If you have the ALL Access Pass, go back and take a look at this layout, make comment; or, tell us about a layout you were very inspired by!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Bellefonte and Snowshoe are actual towns in that part of PA, go past there frequently.
Back when the column was "Along the Line" (like in the 1936 issue in the current issue of the week), that part of PA was a hotbed of railroad activity, lots of layouts in that area, and several articles written on the groups that operated on each other's layouts at the time. Still is, actually - there is still an active group of modelers who do op sessions on each other's layouts as well as a large club in the area.
The oldest issue I physically own (especially since I ditched most of my paper collection after getting the 75 year DVD) is the Jan 1944 issue, I picked up the entire year 1944 on ebay some time ago, long before the 75 year DVD. Pretty much all things history interest me, so it was very interesting reading about how modelers coped with all the restrictions caused by WWII.
First issue purchased new by me? Long forgotten, but we always had older issues of model railroad magazines around, including 2 issues of RMC from the 50's that I read and re-read constantly as a kid. One of them had, instead of the usual track plan, a sample of a crudely drawn plan and explanations of what was wrong with it. I must have read that article 100 times, drilling into my head what makes for a bad plan and how not to make those same mistakes.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
First issue I read, was also the first issue I bought - November 1971. I bought the December 1971 issue the next day. Between the two of them I was hooked. I really loved the color layout drawing for the East Broad Top in the Dec '71 issue.
I have almost every issue back to 1947 and a few before that back to 1940. I stopped buying the old issues after the 75 year collection came out.
Enjoy
Paul
February 2013.
Richard
My first issue was one my father bought for me along with my first train set in 1973 or 1974; I don't know which it was, because I no longer have it. I subscribed to the magazine in 1992, long before coming to work here, and have every issue from then until now. I had purchased a few off the newsstand before then, though.
But the oldest issue I own is one I found in a railroad museum gift store, April 1965. Since that's the month and year I was born, I had to get it. Turned out to be quite an important issue, including Linn Westcott's Zip Texturing and a John Armstrong track plan.
And though I can't rightly count myself as "owning" the copies in my office here at work, they do include a first edition bound volume of Vol. 1.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Mine was October 1949 bought with my paper route money. I was absolutely fascinated by the article on "cold steam" locomotives. These were locos powered by dry ice and controlled by electrical signals in the track.
Joe
JoeinPA Mine was October 1949 bought with my paper route money. I was absolutely fascinated by the article on "cold steam" locomotives. These were locos powered by dry ice and controlled by electrical signals in the track. Joe
Until I bought the 1944 issues, that was the oldest one I owned. I found it in the gift shop at the Caboose Motel in Strasburg while waiting to go eat in the dining car, and the live steam with dry ice thing made me instantly add that to the pile of issues I was buying, had to be 20 years ago or so.
First issue I bought current off the rack - January 1968
By 1970 I had a subscription.
Oldest hard copy on hand now - April 1949
Current hard copy collection is fairly complete from 1953 to now.
Similar collection of RMC as well.
Sheldon
Mine was the October 1961 issue. I must confess that I found Railroad Model Craftsman first in a drug store magazine rack just a month or two before. Wow, two magazines dedicated to an adult hobby of model railroading! I was only 11 and had the usual Lionel. I had no idea such a hobby existed. The October 1961 issue was my intoduction to the great Whit Towers and his Alturas and Lone Pine RR. Still have the issue minus the cover and TOC pages. Memories!
The first issue I bought was August 1964 (and my copy has the order coupon for America's Hobby Center neatly clipped out) but over the years I bought back issues solid back to 1949, with isolated issues before then, as well as the reprint bound volume of 1934 that they used to sell.
Dave Nelson
I had a bound volume of the 1941 (? I think) that I sold a few years ago. This was the small format (5 x 8?) and of course all B&W. I still have issues back in the 1950's when I started my subscription. Still have most of them.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Still have the first MRR I purchased, April 1988 issue. Cover price $2.50, 170p, Leading model retailer section has 79 California listings.
Current issue owned March 2015. Cover price $7.99, 109p, Leading model retailer section has 18 California listings.
regards, Peter
I should write out my post before giving it a title, I guess. What I asked in the title was not what my post ended up asking, which was:
Oops, my bad - yeah I reacted more to your title than to your text! The similar layout I liked, also by Chuck Yungkurth, was the Gum Stump & Snowshoe in the April 1966 issue. Back when it seemed I was going to be living in apartments for a while I always intended on building that layout because it offers a lot of operation in a small space. Gil Reid's drawng made it look almost deceptively spacious. And Yungkurth warns that the structures would be tricky to fit the space.
I also remember being intrigued by the Three Small Layouts article in November 1964 MR - the second issue I ever bought -- in paricular the Metropol Terminal because I had a couple of small engines that could have run on those 10" radius curves: the Lionel geared version of the Athearn Hustler, and the Tyco/Mantua 0-6-0T. But taking a fresh look at that article now, I am more impressed with the Wittenburg Station passenger terminal track plan -- a bean shaped track plan worthy of Iain Rice!
I can't remember my first issue of Model Railroader, but I do know it was in 1994.
I somewhat remember issues in 1995, and 1996.
1998-2002 issues has been scattered throughout the years.
I started the magazines again began in September 2011.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Yes, I missed your real question too.
Yes I have the all access pass, and yes I will take a look at that issue.
I cannot really think of any particular issue that inspired me - except maybe the two series of articles by Bruce Chubb and Ed Ravenscroft that inspired my control system.
My first issue was the one I "stoled" from my dad, I don't remember the year but it must be around 1968-1970.
Dad had all the issues since 1951 and I completed this collection from second hand magazines library and Ebay, which bring me in 1937.
So I am Belgian and have all ( two are missing I must admit) the MR issues since 1937 to today but don't have the CD.
They are a never ending ressource of informations.
And as a conclusion I congratulate the staff of MR for the march issue which bring me lot of excellent memories of the MR in the 70's and 80's for their quality and interest.
Marc<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Interesting responses. I rented a house for three months waiting on occupancy of the house I was buying at the time. The owner said I could sort through the attic for books and magazines if I wanted to as he had no intentions of moving them as they dated back to his parents living in the house. I found several 1939 to 1942 MR magazines which the owner said I could keep if I wanted them. That was in about 1975 and I found them last year when I was looking through a box of old MR magazines I had saved from the late 1960's and early 1970's. One of the more interesting article in one of the really old magazines is on building a passenger car from cardstock materials. I believe Jim Hediger had a similar car on one of his Histories according to Hediger clips a couple of years ago.
angelob6660 1998-2002 issues has been scattered throughout the years.
I can help you with finding those scattered issues! Don't look throughout the years, look somewhere between 1998 and 2002!
angelb6660, just having some fun with you here!
I would like to read more of Chuck Yungkurth's articles, does anyone know of more?
Not sure about full articles but his name has been attached to many scale drawings over the years.
The B&S is an interesting layout, for sure. Not why he was so obsesses with having the loco always run facing forward - it would have been perfectly prototypicla to just run around the train and return tender first - same was as is done multiple times every day on the Strasburg Railroad. Very common on a branch with no turning facilities at the end.
What I always look at in the older issues are the names of people submitting letters to Railway Post Office. Often you will find familiar names, people who in more recent years have had their layouts featured, or have written many articles.
Earliest copy on hand is March 1947.
My first copy of MR was March 1970. It had a pic of Ed Van Leer's interurbans running on the Kodak City Model Railroad Club of Rochester, NY. Interesting example of what I discussed in the weekly archive edition thread about clubs being a stronger segment of the hobby through the 1960s.
I came across this issue when I went to the LHS in Bloomington, IN to see what I could find to supplement my small bit of Lionel, handed down by an uncle. That visit showed me that Lionel was pretty pricey, beyond the budget of a kid barely into his teens. But I also discovered HO and that there was a magazine all about this hobby, Model Railroader. I also saw RMC, but could only afford one or the other, so decided MR looked a little slicker so I picked it. With a few weeks, I'd read that issue, decided Lionel was too expensive and took up too much space, sold it to the LHS, and bought the next issues of both MR and RMC. The rest is history...
Probably the most inspirational layout for me back then was the Big Kahuna, John Allen's G&D. It was appearing on the covers of both publications and was clearly influential in how it was a reference point for so much that was going on in the hobby. Then John was gone almost before I realized all this, although looking back I see this was 3 years later, 1973, with the fire taking the G&D mysteriously just days after he died. It was months before a copy of MR brought that sad news to the Stars & Stripes Bookstore in Germany where I was living at the time.
I've never tried to replicate the G&D, but its most telling legacy was my attraction to narrowgauge modeling it set off in concert with having seen D&RGW 476 up close and personal at Blair St. in Silverton in 1967. It's influence is also present in the way the mountains loom over my layout, although I don't have space for floor to ceiling scenery like John did.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
One of the MR layouts that I liked the most was the Kinnickinnic Railway & Dock, but I saw that first in the compilation book it was published in. Once I got the 75 year DVD i did read the orignal series as presented in the magazine.
Randy, what issues was it published in?
I don't remember which MR issue was first, but whatever it was, I bought it in the late 1950's.
As for favorites, I have to categorize:
Most influential layout was definitely that of Wally Moore of Saint Louis. It was featured in "A Day at East Side" (August, 1958); "OS U.P. Extra West..." (May, 1959); and "Parade at MA Tower" (can't remember which issue). John Allen's G&D was the most famous layout at the time, but I always thought his layout was too fantastical and not enough prototypical. Moore's layout had locomotives and scenes that could truly be mistaken for the prototype. And this was almost 60 years ago. I always wished Moore's layout plan had been published.
Best project layout (as an influence on me): Tidewater Central, Dec. 1956-Jan. 1957. Simplicity itself, but an attractive, functional shortline railroad in only 4'x6'.
Most influential scratchbuilding articles: Anything by Jack Work, beginning in early 1958, and continuing into the early 1960's. A man whose contributions to the hobby should be better remembered and emulated.
YMMV.
Tom
The KR&D was in Jan 1972 - Aug 1972, with a couple of skips. I always liked this one because it wasn't a usual 4x8 or 4x6, and it had lots of switching.
NP2626If you have the ALL Access Pass, go back and take a look at this layout, make comment; or, tell us about a layout you were very inspired by!
the Nov '69 issue has an article, What makes an outstanding layout?, that discusses the Chester Valley RR. My layout is a similar pt-to-pt layout with sidings at either end.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading