I was an early subscriber to MRVP and got hours of enjoyment from the various presentations. I also learned a lot from the more experienced layout builders. I am NOT a big fan of Trains.com! Firstly, I can't get the variety of materials. Second, the frequency is WAY DOWN. The first response was that Covid screwed up production schedules. OK, I can appreciate that. However, YouTube is full of model railroading videos, many of which have good production values. I also miss my favorite series; "Rehab My Railroad" seemed to drop off the air in the middle of the Jones Island project, but other videos show that the rehab continued. I still miss "Cody's Office". Gerry Leone's "Back On Track" has been a delight, but no new episodes for a long time. The State Line project also seems to have stopped videos long before the project was complete. I think David Popp and the rest of the grand are doing their best, but I also think that somebody in the Kalmbach corporate offices is messing around and trying to do things on the cheap! I'm not an expert on video, but I can state that the current software is NOT customer-friendly. Example; on YouTube I can select the vendors or series I want to see. I can create list of videos to watch in the future and I can opt to be notified when certain favorites are updated. For example, I have to search to find any new episodes of "Back On Track" (there aren't any!). In the front page I am constantly shown thumbnails for new videos on Lionel stuff and for articles about steam engines (spoiler: they lost their big fight circa 1960). Does anyone in upper management at Kalmbach even care?
By the way, another note to Kalmbach management; when I am a fully paid member of this website I should NOT be seeing any pop-up ads and banners!
binder001I was an early subscriber to MRVP and got hours of enjoyment from the various presentations. I also learned a lot from the more experienced layout builders. I am NOT a big fan of Trains.com!
Amen to that.
I subscribed to MRVP for years and was 100% happy with it.
After trainsdotcom went live, nothing from MRVP was properly accessable, and basically the last six months of my subscription were worthless. When I tried to find out about upgrading to trainsdotcom, the process was as clear as mud.
When MRVP came up for renewal, I declined.
I sent Kalmbach Media a note explaining my concerns, disapointments, and reasons for not renewing, but I don't know if it went anywhere. I never heard back.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
LION gets no ads, cuase him has adblocker. I do not think a paid subscriptyion will keep the ads at bay... I don't think this forum works that way.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Bad software is bad software. Most people with a few skills can do videos these days. The world has changed and yet they won't.
SeeYou190 binder001 I was an early subscriber to MRVP and got hours of enjoyment from the various presentations. I also learned a lot from the more experienced layout builders. I am NOT a big fan of Trains.com! Amen to that. I subscribed to MRVP for years and was 100% happy with it.
binder001 I was an early subscriber to MRVP and got hours of enjoyment from the various presentations. I also learned a lot from the more experienced layout builders. I am NOT a big fan of Trains.com!
I'll second the amen to that!
Last time I wrote a post complaining about Trains.com it got deleted. My subscription just automatically renewed becasue I forgot to decline in time. I guess I'll suck it up and give them another year to shape up.
What galls me the most is the preponderance of Toy Train crap compated to scale model railroads.
Ray
Same here, focus seems to be on Miday Modeler which is enjoyable, but for $80/yr I want consistency in when videos are posted. They keep guesting Gerry Leonne and tease upcoming episodes but can't seem to publish them. Oh and when they are videoing Midday it's pretty obvious that COVID isn't a concern anymore
I forgot to mention that in additon to the poor selection of video content, I still can't reliably access the archives. If I'm lucky, I can get one issue to download. Whoa be it to try and download two, or switch to a different magazine. Therefore, I have used Zinio to subscribe to MR, Classic Trains and Trains. I have no problems with Zino and the readability/zoom capability is much better than through the archives.
Last fall there was quite a discussion of the problems and disappointment with Trains.com. Lack of new content, difficult to use, dropping many popular series. Replacing David Popp's Ask MRVP with Ask Trains.com. was like trading in your new Mercedes for a used Yugo! Dumping Cody's Office was one of the worst decisions. I also emailed someone at Kalmbach Media with my concerns. Not a word in response! I must admit that since the first of the year things got better, but I notice the slide has begun again.