While traveling last week, I had a pre-arranged visit to MR’s office. I was with a friend of mine who lives in IL. Our wives were also with us. I am very thankful to Jim Hediger who conducted the tour on Thursday, September 27th… Jim introduced us to Neil Besougloff and Steven Otte, too.
Kalmbach Publishing includes Model Railroader along with several publications pertaining to hobbies and recreation. They are located in a modern building a few miles west of Milwaukee. The physical printing takes place at a nearby location, and we did not go there. The tour included displays of a lot of really interesting “old stuff” and photos of how things were done years ago. They have a huge library filled with hundreds of railroad books. Jim showed us their photography studio filled with state-of-the-art equipment. They have a very nice work shop to work on model railroad locomotives, cars, and structures.
Several of the project layouts that have been published over the years are located in the building. I recalled they looked outstanding when published, but when seeing them in person, I was truly amazed!
The Milwaukee, Racine, and Troy model railroad layout is much larger than I had envisioned based on photos I have seen . Every square inch of it is detailed nicely. Obviously, the Kalmbach employees are highly talented model railroaders. MR&T is a world class layout! I hope to see more of it in MR.
My photos posted here are “snap shots” and a bit fuzzy (I did not bring a tripod).
Here is one of the project layouts:
Here I am with Jim Hediger and a project layout.
Here is my friend, Reggie, and a project layout.
Here is part of the workshop:<
Here are photos of the MR&T. Sorry the pictures are blurred. This is only a sample of many scenes on this great layout.
Thanks for looking.
Happy Model Railroading, Garry
Wow, that is really great that you can take a tour. I would love to see those layouts in person. Thank you for sharing.
that’s awesome. Nice photos, thank you for sharing them.
Great pictures Garry. You look like you had a wonderful time.
Paul
So…did you get a sneak preview of the Winter Hill project [;)]
Looking at their shop reminds me of watching the shops for Hot Rod Magazine’s TV show, Yankee Workshop, etc. They have every tool imaginable. If we had that much equipment, we’d have very little money OR space for our layouts. [swg]
Thanks for the report and photo Garry. I have been there a couple of times myself. One time I was part of an organized tour so we did not have a chance to really delve into what the wonderful David P Morgan library has to offer, but they have wonderful books and periodicals, as well as a huge file area of phtoos and maps.
Our particular tour was lead by Dick Christensen (was he both Managing Editor of MR and editor of CTT?) who is now retired and a few of us were stragglers for the next part of the tour. When we caught up I said “Sorry we were delayed but some of us discovered that you have a complete set of Railroad Model Craftsman back there.” He pretended to be very annoyed and said “Well that completes YOUR portion of today’s tour.” He was joking of course.
Way way back in the 1960s and again in the 1970s and 1980s I had the chance to visit their prior headquarters at 1027 N 7th Street. Back then they did their own printing and in the 1960s the building smelled strongly of ink and the chemicals that were used to clean the presses. I seem to recall the building was so permeated with those chemicals that they had a hard time painting the walls in their old layout room for the MR&T. The paint would not stick! The building was old and noisy too as I recall. And in the same buiding was the Kromer Cap company that made classic railroaders hats.
They had a small test layout in the 1960s as I recall and there really was not all that much to see – a few models in a case on the wall, and whatever project layout they were working on at the time (that might have been the Sierra Pintada or the Ma & Pa would have been about that era). That and the photography area were really about it. They sold stuff at a reception area.
The MR&T I recall from a visit in the 1980s that was probably part of the NMRA nationa
Gary,
Congratulations on the opportunity to visit the center of model railroading and meet so many that we hear of.
Too bad Cody wasn’t among them. He can be pretty elusive at times.
Great reporting
Bob
My my… I’d love to have that separate workshop! [8D]
Jarrell
Wow I remember when we stopped there back in 2000 while on vacation. My wife suprized me as we drove by Chicago and said your not driveing up and see model railroader maz? So I turned north and drove
several miles out of our way.It was well wouth it. We had a personal tour as you did.Got several souveirs and took other tours of different places in thier town or city (wish you want to call it.)Would like to go do it again.
Slow Train Ed