It is still March as I write this, but we've already had four March issue book clubs, so let's push forward into April. Another thread on these Forums asked about oldest issue of MR you own or first purchased, and MR's Steve Otte chimed in that he bought the April 1965 issue used, because that is the month and year he was born, and it is his oldest issue. I made note of that. So in his honor let's make this the Happy Birthday Steve edition of the Book Club and choose that issue, even though we have already looked at the January 1965 issue. As always the idea behind the Book Club is to encourage exploring the entire back stock of MR that is in the All Access Pass digital archive, but all are welcome to comment and take part. Think of it as getting four extra copies of MR per month.
The cover photo features editor Linn Westcott's own layout, the Sunset Ry (Linn lived on Sunset Drive in Elm Grove WI). For whatever reason Westcott tended not to feature his own layout often in MR. Maybe he was reacting to the negative reactions of a few readers who did not care for how often the prior editor, Paul Larson, featured his beautiful Mineral Point & Northern layout in MR, including on covers. Now many of us wish there were more photos available of both excellent layouts.
The main article introduces one of Westcott's many innovations to the hobby: Zip Texturing of scenery. Linn had observed that by simply sifting or throwing a mix of dry colored pigments and plaster on wetted plaster surfaces, one could closely replicate exactly how soil and vegetation tend to gather on rocky surfaces. And the mix of plaster and pigment was finely grained and subtle, very different from the dyed sawdust on wet green paint method that was common at the time. Ground foam and static grass was a long way into the future, but even today those who model rocky terrain use Zip Texturing or something very much like it. Other Westcott articles/editorial in the issue focus on color, on pigments, and on plasters, so it is a very thorough look at the topic. That was typical of his somewhat obsessive approach. He once wrote how difficult it was for him to handle the mix of topics in school, where he preferred a total focus on one topic. Not ADD but the opposite: almost Attention Surplus Disorder! But in his own way he was a brilliant man.
There are also scale drawings of rolling stock and structures, a John Armstrong trackplan for O scale 4-12-2s, some electronics articles, a nice logging feature, and something that MR used to do a lot of: a neat little half page article with a Phillip R Hastings photo of Western Maryland shops, filled with railroad atmosphere and ideas. Sometimes one well chosen photo and caption can convey a great deal.
The product reviews feature three brass steam engines in HO. I was also entertained by one of the "Kinks" about using the plastic corrugated cigarette packs from Paxton cigarettes for roofing and siding. My mom briefly smoked that brand and I recall saving the packs for just that use (no Evergreen or Plastruct corrugated siding back then). My mom then switched to a cigarette brand that featured tiny bits of charcoal in the filter and I saved those too. Then she quit. And a full twenty years later had both emphesyma and heart disease. I am glad model trains are perhaps my worst habit (hey, I said perhaps).
Those of an historical bent might be interested in the roundup of all couplers then available in the market. I myself was surprised to see that Mantua was still selling its old hook and loop coupler in 1965 - by that time their trains came with horn hooks.
It's a small thing but on page 5 there is mention of Don Heimburger's "S Gaugian" publication. Don Heimburger is still out there promoting S scale!
Enjoy the "Happy Birthday, Steve Otte" edition of the book club. Sorry no cake or ice cream, but on the bright side, no goofy party games either. Please take a look at the April '65 issue and share your comments and thoughts.
Dave Nelson
Happy Birthday, Steve!
The Big 5-0. Gee, I remember that....urrr, maybe not.
Anyway, we'll also have a month of discussion of past April Fool's hijinks as the icing on this cake. I won't be able to crack mine open to read until later, but I'm already looking forward to it.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Congrat's Steve, you can now be an AARP member!
I especially enjoyed the article on long wheelbase locos and broad model RR curves that included the Sierra Pass layout design. Now if I can just get a 14' x 17' room allocated!!
I found the logging incline article interesting. The model includes a 46% incline but it is mentioned that up to 70% inclines existed. My question...there is a Shay at the upper level, how could one (in real life) get up there, did it have enough traction to get there, or did they winch it up there, disassemble and re-assemble, etc? (If explained in the article, I missed that).
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
peahrensMy question...there is a Shay at the upper level, how could one (in real life) get up there, did it have enough traction to get there, or did they winch it up there, disassemble and re-assemble, etc? (If explained in the article, I missed that).
Paul,
Pretty much as you've imagine it. If it was light enough, they could winch the whole thing up. If not, then smaller pieces, but from what I remmeber, mostly whole. Loggers have some BIG winches.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
What jumped out at me, of course is that the Lynn Westcott Zip Texturing article was published in this issue! This article was later placed in the Scenery book by Bill McClanahan which was pretty much the scenery bible for decades. I also liked the Incline Railroad article and it reminded me of Jack Burgess Yosemite Valley Railroad wherein he has a very nicely done inclined railway.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
This one has lots of stuff in it. Brass mania, tons of ads for brass as well as TWO of the Trade Topics review being on brass locos. ANd of course Zip Texturing being introduced - yet another of Linn Westcott's contributions. An Armstrong track plan - all engineered to get the most from the given space - though an 18" squeeze to get between the lobes of the loops is probbaly completely out of the question these days. As typical of Armstrong, he doesn't just cram everything in and go "here it is" - it's all explained as making sense from an engineering point of view so that the desired locos can run. Some interesting different stuff in Trackside Photos - TT Narrow Gauge? Talk about a minority of a minority...
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Dave,
I also noticed Don Heimburger's presence. I am casually acquainted with Don, having run into him a few times at the NNGC. I've been in academia the last decade and a half, so miss those because of the timing. But I am acquanted with Don because of several of those weird little ways that people run into each even though it's a big, big world.
The first connection was that I briefly printed some of his stuff on a Summer job of 1975 during my first happenstance effort at college. That was just too cool. Printers usually have to look stuff over as it comes off the press and the printer's assistant often did that if not preoccupied with other tasks. I spent a lot of time closely inspected each issue It amazed me that Tolono could support such goings-on, but it still does. One of the members of our dividison lives there and is planning a rather nice line, with room finishing going on.
Then many years later, I ended up working in the garage at a former employers and it turned out the guy I worked with most closely there grew up with Don, I think the same class in high school but my memory is a little hazy. He mentioned it because I was always bring RR mags to read on break.
Another of our members, a retired IC employee, also knows Don from way back when, I think because he worked the tower at Tolono. Needless to say, Don seems to have made a go of it from a small town and I've enjotyed several of his books, most importantly the one on the EBT.
So, lots of brass. It had simply reached critical mass in the postwar Japanese economy, the flow of US military through that part of the world, which was just heating up again, and the maturity of the mfg's in Japan. Was Seiko the same bunch we better know now for their watches? I believe so.
Lots of trolley stuff, something that has really faded over the years as it was string into the 1980s, a trend that is worth noting, because people still do it and it looks very cool IMO.
Lots of HOn3. Man you had to wear a hair short back then to do NG. But people liked it then and took the leap, building a base where Blackstone fills our stockings regularly.
Walthers with the big ol' Marnolds. man those things looked impressive and I presume acted similarly ?
Uncle Irv was doing his best LA sales patter. Imagine if the guy had been able to afford TV commercials? There's a lot of weirdness in Southern California TV ads from what I hear. Just saying...
It sure would be nice to have kits of all those combines Walthers showed.
Did anyone ever see one of those 1959 monorails in the RPO letters? I lived in Germany and vaguely recall the image, but I think just from seeing it in tourists stuff, not a model or the real thing. Memory is weird that way. And how much did monorail track cost, especially the switches?...nah, I don't think there were any or at least not many.,..
How about the letter from the On3 guy - Bill Hammer - looking for a showdown with them nasty HO fellers?
I really liked the incline. I've actually considered it. I didn't plan it but I could redo things if I get bored or something. I've just been thinking about working some builds of house cars, kitches, etc.
The walkaround control article was very important conceptually. Did anyone ever have sich an early system and how did it work? Diode turnout controls, also.
A great and ultimately influential issue. Only 70 pages, too, as many were more or less in this era.
I've found the 60's issues to be some of the most interesting, perhaps because, especially in the early to mid 60's, things were exploding as new ideas (many from the mind of Linn Westcott) just kept on coming.
I know some people like to mention that in the 80's, they started hitting 200 pages in each issue. But take a look at some of those. 4 page ad from AHC. 6 pages from Standard Hobby, 4 more from Hobbies for Men, 4 from Trainworld/Trainland. Multi-page ads abounded.
One thing that MR has almost always done, is at least keep articles together. It bugs the heck out of me with other magazines when you hit the bottom and it says "continued on page <some page 20-25 pages back>" and, at least in one particular case, the continuation, while totalling maybe 1 full page, spreads as tiny 2 paragraph columns and/or a single column in pages filled with ads. Please do NOT get any ideas, editors. Keep MR the way it is, the way it has been.
The first thing that caught my eye was the front cover because I had seen that photo before and it only took me a few seconds to remember where. One of the first how-to books I bought was Bill McClanahan's book on scenery and Linn Westcott contributed the chapter on hard shell scenery and zip texturing which I think was just the article in this issue verbatim. Zip texturing is a great technique and I continue to use it to this day. Great scenery requires layering and this is the way to do it. It makes me wonder what had been done before.
As always the front part of the magazine is heavy with adverstisement. Kind of like the head end cars of a passenger train. Brass was obviously the king in those days. Another thing that caught my eye was a relic from the past. An Ambroid wood car kit. I actually bought one of those back in the 1970s but never got around to assembling it. I must have pitched it because when I was going through my shelves of old stuff recently, I couldn't find it. I wonder if any of those still show up on ebay.
Toward the back I saw an ad for 20 new Atlas structures. Most of those must not have caught on because there were only a couple I recognized and I don't know if any are still in production. One that I found interesting was the greenhouse. It's a fairly common structure that I don't often see on model railroads. I'm going to see if I can find a place on the layout to put on or two, assuming I can find a kit.
rrinker I know some people like to mention that in the 80's, they started hitting 200 pages in each issue. But take a look at some of those. 4 page ad from AHC. 6 pages from Standard Hobby, 4 more from Hobbies for Men, 4 from Trainworld/Trainland. Multi-page ads abounded.
Randy,
Yeah, exactly my point. Page count ain't everything. I think any comparison based on page count is really pretty useless. Things just changed so much that direct comparisons turn into all apples and oranges.
Before the 1970s, ads were a lot less graphic and more reliant solely on text. So just adding pics, etc to ads added pages. Then there was the great multi-page ad era, where the pages count swelled. Then along came the internet and page counts started shrinking as advertizers put links to their websites in place of product lists. Now we see a return to bigger more visual ads intended to primarily be drivers to the websites as it's realized that search will not bring you enough biz on it's own. You still have to get your name in front of people.
rrinkerOne thing that MR has almost always done, is at least keep articles together.
Yes, in recent decades. But before the 60s, it wasn't uncommon to see page breaks like that, although they were thankfully more limited than is often the case in publishing.
jecorbett's note of the front loading of ad content towards the front of the mag is something that has somewhat gone by the board or at least the emphasis has shifted. I did enjoy the way that was done, but I think the need for more space for visual reasons drives the spread out of ad content.
Ultimately though, what I care about is that the ads pay the freight, which they seem to have been doing. That ad content causes changes over time is pretty clear as MR adapts to market changes.
Hello All,
I'm a new user of the ALL ACCESS PASS/DIGITAL ARCHIVES, and having difficulty figuring out how to use the search function in the archives.
Is there a thread devoted to this? I found this book club by accident, but it looks interetsing.
I have subscribed to MR since 1970 or so (might have had a couple years lapse in there somewhere), bought the 75 year and SPECIAL Editions on DVDs (and happy with both, except the search feature is not the best), and been adigital subscriber for a few years and MRVP user since its begining. All this technology has been very helpful to our hobby.
So, if you guys could help a nube I would appreciate it!
Off-the-subject I admit, but April 1965 was a crazy weather period here in Minnesota. We had massive snow in March, then in early April the weather became very hot, causing massive flooding from snow melt. It got up around 90F causing severe thunderstorms and tornadoes - and then it snowed again!
MikeyChris Hello All, I'm a new user of the ALL ACCESS PASS/DIGITAL ARCHIVES, and having difficulty figuring out how to use the search function in the archives. Is there a thread devoted to this? I found this book club by accident, but it looks interetsing. I have subscribed to MR since 1970 or so (might have had a couple years lapse in there somewhere), bought the 75 year and SPECIAL Editions on DVDs (and happy with both, except the search feature is not the best), and been adigital subscriber for a few years and MRVP user since its begining. All this technology has been very helpful to our hobby. So, if you guys could help a nube I would appreciate it!
Search and browse are two different functions. To find a specific issue click "Browse Issues" at the bottom of the page and it will direct you to the page where you first select a year and from there choose the month of the issue you want.
To do a key word search, click the icon in the upper right hand corner. Then you can enter a key word or phrase and it will bring up matches, similar to how a Google search works.
jecorbett Search and browse are two different functions.
Search and browse are two different functions.
I get that part.
jecorbett To find a specific issue click "Browse Issues" at the bottom of the page and it will direct you to the page where you first select a year and from there choose the month of the issue you want. To do a key word search, click the icon in the upper right hand corner. Then you can enter a key word or phrase and it will bring up matches, similar to how a Google search works.
To find a specific issue click "Browse Issues" at the bottom of the page and it will direct you to the page where you first select a year and from there choose the month of the issue you want.
The search part that I don't get is when you are at the first screen in the Archive, at the top right there is a search icon (magnifying glass). When I click that I get the search criteria dialog box. The top left box says THIS ISSUE. According to the help file and instructions, you are supposed to be able to select ALL ISSUES here, but I can't.
For example, David Popp just did a video for the new project layout covering L Girders. Try searching "L Girder". I had no luck. If you go to the specific issue that L Girders are discussed, you may find something, but that makes the search kinda lame, doesn't it?
Also, I read somewhere (can't find it again, of course) about an ap for iPhones that allows you to access this archive. I went to iTunes, but couldn't find it. Any ideas on that one?
Thanx for the info.
I love this stuff: it reminds me of how I discovered this hobby, leafing through bound volumes of MR in an elementary school library in 1976. I only wish I could go back and thank the librarian who first put MR into the hands of a train-obsessed little boy, and tell her that it introduced me not only to a hobby, but to an industry and a career. Who knew? Who ever knows?
i loved Linn Westcott's articles and books. The first time I ever wired a control panel, I did it with one of his books open on a table. I followed every step, put a model on the track, flipped a block switch, and turned on the power. Nothing happened; than I remembered to flip the polarity control switch, and it ran. I was so astonished that it ran right to the end of the open block and stopped dead.
I don't know if that's genius; but it is a man who knows what he's doing, and knows how to describe it in print, a combination that is almost as rare.
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
Good point about librarians. In my case, not a specfific indication, but I'd been very much influienced to look stuff up on my own, I guess because I was adavanced in reading (but obviously not typing ) skills or something. When the idea of doing something more than run things in an oval with my trains came up I knew where to go. Save the librarians!
MikeyChris jecorbett Search and browse are two different functions. I get that part. jecorbett To find a specific issue click "Browse Issues" at the bottom of the page and it will direct you to the page where you first select a year and from there choose the month of the issue you want. To do a key word search, click the icon in the upper right hand corner. Then you can enter a key word or phrase and it will bring up matches, similar to how a Google search works. The search part that I don't get is when you are at the first screen in the Archive, at the top right there is a search icon (magnifying glass). When I click that I get the search criteria dialog box. The top left box says THIS ISSUE. According to the help file and instructions, you are supposed to be able to select ALL ISSUES here, but I can't. For example, David Popp just did a video for the new project layout covering L Girders. Try searching "L Girder". I had no luck. If you go to the specific issue that L Girders are discussed, you may find something, but that makes the search kinda lame, doesn't it? Also, I read somewhere (can't find it again, of course) about an ap for iPhones that allows you to access this archive. I went to iTunes, but couldn't find it. Any ideas on that one? Thanx for the info.
Use the Advanced Search feature. That allows you to use a range of issues to search. You can search every issue if you like which will give you more hits or if you know the approximate time period of what you are looking for, limit your search to that and you will only get hits for that time period.
I don't think you will find videos in the archives. I think that only contains the print material.
As for iPhone aps, I can't help you there. I just got my first smart phone and I am lost.
I haven't tried on my iPhone, but I do have the app on my iPad. Pretty sure it shows up if you search for Kalmbach or Model Railroader in iTunes. I think it was also linked in the thread on the All Access Pass in this section. Be warned it's pretty lacking - to select an issue you have to scroll through all of them, starting with the most recent. This is just what the service provider has, Kalmbach didn;t write this or have it written, and I guess the company that provides the web services for the archive just has no clue that a magazine can be around for 80+ years. I think the reading experience would be horrible on a phone, it's just too small. On the ipad it's nice (I have a regular size one, not a mini), since it's larger than a paperback book but smaller than a magazine.
jecorbett Use the Advanced Search feature.
Use the Advanced Search feature.
OK, where is the ADVANCED SEARCH? Is it the magnifying glass icon? I must be missing something obvious (which is usually the case). Thanx for the reply.
jecorbett As for iPhone aps, I can't help you there. I just got my first smart phone and I am lost.
Hello Randy,
Thanx for the reply.
rrinker I haven't tried on my iPhone, but I do have the app on my iPad. Pretty sure it shows up if you search for Kalmbach or Model Railroader in iTunes.
I haven't tried on my iPhone, but I do have the app on my iPad. Pretty sure it shows up if you search for Kalmbach or Model Railroader in iTunes.
Well, my iPhone 5s has an icon for iTunes, and when I tap it, I am taken to the iTunes Store. Is this the right place?
Then I search for Kalmbach and I get a bunch of choices, so filter the search to BOOKS (magazines isn't a choice), and no Kalmback Books or Pubs is listed. Same for Model Railroader.
I did remember where I saw the app mentioned - it is in the online MR FAQ about the All Access Pass. In that FAQ (http://www.kalmbach.com/faq) the following appears:
Q : How does the app work? A : The app for the All-Time Digital Archive is available in the iTunes and Google Play stores. A : You will need to log in to the app in order to validate access to the Archive. A: You may download issues for offline (not connected to the Internet) viewing at a later time.
From this I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) the name of the app is All-Time Digital Archive. When I search for that I come up MT.
rrinker I think it was also linked in the thread on the All Access Pass in this section.
I think it was also linked in the thread on the All Access Pass in this section.
OK, I'll try searching for it here again.
rrinker I think the reading experience would be horrible on a phone, it's just too small.
I think the reading experience would be horrible on a phone, it's just too small.
It is. I have MR (Zinio) and RMC (Yudu)on my phone now, and it is a pain to keep stretching the screen at each page turn, then scroll through the page, etc. But when I am waiting at a doctor's office (which I do a lot these days) it is convenient. My new tablet is due within a week, so maybe I'll start toting it around with me. I'm having a knee replacement soon and using my desktop computer won't be too handy for a while, so I'm hoping to find that app to put on the tablet.
Thanx again.
There's a lot to recommend this issue beyond its cover date. Starting with the cover, which I think of as a much more fanciful scene than we see on model railroads these days. The influence of John Allen is evident in the craggy terrain that no prototype railroad would build through if it had a choice. And the horses in the stream under the bridge strikes me as cliched, as well. What is it about bridges over streams that we model railroaders feel compelled to have something happening in them? Animals, fishermen, boaters... what are the odds there would always be something there when the railfan snapped his picture?
Wow, love those brass steamers on page 3. It sure was a lot easier to find old-time steam engines for my 1906 era back in 1965 than it is now. And that Consolidation can handle a 16" radius! Perfect!
The "At the Throttle" on color choices (water is not blue, pavement is not black, etc. To which I would add: Tree bark is not brown.) is as relevant today as it was when it was written. I still see modelers making these mistakes.
Ah, zip texturing. The technique is scorned today, what with our wide variety of easily available ground foam and natural soil ground covers. But it was a great leap forward over the green-dyed sawdust popular at that time. Linn Westcott's other hints -- like using a light to cast a shadow over rock castings for the purpose of painting parallel strata -- are just brilliant. And I wish I'd read his plaster overview before I bought a whole bag of molding plaster to use on my scenery. That stuff sets up WAY too fast.
Anyone notice the town of Leyhover ("layover") in the John Armstrong track plan? And the "Heimgemacht Sausage" factory in the Ma & Pa article? Heimgemacht is German for "homemade." Pun names are something else you don't see as much of on layouts these days. I give a nod to this tradition in the names of the stores in the Bay Junction project (Hair Today salon, Suit Yourself menswear) and, on my home layout, in the water feature Comealong Pond (a "Doctor Who" reference).
The Western Maryland car shops pictured on page 42 would also fit right in on my home layout. The structure built right into and through the water tower's supports is an interesting feature you don't see every day.
That compact icehouse drawing is a gem! I'm going to have to build one for my layout. Don't know where I'll put it, but it's so compact, finding a spot for it shouldn't be difficult.
Thanks for selecting this issue to discuss. Looking back at these older issues is a lot of fun, and can be useful as well! I'm definitely scratchbuilding that icehouse!
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
I can still remember when I was looking at the pseudo-Pennsy place names in one of John Armstrong's books, and the penny dropped on "Llawn Mawr." He had a wonderful sense of humor. I had the good fortune to see his layout when the family opened it for one last visit after he died, and it was full of wonderful jokes: "Depleted Lugubrium Company of America: Refiners of the Nation's Saddest Material."
To someone who models the turn-of-the-century period, these older magazines are invaluable - not just as guides in the event you're looking for new-old stock on Ebay, but for the drawings and information that were captured when they were still available (since 1906 was about as remote from 1965, temporally speaking, as 1956 is from today - although there weren't scanners or thumb drives in 1965).
I realize turn-of-the-century modeling is something of a niche now, but I'm an optimist: features like this remind me how the growth and change in the hobby isn't narrowly beneficial to one segment or group. I think I must have downloaded more than a meg of wood car drawings and articles by the wood car builders like Jack Work and W. Gibson Kennedy in the first week alone!
MikeyChris jecorbett Use the Advanced Search feature. OK, where is the ADVANCED SEARCH? Is it the magnifying glass icon? I must be missing something obvious (which is usually the case). Thanx for the reply. jecorbett As for iPhone aps, I can't help you there. I just got my first smart phone and I am lost. Yeah, I feel your pain. Both my phone and my car are smarter than I
After you hit the magnifying glass icon, it brings up the page where you enter your search argument. At the top is the button for Advanced Search.
Notice on the schematic for Armstrong's plan, the connection to make 2 seperate loops is called Bypass.
It was in Creative Layout Design that he had the layout FULL of pun names (and of course he had plenty on his personal layout as well). Beside the Llawn Mawr play on the real town of Bryn Mawr, he had Bee Haven, a play on the real place Schuylkill Haven, but as explained in the text, so they could have their annual beauty pageant and crown a new Miss Bee Haven each year. And there was Awl Mine, and Ynysybl Junction, more pun pulls from the Welsh of Bryn Mawr. I always wanted to build that layout. It's just that it mainly represents the competition, PRR's Schuylkill branch. I model the opposite bank of the river and the Reading.
There seems to be a 50-60 year lag in popular modeled eras - these days the 50's and 60's seem to be the most popular, followed by contemporary. It the 50's and 60's, there were a lot of turn of the century pikes.
Got to love the method of making walkaround control - take the small MRC power pack and replace the AC cord with a really long one. The Ma and Pa was always one of my favorite project layouts, I first hit on that one in the book which came out shortly after the Kinnickinnic layout was in the magazine - also one of my favorites. Probably because of the PA Dutch background created for it - read the first installment for such things as the fact that the underlying geology is the Funfach-Sperholz region (5 layer plywood) and other gems.
Diode matrix turnout control - yet another innovation, this issue is chock full of them.
Oops... I was doing that but using Boolean logic - I guess the archive does 't do that. Thanx.
rrinker Diode matrix turnout control - yet another innovation, this issue is chock full of them. --Randy
For those reading the issues in the book club, one habit to get into that can itself be enjoyable, is to check out the letters to the editor ("Railway Post Office") section 3 and 4 months later. Sometimes articles are corrected (particularly electronics diagrams) or supplemented, or reacted to.
So the July 1965 issue page 14 has a letter from the author of the diomade matrix turnout control article explaining features of his matrix portrayal. And then in September 1965 page 16, a guy named William Green submitted two diode matrix charts for the same purpose, but using fewer diodes and switch contacts. And the next letter from "Nameless Reader" slams the April 1965 issue for containing "14 pages devoted to the ramblings of Linn H. Westcott. I'm getting pretty fed up with Linn H. Westcott ... a wonderful magazine like Model Railroader [is] being taken over by one man."
There were lots of angry letters back in the 1960s as I recall.
And Randy, if methods of controlling switch machines in a yard ladder are of interest, here are a couple of other articles you may want to check out. The "Bull Session" column for August 1975, page 72 has some ideas about how to improve the "one button" method of controlling a ladder of switch machines. And John Lukesh's article "An evolving yard" in November 1971 MR page 62 covers a number of yard and yard wiring topics including this one.
Thanks for reading and contributing to the Book Club.
Oh I've seen them all - I always read RPO in the old issues, looking for (and finding) names that would become better known a few years later when they graduated from writing a letter to writing a feature article. (I'm still not there - did have a letter published a ways back when Andy was the editor, but no feature articles. I'm bad at remember to keep taking pictures as I work on projects - I start off with good intent, and then get conentrating on modeling and forget to stop and take a picture. Plus I'm a horrible writer - that's why I went into engineering). One of my favorites is the "you guys have too much of John Allen" letter - when MR hadn;t had anything about John Allen in over a year - but RMC did. There's one in 81 or 82, right after Linn died and they published Model Railroading with John Allen - MR has a retrospective of John's work and published some of the previously unseen pictures that are in Linn's book. Someone wrote to complain about featuring too much John Allen again - first article in years. And pointed out that RMC had a feature article on John that same month.
Funny someone would supply a circuit that used less diodes by using switch machine contacts - which was PRECISELY the thing the diode matrix method was designed to eliminate! I did use it on one N scale layout I had, after first discovering it in Peter Thorne's Practical Electronic Projects for Model Railroaders. Then I graduated to Tortoises and now use servos and if I want to do routes I'll program them in the controllers. Of course, in 1965 diodes were a bit more expensive than now, plus with those big twin coil motors you needed pretty hefty diodes. Toirtoises, I've even gotten away with those little glass ones that Radio Shack used to sell in 100 packs.
At least by this time, most of the "why don't you do any articles about <insert favorite scale here>" have stopped. But lurking just over the horizon - OOO or N scale. There have been some mentions, but it's definitely not quite a mainstream scale yet. Just wait another year or two... though the Egger-Bahn stuff is already available and being advertised.
The choleric letter to the editor always pops up, doesn't it? It's proverbial, regardless of publication or topic.
This discussion reminds me what a useful role a hobby magazine can play as a lab for new technique and experimentation. After all, even the most prolific individual writer or modeler can only experiment with so many techniques in one lifetime! MR has been a pretty successful adapter- not just of new modeling techniques, but of new media for disseminating those techniques. The digital archive is a great idea, and I hope it catches on.
rrinker Got to love the method of making walkaround control - take the small MRC power pack and replace the AC cord with a really long one. The Ma and Pa was always one of my favorite project layouts, I first hit on that one in the book which came out shortly after the Kinnickinnic layout was in the magazine - also one of my favorites. Probably because of the PA Dutch background created for it - read the first installment for such things as the fact that the underlying geology is the Funfach-Sperholz region (5 layer plywood) and other gems. Diode matrix turnout control - yet another innovation, this issue is chock full of them. --Randy
I had one of those MRC Model 44 power packs that attached to the main power pack on my old layout as shown in Figure 6. It was a dogbone 11 feet wide and 28 feet long. I could reach the entire layout from a center aisle except for a hidden staging yard on the opposite side of a wall. I'm not sure what I did with it when I moved.