What do you do with old back issues of MRR? I go back to the mid 50's. Don't say, "Give them to a library." I asked. They don't want them. Other ideas?
Lefty
Maybe attend a railroad-related event and give them away for free.I've picked up a old issue of Model Railroader from the 1982 that way. People might take them.
"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." -Lin Yutang
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I recently moved after a divorce and retirement. My old magazines ended up in the recycle bin. Oh, well.
I used to bring old magazines, Walthers catalogs too, and leave them in the waiting room at doctors' and dentists' office. I figured that a slightly out of date MR was better than Parenting or Men's Health.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Shortly before retiring, I gave my TRAINS magazine collection (mid '60s to 2000, I think) to a friend who was moving to British Columbia.
Shortly after retiring, I gave my MODEL RAILROADER magazines (mid '50s to 2005) to another friend.
I did copy pages out of both sets of magazines, mostly of articles in which I had interest. They fill two good-size binders, but take up a lot less space than did the magazines.
I still have a fairly large collection of RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN (1970 to 2018), along with about 80 random issues of MAINLINE MODELER, and another 80-or-so of CLASSIC TRAINS MAGAZINE
I still refer to both the binders and the magazines, especially RMC, as they came with yearly indices, making topics easier to find. I had a short-time subscription to RMC after the buy-out by White River, but otherwise all of the magazines were bought at local hobbyshops.
If you can't give them away, recyclers will pay for them by-the-pound or by-the-ton. When my father passed away, my brother and I loaded my pick-up truck with his magazine collection - and I mean "loaded" literally. I had lift-up plywood extensions for the front and sides, to the same height as the roof of the cab. I don't recall how much we got 25 years ago, but it was worth the work, and took less time than if we had put them out to the curb for the weekly pick-up.
Wayne
I used to read every issue of MR from cover to cover, and I would use post-it notes to highlight articles of interest. Then I got the MR 75th Anniversary CD and that made all of the hard copies redundant, so they went out in the recycling bin.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I have seen some model railroad hobby shops giving away (or selling at nominal cost) old MR magazines. If there is one near you, ask the owner.
Paul
Years ago I recycled a bunch of Model Railroader mags from the late 70s into the 80s. I did page through and cut out articles and even pictures in ads that I thought were of interest, and made a file system with manilla folders that I can still refer to. I did keep a few whole issues that were favorites.
Kinda off topic, watching Antiques Road Show, it's amazing how some antiques can drop drastically in value, despite being as rare as they were years ago. It's all about demand I guess. Dan
They have no value, the online archive made them obsolete, and it takes up no space.
.
Options to give them away:
1) Two local hobby shops I know of accept donations of old Model Railroader magazines, then the give them away, 5 to a customer, to keep interest in the hobby alive, and hopefully improve their sales.
2) Ask about a local club. Locally, Scale Rails of Southwest Florida accepts these donations and sells them for $10.00 per year at their local shows to help the club.
3) Give them to me, if you live near Florida, I can come pick them up. I had a complete collection of MR once going into the 1950s, but I gave it away. I would love to have a collection like that again.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
My wife takes mine into the podiatry practice she's part of. They vanish really quick.
In return, I've received some great railroading books, many issues of the MILW. Historical Society magazines, along with other publications.
If she knows a particular issue would appeal to one of her patients, she saves it for him.
She encourages the clients to take them home, if they want, and many do.
It's a win-win.
I still have quite a stack waiting to go.
Mike.
My You Tube
I tend to get eye fatigue reading the on-line archive and lately access to it has been dicey and unreliable in my experience. So I am glad I hung on to my hard copy MRs. The on-line archive is best suited for when you know what you are looking for. But for just random or casual brousing I prefer paper, something I can take outside on a summer day and dip into, or read in bed for a while at night.
I also think that whomever did the scanning for MR for the on-line access (the same as for the DVD?) was not always doing a quality check particularly for the prototype drawings. That is one area where in particular I want to work off hard copy paper, and not a print out from on-line either.
I have known guys who get their MR, read it, clip out what they find interesting, and almost immediately throw the rest away. The problem with that is that our interests can change. When you are building your layout, articles about benchwork, track, wiring, backdrops, and scenery are of interest and those are the highlights and all the rest seems like noise. But then what? Once the layout is done, now articles about operation, structure and rolling stock projects, locomotive detailing, painting and weathering - those are the ones that are interesting. The ones that used to be so interesting are now the mere noise.
And if like me you have changed eras and prototypes, all the more reason to explore back issues be it on paper or on-line. I am almost always surprised by what I find when I re read old issues even if it is just a letter to the editor or product review.
In general MR from 1934 to about 1950 is to me an exercise in nostalgia, but starting about 1950 (and with exceptions in earlier years) there is actual stuff of use in the articles, prototype drawings in particular. You could make the case that MR when it was edited by Paul Larson circa 1955-60 was the first prototype-oriented model railroad magazine.
Dave Nelson
Like Dave N, I still have all mine and will have them as long as there is a layout to store them under....
The archive is a good search engine, and much better with the recent upgrade, but for actually building a project, I will dig out the hard copy and make copies of drawings, etc.
MR, fairly complete in the 40's and 50's, complete from about 59 to now. Been a subscriber since 1968.
RMC, similar, but with a few holes here and there.
NMRA Bulletin/Scale Rails, complete from 1968
And a misc collection of some others who have come and gone, Scale Coupler, Model Railroading, etc.
Sheldon
Dave and Sheldon do a good job describing the reasons I kind of regret giving all mine away.
SeeYou190 Dave and Sheldon do a good job describing the reasons I kind of regret giving all mine away. . -Kevin .
Yes, that's why I have kept all my MR's (back to 1950 with several earlier), RMC's (back to 1972 with many more earlier ones), NMRA's back to 1972. I also have several other magazines as well.
The real problem is finding stuff. The index on this site doesn't always work well.