After reading a number of posts I got curious - How many of the Trains.com forum members have subscriptions to Model Railroader magazine? So let's start a little, informal survey.
Do you currently have a subscription to Model Railroader magazine?
Please keep the replies short. As a matter of clarification, picking up the occasional copy at the LHS does NOT count as a subscription.
There are a lot of individuals on this forum, curious as to how many actually support the company that provides this space with a subscription to their product.
Since I posed the question I'll start things off.
YES - I've been a subscriber for over 32 years.
Silver Pilot As a matter of clarification, picking up the occasional copy at the LHS does NOT count as a subscription.There are a lot of individuals on this forum, curious as to how many actually support the company that provides this space with a subscription to their product.
Silver,
Even if they only buy it from the newstand every once in a while, semi-regularly, or once a month - they are still "supporting" Kalmbach.
After a small gap of not getting MR, I'm currently a subscriber again and have been, for the most part, the past 3 years.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I am a subscriber and have been for two years, although I have bought read and wore out MR for over forty years..
I loved the last issue, keep the publication going in that direction.
How apprpriate is this.. It is my 500th Post here. RBFs all around on me.
Johnboy out...................
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
I've been a subscriber since 1965. I still find the magazine content to be stimulating and reinforces my interest in the hobby.
Joe
Not a subscriber. If I read about something it here that interests I'll pick one up at Wal-Mart. I've bought 3 in a year and a half.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Yes, coming up on a year now. I purchased it for several years back in the mid seventies and before I decided on which mag to purchase,(between MR and Railroad Modeller, I believe was the name), life changed and the layout got put away. I've recently got back into it alittle over a year and a half ago and one of the first things I did was buy MR, shortly after I subscribed. That reminds me I need to renew.
Silver PilotPlease keep the replies short
Hah! Nice suggestion but with me {}
Todd
Central Illinoyz
In order to keep my position as Master and Supreme Ruler of the House, I don't argue with my wife.
I'm a small town boy. A product of two people from even smaller towns. I don’t talk on topic….. I just talk.
Yes......since 1982
I have been an off and on subscriber for years. I didn't subscribe for many years because subscription delivery in my area was typically 7 to 10 days later than availability at the hobby shop. I started subscribing again to get access to all the additional content on the website. I have purchased every copy of MR since my first one in January of 1965 when I was thirteen years old!
David
Yep! Ever since I got back in he hobby in 2004.
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
My subscription just expired. In a money saving effort I'm not going to renew, I'll thumb through them at Barnes and Noble and decide if I'm interested enough in the issue to purchase it.
Jason
Modeling the Fort Worth & Denver of the early 1970's in N scale
I'm looking at a wall of bookshelves which support, among other things, Model Railroader magazines dating back to 1948. I became a subscriber something over a half-century ago, and have no intention of dropping that subscription.
I admit that I'm a poor customer for the 'compiled article' books that KalPubCo is producing now - I already have the original articles.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Been a subscriber since 2002. Before that, I subscribed as a teen from 1978-1982. Picked up a few issues here and there between the two periods.
I did not subscribe until about a 15 months ago. My LHS saved every copy of MR and RMC until I was able to get in to pick them up. When the owner became very ill and eventually passed away I was forced to subscribe. I am a big believer in supporting my LHS.
Bob
Photobucket Albums:NPBL - 2008 The BeginningNPBL - 2009 Phase INPBL - 2010 Downtown
rclanger I am a big believer in supporting my LHS.
Me too, but I read here a while back that the retail profit margin on a copy of MR is pretty small. It's more to get customers to come into the shop. If you're going there regularly anyway, buy trains where they make more money.
I've subscribed for the last 3 years. The first two, I had a really good online discount from a magazine broker site. Those have gone away now, and I almost didn't re-subscribe. I'm glad I did, though, because I think the magazine has improved substantially since the latest editorial / managerial change.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I've not ever been a subscriber in the sense of ordering the catalogues and having them dropped off at my doorstep. When I was a kid, I would regularly buy a copy at my LHS. Now that I'm an adult and really just getting back into MRR-ing, I've gone back to buying a copy every month at the store (speaking of which, its time to buy the newest one). The wife and I have talked about getting me a subscription, but everytime we talk about it, we don't have the funds, nor do we think about it when we do have the funds......so yeah, I subscribe, just non-traditionally.
I have been a subscriber of MR since 1972. I also have all but about 5 issues of MR back to 1950 plus many of 1947-1949. I have subscribed to RMC and the NMRA Bulletin, through all it name changes, for the same time.
Enjoy
Paul
I've been a steady subscriber to MR since the early 'seventies.
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Yep,
MR is the standard (but RMC is invaluable too). Subscribed 50 yrs. and have MR complete thru 1935.
Ernie C
Yes on and off since 1993, on since 2004. Even during the few years when I did not have a subscription but would pickup a copy at the LHS, so I have every issue from 1993 until today with the exception of a few missed here and there. Enjoy it just as much today as I always have. Jamie
CLICK HERE FOR THE CSX DIXIE LINE BLOG
Yes. Steady since 2005.
Will
I subscribed through the late 60s and most of the 70's and found that after about 7 years the content was repeating itself, I continued to subscribe until Linn Westcott retired because I enjoyed his At the Throttle columns. When Linn was gone, I found that I would only browse the pictures, so I gave it up.
In 2003 I re-uped and found that the content had become infomercials about using the current advertisers' products, so I let it go again (I rarely buy any current model railroading products, instead I buy vintage stuff on eBay). I have no criticism of Model Railroader magazine; it just doesn't add to my enjoyment of the hobby. I do enjoy the forums and I subscribe to Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette; it correlates to the kind of model railroader I am (old brass, wood kits, scratch-building, etc.).
If Kalmbach published the entire magazine in an electronic format I would subscribe just because I like the idea (paperless magazines - what a concept). I know there are problems convincing advertisers that people really read their electronic ads, but I think this could be overcome. I would love to be able to save articles as PDF files and pictures as jpegs (without having to spend the time scanning those pages from a paper magazine). They might get me back as a paper magazine subscriber if there were columns like the old At the Throttle and Bull Session columns of the 60s and 70s (in fact, I'd be willing to write them in exchange for a free subscription).
I buy about 1 issue of MR a year at the LHS, just to see if the content appears to be transitioning to being more my style. It is getting closer, but there is still too much styrene and not enough metal and wood in their pages for my taste.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
I have had a subscription every since 2002 that was when the hobby shop in town closed, I used to buy the magazine at the hobby shop.
Silver PilotDo you currently have a subscription to Model Railroader magazine? If yes, how long have you had your subscription
If yes, how long have you had your subscription
Yep, I've been a subscriber since 2004, and I have a little over 50 back issues from before that, I just renewed my subscription. I almost dropped it, and I am dropping Trains, do to the fact that the $88 a year between the two is alot of money that could be going into new locomotives, cars, ect..
Ship it on the Frisco!
Yes...for 30+ years.
Dave
'there's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear' Modeling the Hard Knox Valley Railroad in HO scale http://photos.hardknoxvalley.com/
Silver Pilot Do you currently have a subscription to Model Railroader magazine? If yes, how long have you had your subscription? If no, why not?
Yes, I am a MR subcriber, continuously since 1969.
And have now aquired most back to about 1953.
Sheldon
Been a subscriber since 2006, with back issues to Jan 2004 (when I began reading in earnest). Being in Australia, this means I get the magazine 2 months before the current issue appears on newsagent shelves.
The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, OregonThe Year: 1948The Scale: On30The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com
I sometimes buy it at the newsstand depending on the contents. I don't subscribe because there is little or no information about my chosen scale or type of modeling. I subscribe to other magazines such as Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette that cover my style of modeling.
I've been a subscriber since about 1994 or 1995. I also subscribe to Trains as well. I have also been a avid reader of both magazines since I learned how to read as my dad was an MR subscriber for as long as I can remember until he passed in 2004. My one critisim is that the magazines have far fewer pager than in years past. In the late 80's and early 90's MR was usually over 200 pages each month. That being said I'll probably never give up my subscription.
Dan Metzger