Tracklayer’s “forums becoming extinct” thread got me to thinking about how Kalmbach Publishing Co’s editorial standards have evolved through the years, and how some of what they published in years gone by would be removed if they were topics in this forum!
For example, in the Tuxedo Junction series in the (late, I think) fifties, at one point in George Allen’s narrative, he talks about lighting up a “…Camel (not a cough in a carload).” Note that may not be an exact quote (I may have missed a word or two - it’s been several years since I read that series), but the meaning is exactly that. Try having a discussion on this forum about what kind of cigarette you smoke while working on the layout, and see how long that topic lasts!
Another example is from the yearly contest MR ran in the fifties called “How I Built My Railroad” (this year’s layout contest is pretty similar). One year a Doctor wone the contest (first, second or third palce - I’m not sure) with a layout he called the “McBurney’s Point Line.” He related how a medical friend of his suggested the name “McBurney’s Point and Mons Ven…” (he spelled out that last word, and while it isn’t at all offensive, it MAY run afoul of the rules here, so I won’t spell it out). Although not considered in bad taste at the time it was published, it may well be considered otherwise now, and in any case would NOT make it into print because of the potential to offend some folks or spark complaints.
The fifties and early sixties also featured many advertisements featuring well-endowed ladies in bathing suits (generally cartoons). Would the advertising department accept such advertising now?
Albeit shorter than some here on the boards, even in my lifespan of 28 years I have seen social standards change drastically. Risqué movies/TV/music of the 80’s is considered lame and trivial by today’s ‘standards’
I use the word ‘Standards’ lightly as its more of a lack of ‘standards’. Some would argue, but I feel that the Social Standards of what is and isn’t acceptable has moved for the worse. My mother is a 1st/2nd grade teacher in a small rural town and she has kids more foulmouthed ‘than a sailor’. She has been attacked with pencils and had a desk thrown at her all because they ‘saw it on TV.’
Mark, it does seem odd how things are evolving. You post points how how in your perception MRR has tightened its standards and is less willing to use subject matter of a more adult nature. Yet mainstream media is going rapidly in the opposite direction. I watch very little network TV, but earlier this week found myself in a hotel and happened to watch and episode of 2 1/2 men on CBS. I was totally stunned at what I was watching on prime time network TV. All I can say is good for Kalmbach for having some standards.
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that, on the whole, modelrailroaders are a “graying” population. In the 40s, 50s, and 60s model railroaders tended to be a younger lot, again, on the whole. We are older now and MR recogonizes that and adjusts it editoral content and standards accordingly.
Mark,Can you recall the cover shots on MR of modelers with railroad hat and pipe in mouth looking over his layout or scratch built model? How about track side pictures with common every day modeling? instead of pictures of advance layout? Sadly today all of that is held unacceptable by a vocal few.
FOOD for Thought ONLY!!
There are those that frown upon modelers wearing “engineers” hats…Why?
There are those that fully believes a 4x8 is out date…Why?
Some look down their noses at those who still wish to use DC. Why?
There are some that say you are not a serious modeler if you don’t model 110% accurate models.
Comments.
It is my belief that the hobby should be enjoyed by all regardless of their modeling style without fear of being laugh at or looked down upon…
Thankfully the majority of modelers has a open mind when it comes to modeling styles and knows their personal modeling style may be different then yours or mine yet we enjoy the hobby equally well…[:D]
I certainly do remember those, Larry - I have a good sized collection of those issues. There was a lot more of the Model Railroader in Model Railroader in those days, it seems. But most of that comfortable, around-the-clubhouse feeling of MR disappeared as the magazine aged. While I still enjoy it, the sense of comaradie that made it as much friend as magazine is pretty much gone, and has been for some time (the last vestiges disappeared when Spike Trail, Boomer Pete and friends disappeared from Bull Session. Then shortly afterwards Bull Session itself disappeared, too).
I enjoy the super-modeling as much as anyone, but I would gladly live with less if it meant I got to see what the “average” modelers were doing, too.
I agree with your comments about modeling style, also. The only “wrong” way to model railroad is to do it the way you think others want you to, instead of the way YOU want to.
Unfortunately, Spike Trail, Boomer Pete and company are holding their bull sessions around a hot pot-bellied coal stove in the Great Beyond. The current crop of professionals simply don’t have that amateurish love of human interaction. In the old days, each train of thought would have a different engineer, and several would run in the same column. Today we have one.
I, too, miss the work of ‘average’ modelers. Those photos and articles were inspiring. The present crop of supurbly detailed megalayouts are intimidating.
HOWEVER! The great bull session is not dead! It just got transmogrified into the Forums!
(In the 1950 timeframe one of those swimwear-clad young ladies was an HO scale figure, openly advertised in MR, who had mislaid her swimsuit.)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - too cold for swimming)
DAVE: I couldn’t agree with you more. TV and Hollywood has done more to impoverish the morals of this country than anyone can begin to fathom. Thank God we have a great bunch of guys and gals on this forum that still remember the olde days, and, younger folks who have survived TV and Hollywood’s onslaught, and are A1 people with high standards.
As far as I can tell, the ‘standards’ of artistic excellence for TV programming is: to do or say what nobody was supposed to do or say before now.
I suppose the best way to change this (in the long run) is to get new people into the business, who still think that ‘gentlemanly behavior’ is more than just words, and will permit their characters the freedom to express it.
I remember the first year FOX ran ‘The Simpsons’. It was new and fresh, did not suffer from the same problems common to Hollywood productions, and had a bunch of people working on it that nobody had ever seen in the industry before. Then the cast and staff went to Hollywood and learned how the professionals did it. ‘The Simpsons’ promptly became just like all the other programming, bleck.
I continue to believe that this trajectory could be followed in reverse if somebody in the industry were willing.
I agree that standards have changed; there is nothing one can say, write, or do that will not offend someone else. Everyone seems to “cave in” to those claiming offense has been given. I have been in the hobby since 1946, and have a complete set of MR in the original. (I bought the first 14 years from someone else). I can look back to the 1950 MR’s as a marvelous source of “how to build it”. I feel there is too little of that today. (Dear me, have I just offended the current editorial staff?) However, the same type of advertising seen 'way back then would never “sell” today; readers have become too sophisticated after being hammered by advertising all their lives. After all, it is the bottom line that controls.
The funny thing is, I was just reading the issue with the articles you mention. I’ve built up quite a collection of old issues of MR, one of these days I will have ALL of them. I distinc