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[quote user="binder001"] Yes, an MR can be reduced to a very thin magazine this way, but compared to the older issues it really isn't that terribly different in the amount of usable material.[/quote] I acquired a group of back issues MR from someone who was giving them away.  While it is interesting to see all of the old multi page advertisements (once), I prefer the leaner MR of today.    Last years May issue was 84 pages including cover.  A small sampling of recent MR issues from the past two years has ranged from 80-120.  The extremes were in the last 2 months.   [quote user="carl425"]For example, this month Jim Kelley shared the revelation that N-scale takes less space than HO.[/quote] Yep, then he goes into the explanation of why, and explains all the extra things that would have had to be compressed out of the scene to fit in HO scale.  Useful to someone who is starting out and has not picked a scale, or is not deeply invested in any one scale.  Yes it is an article for beginners, but MR tries to provide articles across many skill levels and interests.   [quote user="carl425"]Could be they needed a break after all that effort they put into patting themselves on the back last month.[/quote] Maybe they wanted to celebrate the fact that they have been in print for 1000 issues?  8 of those extra pages were subscriber submitted answers to the "what is your favorite MR" question.  Its quite an achievement to be around for 83 years.   Maybe you have not considered that the magazine takes MONTHS to prepare in advance and if you have a finite amount of time to work with, and only X number of staff members, and you decide to add more content to one magazine for a special celebration, either preceeding or folowing issues will end up a bit thin.   I'll make a comparison to something else to explain this better.  Assume for a moment that this is 1925 and you are designing a new battleship for a world power.  There are three big things to consider a triad if you will.  Speed, armor thickness, and gun size.  Due to laws of phyisics you get to pick 2.  Fast forward to 2016.  You are the editor of a magazine.  You want to celebrate the 1,000th issue of your magazine that has been a cornerstone of a hobby for the better part of a century.  Your staff must work continuously to make deadlines for each months article so that it can go to press.  If you increase the size of the magazine one month, other things have to give (article quality or number of articles in months that bracket that extra long month) to conteract that a lot of time was spent putting together the special edition.   Unless you are suggesting that the editorial staff should have worked nights and weekends away from their families for free (cant raise cost and hire extra people) so that you could have 10 extra pages of magazine to read this month. Personally I thought there were several good articles this month.  I especially liked the cover photo and associated article.   Maybe you should write an article.
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