I had was that something that large and that a person can ride on might be a good draw to bring people into the hobby of model railroading in general.

I think the WGH campaign should look into something like this to bring people in.

[pmsteamman]

Ya.....25 acres worth..haha
Seriously though I never even thought about WGH. Great idea thanks.

QUOTE: Originally posted by CBQ_Guy

QUOTE: Originally posted by pmsteamman

I belong to a group that runs a live steam railroad just like any basement layout I have ever visted.

Your group must meet in a very large basement!

But seriously, folks... I was just thinking of live steam, is it 1 inch to the foot scale -- the type you can ride on? -- today. The thought I had was that something that large and that a person can ride on might be a good draw to bring people into the hobby of model railroading in general.

I think the WGH campaign should look into something like this to bring people in.

[Anonymous]

Hello my Name is Larry

And i also belong to a 1 inch 1/2 scale live steam railroad group the Adobe Western Railroad located in Phoenix AZ at 43rd Ave and Pinnacle Peak road off of I-17 we just had our spring meet this past weekend and boy, what a blast that was!! running live steam trains till three o clock in the morning and one of those was a steam triple header with 35 cars and a caboose! i was on this train as one of three brakemen to watch and assist with anything that may happen sure enough it did coming into the station mid train derailed on switch between station and main yard another was out on ther Arntchoo branch second loco pony pilot truck bailed out on the crossover to the Werner branch if you would like more info and to see our layout please go to maricopalivesteamers.com for all the rest of the details

regards

larry

[Paul W. Beverung]

Hi PMSTEAMMAN;
MR has run a few articles on live steam in the past. I'd like to see more once in a while, but not all the time. I'm into 7.5 inch gauge running 1.5 and 4 inch scale. I'm not rich, but in the last 32 years in the hobby have managed to gather a few toys. The nice thing about this hobby is that there is always someone that will help you along. I've run alot of locomotives before I got my own. Now I've got a live steamer in 4 in scale, a sw 7 in 1.5 a gas rail car in 1.5 and a "Simplex" in 4 in. My layout is about 1400 ft of track on 3 acres, with another 1200 ft. in the works. The biggest impediment to the extension is building the fence to keep the cattle off the track. You think having the cat get on the layout is bad!!! If there is anyone in the Fort Worth, Dallas area that wants to see and try 7.5 drop me a line. [e-mail]
p.s
I'd like to see spell check.

[lyctus]

I really like and admire the work of the live steamers but it is a separate and different branch of the great model rail hobby and dosen't really belong in MR except for the short photo article from time to time. BTW, I was a bit interested a bit back in a book published on Walt Disneys home railroad. Is this book still available ?

[smcgill]

I would like to see more O,G scale in the mag!
Granted that O-scale has amag,-G-scale has a mag, etc.
I thought that Model meant all.
Some of the not so grand layouts(real people's) are nice to see along with the outdoor layouts (steam or G-scale)

[Anonymous]

We all have the right to our opinion(s). To me, the contents of MRR are not up to the standards of 8-10 yrs. ago. I don't appreciate timetables, fast clocks, DCC, etc. Fast time clocks caused me to have a major burnout for 15 years. (The layout I helped to
operate required 5 to 16 persons & the owner, while a friend, was too persnickety.)

Operations should be fun, not stressful. I just can't handle timetables, etc. More power to those of you who can. I had the good fortune to operate on Allen McCelland's old
Virginian & Ohio & that was also stressful to me.

I am not going to renew my subscription to MRR. I have changed to G; if MRR would
include 3 or 4 articles a year about big trains, I wouldn't cancel out. The steak & potatoes in MRR, tome have changed to baloney & mustard which are not worth
$39.95 yearly for me.

MRR, throw in some big trains, G, live steam or whatever every quarter. I had fun operating both diesel & live steam some years ago. fishwagon

[bluepuma]

I have enjoyed seeing the ride-on or garden layout once a year, HO or N, S is ok, if G, s/b indoor, Z is nice. I'm not fond of some of the narrow gauge or steam layouts I see in MR. Would like to see a review on the HO live steam British loco in the MR ad, how it works. O or O27 layouts are ok, but not the toy trains, there is another mag for that. I don't want to see MORE - the only large scale are 1:1 and Trains mag is for that.

[on30francisco]

Yes, especially articles about Large Scale modeling indoors and Large Scale layouts in small indoor spaces. I would also like to see Model Railroader cover more articles about O, S, narrow gauge, and other minority scales and gauges.