Each month we take up an older issue of MR and discuss any aspect of it that strikes our fancy: the articles, the ads, the cover, letters to the editor, anything. It was originally intended to provide a motivation to explore the back issues archive in the (then) new All Access Pass, but those with the hard copy or with the older DVD of back issues are welcome and urged to join in too.
So for July we will show the red, white and blue and explore MR's bicentennial issue (for those who were there, 1976 saw civic celebrations of the nation's 200th birthday and the prototype railroads joined in with "bicentennial units," often numbered 1776 and often painted in flag colors). MR was not about to be left behind. On page 45 is a photo of 17 HO scale locos painted in bicentennial paint schemes, photographed on the late Don Manlick's layout. Don, who died just a few months ago, operated Herald King decals at the time and many of the units shown used his decals.
Linn Westcott was Editor but had largely turned over control of the magazine to Russ Larson who wrote the lead editorial for the issue, an unusual and interesting one: "The Pursuit of Happiness." Opposite is an ad from Walthers summarizing its own history including the famous "bottom of the barrell" ad it ran during WWII to explain why there was no merchandise to be sold. Many of the other ads in the issue feature patriotic colors or themes.
Two of the articles that I found most interesting: the biography of prolific draftsman J Harold Geissel - at one time virtually every issue of MR had scale drawings by Geissel, whose drawings continued to appear in MR long after his death in 1980. Not mentioned in the article but I believe Geissel was confined to a wheelchair which did not prevent him from making measurements of prototypes on site.
The other article of note is John Dhols's laborious kitbash of an EMD SD40-2, a good reminder of the pent up demand for that engine by modelers back at that time, a demand Athearn and others soon satisfied. But there are other good articles and also some very interesting letters to the editor, product reviews, and advertisements, so I look forward to the book club discussions of this issue.
Dave Nelson
The B&O article got me. A few months ago, I visited the Allegheny Portage RR site not far from Horseshoe Curve for the first time and was struck by how interesting early railroading could have been.
Interesting ads...
Yes, you, too, can have your own "Bicentennial Genuine Gold* R.R. Spike" for only $19.75 (plus S&H). *24 k gold-plated
Tyco still offered "back by popular demand" its USA-made power truck.
Alco Models offered a brass DD40-X for only $225. That's a LOT of brass.
Kalmbach apparently ran a special promotion for red/white/blue ads, as there are a bunch of them.
Larson's editorial is definitely onto something, although I think we're probably farther away from answers to these questions than we ever were...
"The transition from a work-centered society to one in which the majority are non-workers will not be easy...In the future as work becomes less meaningful, hobbies and other personal-time activiteis will have to become more meaningful."
We're still trying to come to terms with that as a society, needless to say.
On page 72 is a pic of one of the Turboliners starting the first run of CHI-MLW service...I don't think they lasted five years. The hulk of it or one of its sisters has sat alongside IN Hwy 54 west of Linton, Indiana for most of the intervening years.
Then on page 73, get your Funk & Wagnalls, err, your copy of "Railroadiana" by Charles Klamkin, published by F&W.
While the B&O article was OK, it and the tinplate one really didn't get me excited much. Just too old, even then, to hold a kid's attention. Frank Ellison, on the other hand, was way cool. I'd already come across lots of refernces to Ellison, but this was probably the article that brought all that together. Some are still adamant about the hobby not being art, though, but I think Ellison's case remains strong that it is.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
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Greg WilliamsCanterbury, NBCanadahttps://www.gregstrainyard.com/
Mike, I concurr, our hobby is art as I believe a great many hobbies are. I know a group of ladies who are passionate about quilting. Their work is indeed art. Same for a blacksmith I know, he uses ancient techniques to create fabulous works of art.
A well executed model railroad has all the elements of art. Even a finely built model does. That goes for all the model building genres.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Living here doesn't always help with gaining perspective, but I've been fortunate enough to live both overseas -- and in Texas. Yep, Texans do tend to think they're the US writ even larger Highways, oil wells, cattle herds, "Dallas" mansions, maybe even RRs are bigger in Texas (Texas standard gauge is 6'8.5"...just kidiiiiiing )
And we do have relatively cheap and generously square-footaged housing, which is likely the biggest factor as far layout size is concerned.
More detail among the British? Perhaps, on average, because those folks run out of space and have to keep detailing to stay busy? Again, strictly tongue in cheek here, but I can show you lots of US modelers that are crazy for detail. Me? I go back and add it when I get bored or start running out of new ROW.
But many of the same conditions those in the UK and many other places face can be found in big cities (or California in general), where real estate is more expensive. And things like the RPM, Free-Mo events, and enthusiasm for narrow gauge are steadily pushing Americans to model more like the rest of the world with their emphasis on detail, modules, and public events.
Our loading gauge will remain large, if not growing larger. It's that diet of soda and burgers that's pushing our national girth toward new, ahem, records. I seem to be doing my part there, sad to say, even after the switch to diet pop.
But to lead us back to MR, there's always been a certain thrill to seeing those really big layouts, which makes them natural subjects for press coverage. Thank goodness model railroading is more photogenic than our "if it bleeds, it leads" journalism and you only get size and not gore. I think MR has made a concious effort to show more diversity of layout size and types in recent decades, but a look back like we do here shows that wasn't always the case.
I read MR some as a kid(1960's),then got back to it in my 30's(1980's),so this was a first time through on this issue for me.The ad's are what catch my eye most.First,the sheer volume and variety of them. That Nickle Plate Products electric loco on page 19 is a beaut. I could see modeling an electrified line,if it wasn't for the fact that I'd tear everything down every time I reached into the layout.
Sunset Models advertises their "coming" AT&SF 4-8-2 on page 113. I bought 2 of these - new - in the late 1980's. 'Don't know if it was a later run,or it just took them that long to bring them to market. Nice "entry level" brass,they ran well,but not as detailed as models from the higher end manufacturers.I still have 'em - maybe someday I'll put decoders in them.
Two Denver ads caught my eye.Caboose Hobbies was still at their downtown location.I was never in that one. 'Don't know when they moved into the big place on Broadway(It was a "Gold Bond Stamp" store when I was a kid),but they were there in the 80's,when I got back into trains.
In July '76 I was single,21,and 6 months into a job with the local electric utility that would end up lasting for 37 more years.Model Railroading was the furthest thing from my mind,but had I known that my apartment was just across the street from High Country Brass(page 113,and with large ads in many issues of that era),I certainly would have stopped in and looked around. Did anyone here ever deal with High Country Brass? I never heard of them.
I don't always reply to them,but I enjoy looking through the Book Club issues,Dave.Thanks for taking the time to present these.
Mike