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This months Trains reads like Industry mag Railway Age as opposed to a railfan mag.

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This months Trains reads like Industry mag Railway Age as opposed to a railfan mag.
Posted by cashonly on Thursday, November 13, 2014 1:07 PM

A large number of ads for railroad equipment, I dont think my local hobby shop is going to carry railroad car sensors or full scale derailers anytime soon. Unless of course I will the lottery or hit it big in the stock market and build a half mile narrow gauge railway across my cornfield to the hunting shed out back. Does the industry read Trains? Does Mike Ward have Trains in his bathroom next to the Sports Ilistrated Swimsuit Edition and a Certain Mag that is put out by a old guy who wears a housecoat all the time and smokes a pipe.

Cash is King!

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, November 13, 2014 3:13 PM

Ding! Ding!   Alex...... What is TrainFinder?


I'll take internet trolls for $500 please.

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, November 13, 2014 4:26 PM

The credibility of this forum is maintained by the watchfulness of its posters! 

Go Murphy!

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 13, 2014 4:41 PM

Occupation:  Fool

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Posted by dakotafred on Thursday, November 13, 2014 5:07 PM

How do the three posters above know Cashonly is a troll vs. one of those newcomers we're not supposed to run off with our hostility?

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Posted by NorthWest on Thursday, November 13, 2014 5:49 PM

Dakotafred, due to several things.

1. Railtrail has disappeared, and will reappear as another name. He has for a long time.

2. Similar gramatical mistakes to the posts of other trolls that have been forced out.

3. Inflamatory content on the first post, without much of any logic behind it.

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Posted by selector on Thursday, November 13, 2014 6:15 PM

cashonly

A large number of ads for railroad equipment, I dont think my local hobby shop is going to carry railroad car sensors or full scale derailers anytime soon. Unless of course I will the lottery or hit it big in the stock market and build a half mile narrow gauge railway across my cornfield to the hunting shed out back. Does the industry read Trains? Does Mike Ward have Trains in his bathroom next to the Sports Ilistrated Swimsuit Edition and a Certain Mag that is put out by a old guy who wears a housecoat all the time and smokes a pipe.

 

I would try another hobby shop for my purchases if were you.  This one has gone to the Dark Side.

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Posted by D.Carleton on Thursday, November 13, 2014 6:26 PM

Will one find Trains Magazine in the officies of the large railroads? As one who has to frequent those posts as part of his job the answer is categorically 'yes.' Trains are not just for railfans anymore.

Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak

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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, November 13, 2014 7:10 PM

Advertising helps pay the bills folks.  You don't want the price of the mag to go up, do you?

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Posted by Euclid on Thursday, November 13, 2014 7:29 PM

cashonly
A large number of ads for railroad equipment,

 

cashonly:
If those industrial suppliers place ads in Trains, there must be end-users of their products who are reading the magazine.  If the Trains people can produce a magazine that appeals to both railfans and industry representatives, I say more power to them.  It’s a good thing.

 

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Posted by schlimm on Thursday, November 13, 2014 7:39 PM

NorthWest

Dakotafred, due to several things.

1. Railtrail has disappeared, and will reappear as another name. He has for a long time.

2. Similar gramatical mistakes to the posts of other trolls that have been forced out.

3. Inflamatory content on the first post, without much of any logic behind it.

 

 
Precisely, or any of the other aliases, such as Ohio River Trail

C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, November 13, 2014 7:40 PM

When the ads that seemed pitched toward to industry and not toward railfans began to appear, I had the impression that the advertisers deemed it worthwhile to place such in a magazine which has seemed to be pitched towards admirers of the industry and not towards the industry.

If the ads had not attracted buyers, I am sure that the merchants (that is not the proper word to use, in my opinion, but I cannot, at the moment,think of a more suitable word) would have ceased placing them. After all, for example, how many of us non-railroad employees would be interested in buying derailers (and the ads selling these have appeared several times)?

Johnny

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, November 13, 2014 9:58 PM

I think we discussed Trains' dilemma a while back.  Is it a railfan magazine, or a rail industry magazine.

In reality, it's a little of both, which explains the crossover.  I'm not complaining.  I've looked more closely at some of the "non-hobbyist" items with an eye to how they might help our RR.  

In the meantime, yep - most of the signs of a troll.  We'll see if the OP ever comes back into this thread. 

 

LarryWhistling
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Posted by dakotafred on Friday, November 14, 2014 7:22 AM

tree68

In the meantime, yep - most of the signs of a troll.  We'll see if the OP ever comes back into this thread. 

 

I must agree, the last is a telltale sign.

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Posted by dknelson on Friday, November 14, 2014 9:57 AM

Just in case the OP does read this far down, he should note that Trains has co-sponsored various industry equipment-oriented conferences that are decidedly not railfan material, and this is not new but has been going on for a few years.  The regular columns by Frailey and Phillips are also commenting on industry issues, and only from time to time on pure railfan issues.

Moreover Trains has for some time had advertisers that were not aimed at railfans per se.  Going way way back the railroads themselves, or at least their passenger departments, were advertisers; I suppose one could argue they were aimed at the railfan trainrider (remembering when the magazine was called Trains and Travel).  But looking at a random issue in the glory days of David P Morgan as editor, November 1970, the column by John Kneiling was hardly aimed at railfans but rather at the industry (and often "aimed" in the weaponry sense at rail unions).  There were large ads by Southern Railway, Milwaukee Road, Santa Fe, KCS, SCL, and CP rail aimed at shippers, as well as ads for some 3 foot gauge equipment.   The following issue had a full page color ad for GE locomotives, and many of us recall the magnificent color ads that EMD ran in Trains magazine for years.  (If you wrote to EMD they'd mail you versions of the ads suitable for framing.)   Moving forward in the same bound volume, the June 1971 issue had not only a full page ad from Montreal Locomotive Works for one of their ALCo models, but the Penn Central spent some of its precious funds on a full page ad, again aimed at shippers.

I conclude the OP has not been paying attention.

Dave Nelson

 

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Posted by BOB WITHORN on Friday, November 14, 2014 10:43 AM
I kind of thought Trains WAS a trade magazine that the fans got to read?? Silly me!! what was I thinking????
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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, November 14, 2014 10:54 AM

Murphy Siding

Ding! Ding!   Alex...... What is TrainFinder?


I'll take internet trolls for $500 please.

 

Murphy, what will you do with them after buying them? Chain them under a bridge so they cannot get out and attack those who go over the bridge, thus annoying the trolls?

Johnny

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, November 14, 2014 11:00 AM

Firelock76

Advertising helps pay the bills folks.  You don't want the price of the mag to go up, do you?

 

It's up enough over what I paid when I began subscribing 62 1/2 years ago. Of course, my income is somewhat higher than it was back then. Ah, if only I had been able to scrape together the $100.00 for a permanent sbscription!

Johnny

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, November 14, 2014 11:00 AM

Please bring Spel Czech back!

Johnny

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Posted by samfp1943 on Friday, November 14, 2014 2:19 PM

Deggesty
 
Firelock76

Advertising helps pay the bills folks.  You don't want the price of the mag to go up, do you?

 

 

 

It's up enough over what I paid when I began subscribing 62 1/2 years ago. Of course, my income is somewhat higher than it was back then. Ah, if only I had been able to scrape together the $100.00 for a permanent sbscription!

 

 

AH! YES!    That $100.00  "lifetime" subscription ! It would have been a bargain at twice the price. 

     Back when a $100. dollars meant it was most of the money many of us (kids?) ever figured we'd see at one time.     Model trains could be bought for anywhere from $3.00 up, and locomotives ( A Mantua 0-6-0 for less than $20.00 and then there werr Brass engines! .That PFM 2-6-6-2   'Sierra'  Alien   was, I think, around the middle hundreds$$$ when it was first offered  ...               

     If we only "knew"  then???   That $100.000 subscription was the real bargain... 

    I wonder if Kalmback is still delivering any magazines, on that one???????Bow

   { It is probably going to Murphy Siding's friend, Spel Czech   Crying     }

 

 

 


 

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Posted by Falcon48 on Friday, November 14, 2014 3:12 PM

I second that.  TRAINS very definitely circulates throught he Class I RR world - it did at my railroad.  The fact that you see railroad oriented advertisers shows that quite clearly.  

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Posted by ROBERT WILLISON on Friday, November 14, 2014 4:43 PM

Who looks at the ads?

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Posted by CShaveRR on Friday, November 14, 2014 9:36 PM

I receive both Trains and Railway Age.  It's indicative of my interest in some aspects of railroading that go deeper than what a railfan-oriented publication should have to be concerned about.  Yes, some of the ads are pretty much the same.  

I don't remember the lifetime subscription cost going above $75.00.  That's what I paid for mine, and I now get my money's worth nearly every year.  I suspect that there are now fewer than 100 of us "lifers" left.

 

P.S.  Johnny, I don't think Murph was offering to buy any trolls.  In his reference, he would receive $500 for a correct answer...question, I mean!  I, personally am glad to be a troll these days, when it's a Yooper who calls me dat...I mean, that!

 

Carl

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, November 14, 2014 10:12 PM

When I last posted, I was relying on my aged memory as to the cost of a lifetime subscription. When I managed to put four dollars together for my first one year subscription, fifty dollars was just as much out of my reach as one hundred dollars was. As I recall, my income was limited to what I earned by repairing other people's radios.

I still cherish the picture on the cover of the April, 1952, issue of Trains & Travel (the only issue I ever bought from a newstand)--a man and his son are standing in Joliet, watching the Abraham Lincoln.

That issue has ads placed by EMD, Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway ("dependable freight service"), Unit Truck, Timken, Alco, AAR, Rock Island (no mention of passenger service), Erie (no mention of passenger service), N&W (no mention of passenger service), and Magnus (solid bearings--"Right for Railroads"). Obviously, these ads were not keyed to passenger service, but to the industry.

Johnny

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Posted by wanswheel on Friday, November 14, 2014 10:37 PM
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Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, November 15, 2014 11:11 AM

D.Carleton, don't you mean "Trains IS not just for railfans..." Ha! I've always wanted to do that!

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Posted by Convicted One on Saturday, November 15, 2014 11:49 AM

cashonly

"This months Trains reads like Industry mag Railway Age as opposed to a railfan mag.".

 

A large number of ads for railroad equipment, I dont think my local hobby shop is going to carry railroad car sensors or full scale derailers anytime soon. Unless of course I will the lottery or hit it big in the stock market and build a half mile narrow gauge railway across my cornfield to the hunting shed out back. Does the industry read Trains? Does Mike Ward have Trains in his bathroom next to the Sports Ilistrated Swimsuit Edition and a Certain Mag that is put out by a old guy who wears a housecoat all the time and smokes a pipe.

 

 

First of all, you fail to identify which issue, exactly, that you are complaining about. If you are going to express a complaint you need to be more specific. Subscribers already have their December issue, and could rightly call it their current issue.

My bet however, is you are complaining about the November issue, which I found refreshingly tech oriented. I have otherwise become sick to death of reading saccharine tripe recounting how "Uncle Norm saved the orphanage by pushing the cut of malt-o-meal cars up the abandoned siding with his Edsel all the way to their kitchen door just in time for breakfast" etc ad nauseam

Balance is refreshing.

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Posted by trackrat on Monday, December 1, 2014 11:19 AM

It was the November Issue. I look also for upcoming railfan events which I can get for my Model Railroading side but no list in Trains Mag.

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Posted by aricat on Monday, December 1, 2014 5:50 PM

Trains doesn't make money selling subscriptions, it makes money selling advertising. An advertiser such as Knoxville Locomotive Corporation in Knoxville chooses to advertise in Trains because it knows certain readers may buy its product but not most; and that is just fine. I am not in the market for tie inspection either, but somebody else is. Enjoy your excellent photos and superb articles with crisp writing because someone pays for the advertising. Trains has also kept advertising about railroads and railfans thoughout the time it has been published. THANK YOU KALMBACH PUBILSHING!!

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, December 1, 2014 6:43 PM

Your subsciption money covers the cost of getting your copy to you.

Johnny

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