Model Railroading & MR

[Matt Probst]

I agrre with Ron (Tin-goat) on alot of points...the repetitiveness is starting to get old on a lot of things. I thought about cancelling my subscription recently as I get a lot more practical knowledge here than anywhere else. But then came along the April issue with a bunch of things (finally) that pertain to my layout either directly or indirectly. ex: an article on styrene structure building which I'm starting to get into. An article on a 1950s town which I'm currently building, examples of road building which I'm also doing at the present time (though not with the specific material). An enjoyable feature of Gil Freitag's Stony Creek & Western which has beautiful photos.........so....I guess Kalmbach can have a reprieve from me for a few more months

Matt--Hershey, Pa.

 

[Gary Pfeil]

My 2 cents on the various mags: I guess I am fortunate to have a well stocked hobby shop nearby, it stocks: MR, RMC, Model Railroading, Railmodel Journal, Mainline Modeler as well as the specialty mags like N Scale and Narrow Gauge Gazette or whatever its title is. Being I'm into HO standard gauge, I don't read those. I do not suscribe to any of these mags, I look forward to checking each one out for its content each month. Honestly, I often buy a mag just to have something to read at lunchtime more than for an article that is of particular interest to me. The $4.50 or so for the mag means nothing to me if it entertains me for an hour or two. I look primarily for articles which may reveal a new tecnique, either scenery, structure building or freight car darta, etc. I almost never buy Railmodel Journal. Yes, it is printed on wonderful paper and it prides itself on being true to prototype, but its articles aren't really articles, there isn't enough reading in one to keep me busy more than 15 minutes typically. If I want a list of detail parts for a given car or loco featured that month I will buy it. Mainline Modeler is a great mag but I seldom buy it, it frankly is too advanced for me! I don't care much for Model Railroading, but buy it several time a year. RMC and MR I buy almost every month. Some months have nothing of interest and I take a pass, but not often. I enjoy reading constuction articles even when they are for items which I have no use for. Like I said, I'm passing time. These two mags have well written articles usually starting with some historical info I find interesting. Yes, after having read these mags for over 20 years, there is a lot of repetition. Hey, there are new people entering the hobby all the time and they need that info. At this point I basically know all I need to know as a minimum, the mag isn't to educate me but entertain me. MR and RMC do that best, IMHO.

 

[ezdays]

Re: Re: Comments from a newbie

Originally posted by jon-monon


Standard Hobby still advertises a $20 loco that turns into $26 as soon as you order it, and they don't tell you, and then they point at the "prices subject to change" clause, even though it's price changed Jan 1. Bad place, big ads.

Uh, it doesn't take long to get smart about those guys. I bought some roadbed and their ad andweb site both said $9.99 for a 25 piece package, prices good until Feb. 15. I asked for price confirmation when I placed the order (before Feb 15) and she said she was just writing the order on an order blank and couldn't give me prices. When they charged me $12.99 I called and they used the same clause. What's the sense having a "prices good until" when it's followed by "prices subject to change..."? I hope someone from the company is reading this because they lost a customer over what I still think is a $6 overcharge. This gives them the right to charge as they wish, but I told them they had an obligation to inform their customers at the time the order is placed. They cannot be trusted and I cannot deal with people like that.

Don

 

[Ralph]

I used to subsribe to MR but over the years noticed some of the recycling of topics noted above. It does seem to try to appeal to as wide a range of modellers as possible so every issue will not satisfy everyone. Instead of subscribing I now glance at the mag at the hobby store and only buy the one's I like. I tend to purchase issues that contain layout pics that inspire me.
Ralph

 

[Mike R]

As a full fledged masochist, I still subscribe to MR.
I have every issue since September 1947, and often find info I want for structure building and detailing, sometimes in decades-old issues...but I hardly ever seem to refer to any issues newer than 1990.

I don't like the magazine much any more for several reasons:
-Lionel Strang and Tony Koester's columns. [ yuck!]
-"Sale"price for Canadian subscriptions is same as for South Africa, Chile or Denmark....why ?
-Excessive recent turnover of editorial staff, This used to be unheard of at MR...[what really happened with Andy Sperandeo ?... I know he was removed as editor against his will. ]
-The majority of articles that have zero interest to me.

I keep telling myself that one of these years I will stop subscribing.Right now, I find it just a new product info source, as has been mentioned here...and I'm not really looking for any new products.
There are no hobby shops nearby, so it's not feasible for me,to browse any issues.
regards / Mike

 

[jon-monon]

If I had the whole danmed collection back to the 40's, I would keep 'em coming too!

Originally posted by Mike R

Tony Koester's columns. [ yuck!]

I have never been able to read all the way through that guys column! What's the point? Is he trying to be the Andy Roony of model railroading? Waste of ink.

I can see why you like the old back issues better, I think the best feature of MR is the yesteryears editorial or what ever it is. I still think it's a good magazine for a new or returning hobbyer. It's cheapest to just subscribe, but once you really decide what you want to do, it's pretty obsolete. I'm cutting out the articles of interest from my one year of back issues and tossing the rest.

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Speaking of Tony Koesters column: Yes, they are useless for a few years now, but there was a time when that wasn't the case. I too have quite a few years of back copies (no where near from 1947, but from the 60's) and his articles used to be somewhat thought provoking. In an effort to clean up my mag storage area, I've been going thru old mags, tearing out articles of interest to file and tossing the remainder. It is a slow process, since I tend to read thru the entire mag. When Tony first came to MR from RMC, he was truly an insightful writer. In fact, his editorials for RMC were often excellant. I think he has gotten too full of himself. Oh well.

 

[brakie]

I have notice that MR has miss the boat on some of their layout plans.I call this the Lionel factor.One can have a super nice layout on a 4'x8' table much better then the layouts you see in MR.

Yes,MR has gone down in content over the years,they will push DCC but will by past the deeper problems of the hobby.After all these years we still don't have a NMRA approved coupler!

Even though I use DCC it is not the best thing since slice bread.I also feel that MR is way out of line by pushing DCC.Reason? They help push the idea of limited runs and how much better the hobby will be.All I have seen with limited runs is higher prices.

As far as TWGH push,I feel this is only a stop gap measure doom to fail.

I think MR should get back on track and return to being a all around hobby magazine by having articles that apply to every day model railroading from painting to operation.

As far as Tony K. I like his style..


Yes,MR is like TV,they have alot of reruns every 2-3 years.
Come on are we so dumb that we forget how to clean track every 2-3 years or what ever they feel we need to be reminded of?

Sorry for the rant.