Having been a subscriber to RAILFAN from Volume 1, Number 1, it is sad to see it gone. I never considered it a competitor to TRAINS, but rather a railfan friendly companion. The articles seemed bent more toward the railfan angle, so it made for a good read. As others have said, I believe R&R began loosing ground with the loss of Hal Carstens and Jim Boyd. Death is unavoidable. Myself, I prefer print media and don't care for the digital stuff. At the time R&R quit I still had almost 5 years to go on my subscription(yes, I know at 70, that's pushing it!). I remember Freeman Hubbard's RAILROAD and always wished that RAILFAN would reprint some of the fiction and true tales, but they had an aversion to it. It would have promoted the human side of this hobby we love TRAINS and CLASSIC TRAINS have been doing a good job lately of presenting the human interest side but there is always room for more. My heart goes out to the people of Carstens who I am certain did their very best until they could do no more.
Amen brother!
You know, I think Carstens missed a real money maker by not putting out an anthology of Curt Katz's "Railfun" comic strips, they even could have "padded" it a bit by including some of his "Tales of the Pointless Arrow" columns. I used to LOVE the "Railfun" strip!
There's another thread concerning this in which I surmised that maybe Mr. Carstens the Younger wasn't the businessman his father was. Who knows?
You might not have to miss R&R for much longer. Stay tuned....
Mr. Kelly, do you think they might resurrect "Locomotive and Railway Preservation" if they get on a roll? Man how I miss "Eleanor P." Just askin'.
Bruce Kelly You might not have to miss R&R for much longer. Stay tuned....
Good to hear.
Word is out that White River Productions has acquired Railfan, and Railroad Model Craftsman magazines.
Link to announcement
Wonderful! And best of luck to them!
Firelock76 Wonderful! And best of luck to them!
A big +1
Our best wishes to Kevin and company. He comes from a railfanning family...why, Pat and I knew him when he was just one of Dr. Jim's four boys! His dad was an O-scaler; he was into HO back them. I suspect that there may be some rearrangement of content among all of the magazines to focus them a bit differently.With all of the historical societies that they help with publications, and the nature of the news in Railroads Illustrated, they probably have access to the best from-the-front news-gathering groups anywhere.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
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