General Discussion (Model Railroader)

I page through it while I am standing at the magazine rack.  I can usually get my fill of the pictures that way.

If I see anything that looks like it could be worth having I consider buying the issue.  If it's just one article, I can get a photo copy from my public library for peanuts so I'll make a note of the issue etc. and request the article from the library.

Otherwise, everything but the pictures is available for free online, from 1980 to current, so I can always go back to that if I am missing something.

Just like everybody else here I suppose.

I have my copy of MR sent my PO Box and the Post Office is right next door to a Subway sandwich joint so that is where I go to open up and de-bone - taking out those annoying inserts - and flip through the magazine while munching on a sandwich.
I file all unwanted paper in the Subway waste bin and so I take home my lovely fresh MR magazine. Over the next few days I look at this, read about that and note the usual absense of any SAL related stories. By the time I've finished reading every thing I want to it's time to keep a weather eye out for next months issue and so it goes, all over again.

"May the circle be unbroken......................"

Bruce

Wikious:

 I go through and look at the pictures first, then I read the articles over the next week or so right before bed.

Heck, as soon as I saw the topic, I was going to post that "I go for the centerfold first". . . but you beat me to the joke.  Well done!

Philly Bill:

Wikious:

 I go through and look at the pictures first, then I read the articles over the next week or so right before bed.

 

 

Heck, as soon as I saw the topic, I was going to post that "I go for the centerfold first". . . but you beat me to the joke.  Well done!

It's not a joke... that's how I really read it! 

chatanuga:

I initially skim through it, removing the little mailer card inserts.

I'm still trying to figure out how those little mailer card inserts manage not to fall out before the magazine gets to me.

I will come home from work and notice that the mail has come and there's a bill and a credit card solicitation, and oh boy!  A Model Railroader!!!  Will I have time to read anything really before I need to start fixing supper for my wife.  That's one of the problems with Model Railroader.  It can make me stop doing what I'm supposed to do.

Often I will flip through and see what feature pictorials in the middle third of the magazIne look interesting.  Then back to the table of contents. Any Santa Fe or southwestern layouts?  Any interesting track plans to peruse?  Any features on projects I may actually want to incorporate on my layout?  Often I will will pick one or two articles to look at first, usually looking at the pictures and skimming the copy.

I model transition era in N scale, so I usually do not spend a lot of time reading articles on modern diesels and modern freight cars in detail. 

After looking at feature articles, I go back and look at look at regular columns-- Railway Post Office, Clinic, Trains of Thought, Operators on the last page, new products.  I run across a few ads along the way.  Later I go back and leaf throughb the ads a little more systematically.

After I have done this quick and light entertainment reading, I often look at layout tours and track plans in more detail.  I check each numbered photo against the photo location shown on the trackplan.  Then I "operate" the layout/track plan in my imagination.  Where would trains operate from and to?  How do you turn trains?  Could the layout be used for an interesting passenger operation (whether or not that is one of the builder's interests)?  Will it support industry switching and through train operation both?  Does it give a sense of place and direction and purpose?  Are there any "tricks" that can be adapted to other situations? 

After I have done the simple "reading" and I am beginning to think about putting the magazine away in my year-by-year storage boxes, I turn to cataloguing.  I get a piece of scratchpaper and make a note of anything I may want to reference again--

• information I could use for prototype modeling, detailing or operation indexed by prototype.  I keep the most detailed files on Santa Fe for instance.  For every freight car type, such as box car, I organize information and photographs by the railroads car class, such as BX-52 (a group of PS-1 40' steel boxcars).  Within the car class, I list photographs etc by individual car number.  I have developed this file system over a 35 year period.
• modeling techniques- electrical, scenery, track, etc.
• structure plans and prototypes

Often I double-check all the ads at the same time, especially the little tiny ones for hard-to-find stuff that doesn't show up in most hobby stores.  I have gotten way behind on my cataloguing and I just saw a pre-last-Christmas ad from Model Power I had never before noticed.  It advertised a kit for a Railroad Union Hall.  The kit it showed looked to me rather similar to the "portable temporary classroom buildings" they had during the 1950s and 60s out behind the overcrowded schools, a cultural icon of the transition period many of us model.

Finally I put the magazines away in boxes.  But then I drag them out for research.  Today I found I need to add the external portion of wheel-actuated-generator housing for electrical ventilating fans on modernized refrigerator cars.  I went to my reefer files for detailed information.  Search function "fan" on the reefer file.  That only gave me articles where someone had identified which car classes had the fans, but no reference to a scale drawing.  Perhaps a good overall scale drawing of a car would include the part I wanted.  I used the search term "scale drawing" and came up with a reference to a plan in the April 1948 Model Railroader.  Went to my 1948 box and found the plan there lacked the full detail I wanted but gave me some information I could extrapolate against photographs.

Anyway, THIS is the method I use to read MR magazine!

Glad it's not just me that finds all the inserts annoying.

 I guess my way of rading MR is just like most of the posters in this thread do it:

1. Take out all the inserts - I hate them!
2. Leaf through and take a look at the pictures
3. Check the table of content
4. Read the article that interests me most
5. Put it away for some time
6. Come back to it and start to read it thoroughly , from page 1 to page 102...

yougottawanta:

Just curouis . How do you read your magazine when it comes in ? Do you ....?

 I subscribe to a special Braille version of the magazine and "read" every word cover to cover.

When the magazine arrives in mid-afternoon, it takes me about 4 to 5 hours to remove and shred all of the mailer card inserts. 

By then, it is getting dark out and my layout is located in an unlighted out building that my wife forced me to construct for my layout in the back yard.  So, I sit in the dark and read my magazine.  I don't care about not seeing the photos because most of it is useless anyway since it is all about kitbashing, scratchbuilding and weathering, but I stick with everything right out of the box.

The most tedious part of this monthly task is reading through all of the LHS's in the Leading Model Retailers section at the back of the magazine.  Those that pay extra to have their listing highlighted in yellow have a special glow that makes reading this part of the magazine a little easier.

Hi!

Interesting question.......

I've subscribed to MR (and other train and non train related mags) for literally decades.  And, to the best of my recall, I always have had the same approach to reading them.

When MR arrives (usually the same time as "Trains"), I find a nice relaxing spot and go through it rather quickly page by page - front to back.  Occasionally I'll read an article or ad that is of particular interest, but otherwise will go through it in 15-20 minutes or so.  Then, I put it in my "mags to be read" cabinet.

At some point when a couple of months has accumulated, I'll pick up the oldest first and again go through them page by page, front to rear, but this time will read whatever interests me.  Afterward, I put the mags in the "mags read" cabinet.

Every year or so (usually in Jan/Feb), I'll go thru the old train mags and pull any articles of interest or that may be of interest at a later date.  Theses are then filed in topic specific folders, for easy retrieval when needed.  This all may sound kind of anal to some, but it has allowed me to get rid of decades of mags, and still have access to the articles of interest.  The process has worked out great!

Mobilman44

yougottawanta:

Just curouis . How do you read your magazine when it comes in ? Do you ....?

1. Start at the front and read from front to back ?
2. Glance through and pick articles  of interest
3. Read the ads first
4. Start and stop
5. read it over the month
6. or some other method or no method at all ?

I open my issue carefully with standard regulation reptile-handling tongs. I then use a state-of-the-art porcelain precision scalpel to carefully dissect the text from the pictures, and to separate out the ads for separate processing. Next I bring in my hand-selected, world-class team of composers and lyricists including John Carpenter, Danny Elfman, and Jonathan Edwards (who channels Bach and Beethoven, but usually not at the same time) to tweak it for beat and signature, while Andy Williams works to create an overall soundtrack. Then I have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing the text of tyhe articles while Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, along with a team from Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic re-enact the various actions and activities shown in the pictures, and bring the advertisements to life. All-in-all its quite moving. Though I must say its also completely exhausting. Which is why I'm really glad-- as much as I love Model Railroader-- that it only comes out once a month.

I open my issue carefully with standard regulation reptile-handling tongs. I then use a state-of-the-art porcelain precision scalpel to carefully dissect the text from the pictures, and to separate out the ads for separate processing. Next I bring in my hand-selected, world-class team of composers and lyricists including John Carpenter, Danny Elfman, and Jonathan Edwards (who channels Bach and Beethoven, but usually not at the same time) to tweak it for beat and signature, while Andy Williams works to create an overall soundtrack. Then I have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing the text of tyhe articles while Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, along with a team from Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic re-enact the various actions and activities shown in the pictures, and bring the advertisements to life. All-in-all its quite moving. Though I must say its also completely exhausting. Which is why I'm really glad-- as much as I love Model Railroader-- that it only comes out once a month.

50,000 unemployed comedians and this one has to be a model railroader.

I eat mine after taking some Kaopectate. The Kaopectate helps prevents tracks in the shorts. It does not, however, prevent shorts in the track.

The August issue just arrived. If you'll excuse me, I have a magazine to digest.

Andre

 I read it front to back with both eyes open, until late in the evening, maybe just one eye open...I've been accused of reading it with both eyes closed.

R. T. POTEET:

I get the Hebrew edition and I read my mag from right to left. Photographs can get a mite confusing; for instance I still haven't figured out what cificaP nrehtuoS spells! I saw that on the long hood of a 2-T04DS locomotive!

RTP:

Not to mention all those weird cab-backward Mallets they used to have.  What's the deal with pushing the tender?

R. T. POTEET:

I get the Hebrew edition and I read my mag from right to left. Photographs can get a mite confusing; for instance I still haven't figured out what cificaP nrehtuoS spells! I saw that on the long hood of a 2-T04DS locomotive!

Poteet ! They read LEFT TO RIGHT . Now that we have that settled , use a mirror held up to the mag and you will be able to read the mag , take an aspirin in advance for the terrible crook in the neck you will get reading over the mag looking into the mirror.