Another rail discussion site is saying long time Trains columnist Don Phillips has been let go by Trains. Fact or unfounded rumour?
Hopefully it is just a rumor; IMHO, his departure would be a great loss to the magazine.
It is true that Don is no longer writing for us. We do thank him for his many years of great contributions to the magazine.
Is David Lassen not allowed to tell us whether Phillips was fired, or resigned? Judging from Lassen’s anemic post, it looks like Phillips was fired. Probably if he resigned, Lassen would have typed something akin to “He has left to pursue other opportunities. We’ll miss him and we wish him well!”
It is a personnel matter, and as such we will not be discussing details.
Well I for one will certainly miss him, and I DO wish him well!
Always enjoyed Don’s columns, even if I didn’t agree with him.
Unless he’s packing it in and retiring I hope another rail publication picks him up.
YEPPERS![tup][tup] To Firelock 76’s comment>> SO TRUE!
He’s already been picked up by Passenger Train Journal, and maybe other publications.
Maybe even TRP or Railfan and Railroad…
R&R does go into the politics of contemporary railroading.
This is most interesting news. I took the time tonight to go back and review his last few columns. In particular, his last column was very pointed at calling attention to prominent politicians. Regardless of the underlying reason, the appearances are not favorable to Trains Magazine and from what I am reading on several other forums, the general feeling is that he was pushed out for political reasons. This is leading me to question my subscription as well. We’ll see who they fill in the void with.
Good evening all,
At least there was some commentary on Don’s departure. When MR made a change a few months ago, there was nary a peep. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Just noticed that there is no “parting gesture” in his May 2018 magazine contribution, so whatever happened must have come abruptly. Ironically, or perhaps prescient, he ponders what his job is and is not in his final line.
That‘s a poor mans excuse David. If it truly is “personal”, then that message should come from Don. For over 40 years, I’ve subscribed to Trains, ever since Don started his column at Trains, it was thee First Thing I read. The REAL NEWS will come out. How will TRAINS look then? Justified? Or like they were hiding something?
Was this when Model Railroader dropped Neil Bousougloff? I don’t look at that site too often, not being an N or HO gauger, but I remember there was a “Perfect Storm” of comments when that happened.
Don Phillips columns are ‘Commentary’… As such it is an opinion piece and mentioning politicians names is perfectly normal and expected.
4 Decades! Likely none of our beeswax as to what it’s all about.
I’m just glad that ‘social media’, loss of privacy, instant videos and quotes on the internet and all of that was not around for the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Doubt if many of us would have survived.
And yet, Fred Frailey remains…
While it is true that Mr Wrinn makes a lot of openly political statements that are published these days…I would attribute that to a loosening of Trains past editorial practice not a tightening of it. Even if Mr. Phillips took the opposite political opinion (and I find that hard to believe).
I think I would look probably more in the area of cost of carrying the column and it being a business decision. Since you’ll notice Trains has replaced other long standing columnists with newer, less established and cheaper to publish perspectives.
You have to cut the Magazine some slack, it’s not the New York Times, it has a very tiny readership. If you want to try and change that then start promoting the Magazine, donate some subscriptions to local libraries, give away some subscriptions as gifts to your dentist, doctor, kids, etc.
For now.
From reading their pieces I would say that Frailey and Phillips do not exactly share the same political opinions. I would have expected Trains’s viewpoints to align more with Phillips, which makes his departure all the more interesting.
Regardless of the story behind it this is the end of a era, and not for the better.
Then again, perhaps Don is simply getting old and has decided to cut back on things a bit.
One could always PM him to ask about the truth, doesn’t he have a forum account (The Potomac Pundit), albeit irregularly used?