I would.
For example, I see some great scratch built rustic looking engine sheds/engine houses where you can see the support tembers and blocking between them. I would love a generic plan for one as I find the interior details on some buildings as “lacking”
Yep, I would too!
As a matter of fact I back ordered an issue of MR mag some years ago because it had scratchbuilding plans for a interlocking tower project article by Ben King. I had started building the structure, but lost the mag with all the details. The issue was February 1991, “Building an HO interlocking tower”. This is the link to the cover and table of contents:
http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=I&MAG=MR&MO=2&YR=1991&output=3&sort=A
I remember the older issues of MR seemed to have more plans for scratch building things. I think that’s why I like the look of the odd scale layouts better. More scratch built stuff on them.
I would…Cox 47
Personally, NO. Id rather see more layout pictures and less advertisements. Oh and I am not a fan of DCC corner either. I was brand new to DCC but I can tell you that I certainly did not learn anything from that section of MR. I mainly read the directions to learn how to do everything. Plus I am tired of New Products always getting good reviews as if everything that is released is so great. Maybe it is everything that they do a review on and put in the MR magazine is great but they pass on the “not so good rating items”? Hmmm
One thing that I feel is that the magazine is really a big AD more than anything else. It is completely full of ads thru the whole magazine. In the beginning and end of every story. Hmm I wonder how many pages would the MR be if it had a maximum of just 5 pages dedicated to advertisement? I bet it would go from 122 (february issue) to less than 60. What do you think? how many pages are consisted of ads if it was compressed to fill a full page with the 1/8, 2/3, 1/4, 1/10 ads?
Another thing they used to do many years ago was have dollar projects. I am probably wrong but I feel like when the latest expensive item comes out it gets fawned over and we are told we should by eight or ten of them.
I DCC’d my Bascule bridge. In that same article I found a decoder board that was capable of handling a significant current for my other projects.
I think it would be nice to have an article on switching older DC layouts to DCC ones while maintaining backwards compatibility without a massive rewire. I think this is a problem for many older club layouts that want to modernize without alienating thier older DC only members.
As to advertising, I’m afraid advertisements are a way to keep our cost down as end consumers. So I don’t mind so many pages dedicated to them. After all the advertisers are paying for them, not us.
It would be nice to also see an article on making a working crossing signal using basic electronics. Have you seen some of the prices for automated signals at RR crossings? I have deep pockets, but I don’t have $80 for a single signal head!
Thing is, the “dollar model” era was back when a Coke cost ten cents, so today the “dollar model” would cost $10-20. And there are still a lot of low-budget projects…the secret, then, is to start writing articles on low-budget modeling, and start selling them to MR! Come to think of it, I think I’ll do just that…
YES INDEED. Scratchbuilding is one of my favorite activities in the hobby. I purposely chose to model in a minority scale and gauge so I can scratchbuild and have truely unique structures and rolling stock, however, I do like my locos RTR. I feel most kits - including craftsman kits - and RTR, although high quality models, all look recognizable even when they are altered by the modeler. This is strictly MY opinion and is in no way a put down of RTR or kits. I find scratchbuilding much easier and more relaxing than building craftsman kits because I can plan them and build them my way instead of following someone else’s incomprehensible instructions. The older issues of Model Railroader (50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and some 90s) are treasure troves when it comes to scratchbuilding methods and plans. Us narrow gaugers are avid scratchbuilders and rely heavily on the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette and RMC for our modeling information.
Yeah, I’m all for more “craftsman” articles. And not the ones that assume you’ve got a $5000 milling machine in your basement, either. I’d rather see ways to use hardware-store items to make scenery, instead of always doing “product placement” in the projects. For example, the various products for making “instant roadways” are nice, but it’s more interesting to see someone go start-to-finish making a road out of Durhams Water Putty.
I’m going to take a contrarian view on all the ads, though. I like them. Well, maybe not all of them, but at least they’re aiming at the right audience. After all, they’re not pushing deodorants or cholesterol-reducing drugs, insipid teen-oriented movies or flatulence remedies. The ads are pretty much all for products I might use, buy or at least be interested in. How many magazines can you say that about? If you stop thinking of them as ads, and instead look at them as “product announcements,” then they actually become interesting in their own right.
Folks:
The scale drawings aren’t just useful for scratchbuilders, either. They’re great for kitbashers of that prototype, or of a similar one. They’re great for people with some historical interest. I have furthermore noticed an odd coincidence that manufacturers have been known to come out with a certain model after a hobby magazine publishes a scale drawing. Perhaps the RTRers can benefit, too, in that way…besides, if you have a scale drawing, you can check the model to make sure the mfr. isn’t cheating.
(I do want to express The Urge to KICK anybody who makes the decision to publish a scale drawing in color. Mechanical drawings should be readable. If one must show colors, publish both the full-size b&w line drawing and a smaller-scale colored plan. A particularly egregious example was the Vulcan 60 tonner in a recent RMC. RMC is usually pretty good, but the decision to make the drawing lines gray on a dark-colored loco was just plain evil.)
It may be that MR has had trouble coming up with drawings, lately. Was the last one the Green Goat in Jan 2006?
DG: On your engine house, my suggestion is that you go to the library and, either on their stacks or via interlibrary loan, obtain an old manual of wood construction, to find the details you seek. “Timber construction” and “slow-burning mill construction” may be useful topics to check, too. Don’t forget that college libraries can also get interesting engineering books like this, and many allow non-students to obtain limited borrowing rights.
Yes, I would also. I have to projects I would love to scratch build. One is my “Local Coal Distributor” office for my coal pit and the other is I’d like to scratch build the 84 Lumber company we have in town. I suppose it wouldn’t be hard if I have a few pictures to go with. But yea, I don’t know anything about scratch building so anything would be helpful.
If MR was as interested in helping the readers as much as they were at pushing their advertisers’ products, they would’ve warned us about the crappy MRC decoders that Athearn puts in their Genesis F units.
I you want to learn scratchbuilding, build a few of the smaller craftsman kits to gain experience using their instructions and materials. That’s how I learned. Campbell Scale Models have smaller kits that you can start with, check Walthers catalog or website for info.
That’s how I learned to scratchbuild my enginehouse many years ago:
(click on photo to enlarge)
Actually, $1 in 1954 is about $7.75 in today’s money or about the cost of an Athearn BB kit. IIRC, when a Dollar Model was built, it didn’t include the cost of trucks and couplers if it was a model of a freight car. OTOH, my memory could be fuzzy as I was young then and am old now.
Andre
Maaaybe you should do a write up and submit it to MR…hint hint…[swg]
That’s what attracts me to odd scales. Although the products for the most popular scales are very high quality, they are ubiquitously recognized, even with modifications, on most layouts. Us odd scalers must use more innovation and do more scratchbuilding due to the scarcity of products, consequently resulting in truly unique layouts.
DG- you might check out MR’s main competitor, Railroad Model Craftsman. They usually have about 6 plans a year on just the type of buildings you mention.
As for too many adds, I love 'em, thats still the best way for me to know what is new out there.