In view of the wide range of interests of toy train enthusiasts I think CTT is reasonably well balanced.
Pete
"You can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light." - Edward Abbey -
I find that hard to believe....Several months ago, I sent a list out of Classic Lionel and American Flyer layouts....and I am still waiting for them to show up in the magazine.....I FOR ONE AM SICK AND TIRED OF ALL THESE HOW TO DO SMALL LAYOUT PROJECTS AND SCALE RAILROADS....WHERE IS THE CLASSIC IN THAT???????????????????? AND HOW ABOUT MORE PHOTOS OF THE RAILROADS YOU DO VISIT???? HOW CAN THE "OTHER" MAGAZINE DO IT, BUT CTT CANT????????????? ENOUGH OF THE EXCUSES..............
No more subscriptions for me, until things go back like they were before!!!
Ok, I am off my soap box now....
Are you sure you didn't get pushed off your soap box? There's a long line waiting to climb on board! For the price of CTT, which seems to get thinner with each issue, O Gauge Railroading magazine is still the leader of the pack in my opinion. If Kalmbach has the nerve to charge such an unrealistic over inflated price for a rag with less than 100 pages but charge the advertisers so much it is nothing but sheer GREED People want a good quality magazine with a fair mix which should include Marx (including the Allstate trains they produced for Sears Roebuck), Ameican Flyer and yes, even the friction tin toy trains that came from Japan back in the 50s! 100 pages? No problem if these toy trains were included in each issue too.
With several specials having been released on Lionel, there is still nothing on Marx or American Flyer. This leads one to believe that the current Lionel LLC (or whatever it is this week) is publishing CTT and not Kalmbach. With so many complaints on the unfair content of CTT not to mention the ever increasing amount of pop-ups on the CTT and other Kalmbach magazine sites, I am giving serious thought about cancelling my account with Kalmbach. This is NOT the way to conduct business and is in no way what A.C. Kalmbach envisioned when he founded the company in 1934!
Kalmbach has no regard for readers' complaints since we probably fall into the 1% bracket as it is and they are only interested in the big fat $$$ they receive from Lionel, MTH, to name two, for advertising and in return get rave reviews for their products even if the quality isn't up to par. Considering these big fat $$$ that Lionel, MTH and others pay Kalmbach for advertising, the reviews should be available for ALL readers of CTT to read without forcing one to subscribe in the first place! If a guy or gal buys a copy at the newsstand and can't read product reviews I doubt if he or she will subscribe. This is very very poor marketing stradegy in the 21st Century! The advertisers should DEMAND (!!!!) that their product reviews be posted for ALL readers and not just pre-paid subscribers. The other magazines, prototype and model alike, have news and reviews for all readers to enjoy without forced subscriptions!
When A.C. Kalmbach, Linn Westcott, David P. Morgan and lovely Rosemary Entringer ran Kalmbach at 1027 N. 7th St., Milwaukee, WI, the magazines were put together without any computers but were typed out on Underwoods or other famous brands, and you could tell each time Trains, Model Railroader or Model Trains (an excellent bi-monthly with much more enjoyable content than one paid the 35 cents a copy for) hit the newsstand, that it was a true labor of love and not just Big Bizz in action.
Like so many companies, Kalmbach Publishing Co., has forgotten its roots and no longer deserves to carry the name of its founder any longer. Rip Off Press would be a good new name for a starter!
Somebody commented that CTT mag is "reasonably well balanced". That seems to redefine the term "balanced".
In the current issue, according to preview, there are nine articles in which the term Lionel or O-gauge is used in the title and one on American Flyer.
Kalmbach should rename the magazine CLTT, Classic Lionel Toy Trains.
Rich
Alton Junction
That seems to match the ratio of Lionel to American Flyer at train meets. :)
cwburfle In the current issue, according to preview, there are nine articles in which the term Lionel or O-gauge is used in the title and one on American Flyer. That seems to match the ratio of Lionel to American Flyer at train meets. :)
Yet if you read Rodger Carp's excellent book on what he considers the best examples of model trains, there are examples from American Flyer, Marx, Unique Arts, etc etc etc. That contradicts the defining of Lionel as the only classic in town as it is presented in CTT issue after issue.
Go figure that one out.
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
That's what I'm talkin' about. Balanced with respect to the relative percentages of enthusiasts.
Texas Pete cwburfle In the current issue, according to preview, there are nine articles in which the term Lionel or O-gauge is used in the title and one on American Flyer. That seems to match the ratio of Lionel to American Flyer at train meets. :) That's what I'm talkin' about. Balanced with respect to the relative percentages of enthusiasts. Pete
I wouldnt call your visiting train meets an objective survey by any stretch.
It would be interesting to see a real one.
I'm very outspoken and perhaps too critical towards Kalmbach in general. I'm not forced to purchase any of their products nor am I required by any law, written or unwritten, to visit their sites, Their continued use of excessive pop-ups and lack of coverage in CTT of American Flyer or Marx or even the toy tin trains from Japan in the 50s, simply means I will stop visiting the sites or making any purchases of magazines since they don't contain the coverage I want to see.
It is still disappointing to see how Kalmbach has lost track of their roots and from what I have read here, many readers have proposed that CTT carry more American Flyer and Marx, with no results. With a wealth of information on many sites on the www, I will just have to look elsewhere and no longer support Kalmbach unless they improve and I learn about it. That said, I will join the National Association of S gaugers and even if one doesn't join, their site at www.nasg.org is the best place to keep up with everything S gauge including scale, both standard and narrow gauge.
This isn't to say that the people at Kalmbach are not a great bunch of men and women. Their customer service is the best in the business! If Kalmbach won't deliver what I want, like specials on American Flyer and Marx, I'll just have to turn elsewhere for the enjoyment of toy trains that I like. It's as simple as that and I will stop taking part on these fourms and like the late great Will Rogers said, if you can't say something nice about somebody, don't say anything at all! I apologise to Kalmbach but with a hope that they will listen to their supporters and reconsider including a better mix of American Flyer and Marx in CTT as well as specials. We deserve that much don't we (?) as we pay for these publications which in turn insures that each employee receives a paycheck every month!
Well guys, I think this thread has covered the field. Thanks for your comments!
Bob Keller
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