Everytime that I’ve finished reading my Classic Trains,
I wi***hat it was a Monthly magazine.
Am I the only one?
All the best,
Jan
Glasgow/Scotland
I keep wondering if the digital age is helping to uncover a lot of historic photos and other material that might otherwise remain buried? If enough “new” old stuff is surfacing to justify going monthly then I’ll buy Class Trains 12 times a year.
Face it, after a few years we old geezers will be gone and no one will remember the Fallen Flag era before 1970. A quarterly stands less chance of running out of good material.
James E. Bradley Hawk Mountain Chapter N.R.H.S.
I agree with some of the other responders. Each quarterly issue is fat with good reading and I fear with monthly issues we would run out of interesting material and/or be filled with more advertisments.
I do however agree with JanOlov and wish we could have the mag. each month.
h42man
I agree with the other respondesr that there is a finite amount of information available on the subject. At some point, it must dry up or be diluted to the point where it is no longer interesting. Aside from that, I am suffering from a serious case of magazine overload and it is already difficult to digest the content of this wonderful magazine within a reasonable period of time.
Jim Kubanick, Morgantown WV
Perhaps 6 times a year could be a good idea? Pictures may be easy to find on the Internet, but what about the stories behind. The railroads history may be covered in forgotten articles and books out of print or hard to find. Classic Trains today means steam and early diesel, companies long gone and many other things. Even todays most modern locomotives will be classics in their own way one day, and even Conrail, already a forgotten flag will have it ´s place in history. I think as time rolls by and make history, the Classic Trains Magazine editors will never run out of ideas. How many class 1 railroads were there in North America in 1940? Class 2 or shortlines? There are trainloads of history out there.
It would be nice to get it on a monthly basis more than likely the rates would be higher anyway. but the way it is now makes me look foward to see it arrive in the mailbox.
I’m quite happy with it being quarterly but perhaps a few specials could be added, eg: an edition solely based on one railroad company (starting with Rio Grande or Santa Fe - but then I’m biased).
Brian
I’d personally like to see it weekly!
Actually, I think Classic Trains is THE BEST magazine out there and I wonder if going to a monthly would either lower the quality by rushing articles to completion or cause us to run out of subject/photo matter. I think by staying at bi-monthly it gives the editors time to work up those great quality and in-depth articles we’ve come to love. I’d really hate to see it become another TRAINS or Railroad & Railfan magazine…yuck!
My 2¢
Roger
I would love it to be monthly. They only issue I have is the cost. I really can no longer afford all the magazines.
A monthly issue of Classic Trains would be great. I acknowledge the writer who said that he probably couldn’t afford all of the magazines, however, on a monthly basis. Subscriptions aren’t getting any cheaper! But if Kalmbach were to make it available monthly, I’d end some of my subscriptions to other mags that I tend to glance at and toss aside (none of these are trains related mags, mind you!).
Quarterly. Why?
I never got to see most of the things featured in Classic Trains. As such, I would hate for the quality of the articles to decrease. And while there is a huge amount of information out there, finding people to share it only will get harder. But maybe we could enlarge the issues if there was more material?
Of course in a couple of decades I probably will be submitting stuff like there’s no tomorrow, and I hope it’s still quarterly then too. And besides, I too am suffering from magazine overload[:)]. Between the nine railroad periodicals that I read, the wonderful special issues, and a half dozen railroad books that I have yet to finish, I sure have my hands full.
Sincerely,
Daniel
Quarterly is fine with me. After monthly issues of Trains, I have plenty to keep me busy. Any more railroading material coming into my house would probably drive my wife to send me down the rails.
I would prefer, say, every other month personally and…
MORE Burlington Route!!!
It’s probably fine as it is because Trains Magazine does historical articles as well. Besides, there’s no reason something can’t be repeated in the future. 20 or 30 years from now they could re-do a story that was published in the current issue. Someone could rewrite it, give a new perspective. And in 20-30 years from the train of today will be Classics. So even a historical magazine doesn’t run out of content.
Except, however, those war magazines. How they continously publish more articles on WWII or the Civil War? I guess they’ve probably recycled some article topics over the years, rewrote, new author, new perspective, what-have-you.
For now I think Classic Trains is fine as is, maybe in the future the need will change, maybe.
Monthly! More good stories of old trains.
4 or 6 times a year is good. Yet as time go’s on the meaning of Classic changes. A Lackawanna 4-8-4 hands down is classic, but to the younger generation (me included) Find a Eire Lackawanna SD45 classic as well (If any one feels older, sorry[:)] ) To my generation pre-Conrail is classic, to another Conrail is classic. Could we see this years from now?
In the next issue of Classic Trains, Winter 2028
*A salut to Conrail’s SD80Macs on the Boston Line
*Life before BNSF
- The F40: Salut to a Classic
*A classic year: 1993
“What is news today is history tommarow”
-justin
Howsabout weekly, . . . or maybe daily? Great stuff. I’ll pay.
I think it’s a fabulous magazine great photos, stories, and the layout is good, too.
I like it just the way it is, maybe the quality would suffer if pushed to a month. I have purchased a few of the special issues, and think maybe that might the best alternative to monthly issues.
Ed
Monthly would be nice, but would possibly delute the magazine.