Hi,
I've been a reader/subscriber since 12/55 (I was 11). My layouts and interest has always revolved around the 1930s thru 1950s - and it still does today.
Obviously MR has a huge mix of interests to cater to, and the articles relating to "my era" are now fewer and fewer. That is what I miss most - steam/diesel era layouts, projects, and so on.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
SeeYou190 rrebell Truth is most of the comunity has moved on from the magazine format.
Truth is most of the comunity has moved on from the magazine format.
Judging by what I'm seeing, that's true. And we know what happened to them!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I have to go back to the 60's and early 70's but I miss the excitement of the occassional article and/or photographs from John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid. I enjoyed the later Symposium on Electronics. I even contributed an article to the Symposium. The Internet now provides us with much more electronics content.
I agree, the Digital Archives has some great hidden gems.
But now we have the internet, where you can “chase a purple squirrel“ and find Sandborn Maps online, along with town historical societies, and if your lucky, footage on YouTube from the location. Having so much information at your fingertips is incredible for the hobby.
They do great work on the video side, but they also have to contend with some good material on YouTube as well. Cody, David, and Eric are all excellent modelers and their work shows. The videos on setting up the Beer Line for Operating are worth the price of admission.
I miss the authors. I started reading in the mid-70s, as an elementary student, and most of the people who were writing them have ceased to produce, for one reason or other. The style of modeling and photography at the time was very different. In the ’50s and ‘60s, MR was mostly craftsmanship articles with layout features hat were not particularly well photographed. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, there were lots of great articles on craftsmanship and technique, and a whole slew of people who were doing amazing things with layout photography. I enjoyed every issue.
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
Maybe the scale drawings. I've subscribed to the archives for a couple of years now, and I've spent some time looking at older issues. I think the archives is worth the cost. Nice to be able to look back when you want to.
I've been an "on & off again" subscriber to MR for the last 30+ years, and I think the current mag is just fine.
Mike.
My You Tube
I still receive four print magazines, Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, NMRA magazine and The Old House Journal.
I have reasonably complete sets MR back into the early 50's, nearly as complete a selection of RMC. I have NMRA publications back to when I joined in 1969.
I consider them a very important resource for my modeling.
I subscribe to the archive mainly as a way to search and answer quick questions. For actual modeling projects, I pull out the hard copy and make photocopies of the information.
I have watched the hobby and the hobby press change a lot in 50 years. I worked in the hobby business from age 14 to 24.
Model Railroader is simply trying to keep pace with a hobby that keeps getting more diversified with every passing year.
In my view, they are doing a good job, even if the direction of the hobby and the magazine are not in line with my modeling...
Sheldon
riogrande5761 SeeYou190 rrebell Truth is most of the comunity has moved on from the magazine format. Judging by what I'm seeing, that's true. And we know what happened to them!
rrebell riogrande5761 SeeYou190 rrebell Truth is most of the comunity has moved on from the magazine format. Judging by what I'm seeing, that's true. And we know what happened to them! Even the womens mags have gone digital or just gone. Like Glamour and redbook, both digital only, way more subscribers there than for model railroading.
Even the womens mags have gone digital or just gone. Like Glamour and redbook, both digital only, way more subscribers there than for model railroading.
My wife, or even my first wife, never read that stuff print or digital..........
"A Railroad You Can Model" is the only specific thing I miss. Most of the other changes have simply been evolutionary in nature. I suppose an argument can be made that some of the recent project railroads carry on the tradition with the amount of prototype information provided, but they're just not quite the same. Reader since December 1964 BTW!
Dave
Scale drawings and Bull Session for me also.
I know the times and economics are changing, but I really miss the 200 page issues.
Paul
ATLANTIC CENTRAL rrebell riogrande5761 SeeYou190 rrebell Truth is most of the comunity has moved on from the magazine format. Judging by what I'm seeing, that's true. And we know what happened to them! Even the womens mags have gone digital or just gone. Like Glamour and redbook, both digital only, way more subscribers there than for model railroading. My wife, or even my first wife, never read that stuff print or digital..........
What do I miss?
The 50¢ cover price.
rrebell OK, how about Mad Magazine, Metropolitan Home, Gourmet, Teen, Seventeen, P.C. Mag., Money and it looks like Time and Sports Illisrated may be killed off too.
OK, how about Mad Magazine, Metropolitan Home, Gourmet, Teen, Seventeen, P.C. Mag., Money and it looks like Time and Sports Illisrated may be killed off too.
Never paid money for any of them either, at least not on any regular basis......
I miss the brass dealer ads, the artices that showed actual modeling vs just taking it out of the box. The older versions just had more "meat" to each issue. Be it the advertising, the classifieds ect. And PFM followed by Overland dominating the back cover on one side or the other. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
I miss the general sense of having fun the magazine used to convey. Now it focuses too much on being a "professional looking" publication.
I also miss the much freer writing styles of the past. Without meaning to degrade current writers, writing styles in the past were much less turgid than they generally are now, I think.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
I miss: Jim Hediger (especially his monthly Paint Shop column)
Gordon Odegard
Issues with enough pages that took it took me several days to finish.
Railroad You Can Model (although MR did resurrect this one time in the past year or so.)
A more “model railroading is fun” philosophy. Less striving for perfection, and more ”close is good enough”.
Al
PruittI miss the general sense of having fun the magazine used to convey.
.
Yes, I miss that too. There is such an emphasis on doing it the "right way" that the fun side seems to have slipped away.
I was really pulled into the hobby by the modeling and photography of Malcolm Furlow. He always conveyed a sense of having fun in the articles he wrote.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
MisterBeasleyBelieve it or not, I miss a lot of the advertising.
" I'm a Tinsmith, ..and a good one" !
Anybody else remember that add. It must have ran for at least 30 years !
I also liked the scale drawing's .
Rust...... It's a good thing !
I miss the following, not ncessarily in this order.
1. Paint shop
2. There is a protoype for everything
3. Scale drawings
4. Profiles
An observation.
It seemed that years ago, there was an emphasis on building, and because few modelers built much in styrene, they got pretty inventive with their materials eg: orange juice cans for oil tanks. Long about the 90s to the early 00s there seemed to be just showcasing superb layouts. Now we’re building again, only this time there’s more styrene. And that’s ok.
I miss scale drawings
BB diesel superdetailing
but by and large, I can’t complain at all and the current magazine is just fine. I believe the current editor Hal revived the “model railroading is fun” slogan. As long as we don’t forget that, itll all be just fine.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Reader since 1957 or so:
Bull Session.
Along The Right-Of-Way
Model building articles. (like Jack Work)
Railroad You Can Model.
arbe1948Along The Right-Of-Way
I had completely forgotten about this one. You are right, that was a good department to have around.
I used to pore through the Model Railroader B&W ads while riding the bus to school in 1962. Seeing what IHC had for sale was just as exciting to me as the articles. (I think I have the name right--IHC, International Hobby Center mail order, someone correct me if I am mistaken.) Remember those prices? Athearn engines for $10 or so, freight cars for $1 and snap track for loose change. That was some layout I built in my imagination gazing at all those ads, which made up more than half of a very thick magazine.
-Rob
Mister Mikado Seeing what IHC had for sale was just as exciting to me as the articles. (I think I have the name right--IHC, International Hobby Center mail order, someone correct me if I am mistaken.) Remember those prices? Athearn engines for $10 or so, freight cars for $1 and snap track for loose change. That was some layout I built in my imagination gazing at all those ads, which made up more than half of a very thick magazine.
chutton01 Mister Mikado Seeing what IHC had for sale was just as exciting to me as the articles. (I think I have the name right--IHC, International Hobby Center mail order, someone correct me if I am mistaken.) Remember those prices? Athearn engines for $10 or so, freight cars for $1 and snap track for loose change. That was some layout I built in my imagination gazing at all those ads, which made up more than half of a very thick magazine. Did you mean America's Hobby Center (AHC), which in the late 1970s/early 1980s (when I began reading MR) usually had 4 pages toward the front of the magazine. I occasionally visited their store in lower Mid-Town Manhattan - there's a thread about them on this forum somewhere in the past.The only other wonky ads that stick out in my mind from that era was "Balls Of Brass" and "Patty's Corner"...
Did you mean America's Hobby Center (AHC), which in the late 1970s/early 1980s (when I began reading MR) usually had 4 pages toward the front of the magazine. I occasionally visited their store in lower Mid-Town Manhattan - there's a thread about them on this forum somewhere in the past.The only other wonky ads that stick out in my mind from that era was "Balls Of Brass" and "Patty's Corner"...
That was it! Good ol' AHC!
When I was in high school, every month .I made up a shopping list every month from the "Hobbies For Men" advertisement.
I never actually placed an order.
Conversely, I went to Trainworld specifically because of the memories of of those multi page black and white ads.
Been reading MR for 60 years or so. I would save my allowance and buy a new Athearn rubber band drive loco, and the first thing I looked at each issue was the Pacific Fast Mail ad on the rear cover. MY cheap litttle engines were all I could afford, and here were these wonderful brass models I knew I could never afford.
But I read it cover to cover, tiny ads and all. And those big two page warehouse listings, I read each item, thinking how it might work on my layout.