I’ve just discovered that my university gives me access to the last 20+ years of Model Railroader in electronic form (PDFs of all issues). I’ve only been back into the hobby for the last couple of years so my physical subscription only goes back that far. Now that I have a treasure trove of potential MR reading, I don’t know where to start beyond sifting through the TOCs from all the back issues. So, I thought it would be useful for everyone if we conducted a poll of our favorite MR Mag articles. Having a nice list in this thread will give people something to look back for in their old issues that they may have forgotten.
So, what has been your favorite MR Mag article and what issue was it published? Is it still relevant today?
The San Jacinto District by Andy S. - Feb 1980. A very short article on the design and operation of a small branch line railroad that could apply to almost any branch line or short line operation. Features one of the best small layout designs ever published. The design would be easy to adapt to a number of room configurations or to stretch out. Only three pages but speaks volumes. Bruce
it’s too hard to pick a favorite but if i had to it might be John Olson’s Jerome and Southwestern series starting in Feb 1982 or Lee vande Visse’s Crown Mountain Division series starting in May 1991… but i’m curious about those PDF’s . i have all but 8 MR’s from 1986 to present , any chance those PDF’s are on a public server ? and how did they get there ?
i’ve often thought MR could sell cd’s with PDF’s of all the issues from one year on each . i know i’m way more likely to buy that than i am to buy back issues even if they’re available
These are not publicly available documents. You must subscribe to a research service in order to get access. How the research services for universities get access to older magazines and peer reviewed journals is a mystery to me. However, I suspect that they pay money to the publishers and pass those costs on to their customers (university and research centers).
East Broad Top track plan in the December 1971 issue. It was the second issue I bought and that trackplan was a real inspiration for me of what could be done in model railroading.
Enjoy
Paul
My favorite series was the Tuxedo Junction back in the 1950s. My favorite article was probably “The Brakeman on the Yellow Extra” by Bruce Chubb, back in the 70s.
I don’t have a favorite article, some for techniques like scenery, some just for admiring others beautiful layouts.
Each year (June I think), one issue has all the articles, by topic, for the previous year. You may want to limit your search to each year’s issue to help narrow your focus.
Then again, I still find it enjoybale looking through each issue, not only for the articles, but for the ads, editorials, and such.
I wish I could remember the year and mouth. It was about a guy who bought an F unit nose from a scrap dealer, cut it into 3 pieces and trucked it home. He sandblasted it in the backyard and painted it, KCS if I recall. Put it in the basement and hooked up a throttle inside to run his layout. Wired up the lights and everything.
I’ve subscribed for a little more than a year. My favorite article over that period is the one (in two parts) from the April/May issues on building passenger cars with brass sides. It was an article that matched my skill level well (neither too hard like an elaborate scratch-building project or too easy like the beginner 4x8 layouts).
I have a bunch of old model railroader magazines from my uncle. I felt the article describing a transistor throttle in the November 1960 issue (50 cents) is a milestone article.
Boy, this is just either weird or maybe those articles hit important points with a lot of people. Here I am thinking about an answer, and think maybe the EBT way back (first issue I ever got). Then someone mentions it. Then there’s San Jacinto layout. Like mentioned above, those few pages spoke volumes. My current layout for a free lanced Southern branch is inspired by that track plan, excpet I replaced the San Jacinto yard with, yep, a section based on the Galveston Warves plan. I also love the Jerome & Southwestern series like someone else said, so then I thought about the Brakeman on the Yellow Extra, but someone else picked that already too. That article really separated my thinking from just running trains into this thing called operating them.
You guys picked those, so then I think maybe the Clinchfield series - concepts we still use. Bookshelf railrods written by Lutz I think. While in the service I built a portable N scale layout using that concept that survived three moves (which also incorporated an N scale Galveston Wharves). The KR&D. But I guess the article that I remember most was the Carolina Foundry by E L Moore. That started a love affair with simple scratch building. Now that my new layout is advancing beyond track to structures, some of his plans will start sprouting up.
If I may ask, which university and what is your status? Student, graduate, staff? I noticed you are in VA and I am a graduate of JMU, before it became a U.
“How To Build A Complete Kettle Valley Passenger Train”, by W. Gibson Kennedy, June 1959 MR, pages 26-32. Article covers the scratchbuilding of a complete CPR passenger train of about 1910-1915 vintage. There are a couple of things that stand out. One is the terseness of the article. Given the size of the project, an awful lot of information has to be obtained from the drawings. There aren’t many commercially available parts used in construction other than Central Valley trucks (no longer available) and a Binkley observation rail (also no longer available). Otherwise the overwhelming majority of detail parts (water tanks, vents, brake detail, etc.) are built from scratch.
Northeastern Scale Lumber still has blank coach siding available complete with milled belt rail and 4 and 6 wheel trucks are available from various sources. You might be able to adapt the platform railing off an Athearn heavyweight observation or one from a Roundhouse Pullman Palace car in place of the earlier Binkley casting. LaBelle makes a roof rounding kit for clerestory roof passenger cars.
I have 2 favorite articles, both from the late sixties I think. The first one was a tour of John Allen’s fantastic Gore and Daphetid. His attention to detail and floor to ceiling scenery was/is truley an inspiration to me . The other article was published in an April issue about pressurizing your basement so the support columns could be removed to make room for additional track and scenery. The tongue in cheek article explained with much detail how to seal and reinforce windows, doors and floor drains so that high pressure air could support the rest of the house.
There was a great series of articles on Passenger Train Layouts followed by Passenger Servicing Facilities that ran from January through July '02; and later one on Passenger Station Operations in Sep '05. Pretty throrough coverage and highly interesting.
<> And a super urban layout, Union Freight Sep-Oct 00.
The Epithet Creek. Oh man, you would ask what issue. As I recall it was in 1972. I’ll have to go over to the index and look it up. … 15 minutes later. June 1972, page 54 and October 1972 page 66.
Then of course there was the “Non-branching Branch” in April 1957. - No I didn’t have to look that one up I remembered.
“Basic Model Railroading Grades” in March 1968 page 30. - No, I didn’t have to look that one up as I keep a copy at my desk.
Then finally The Jerome & Southwestern Series in starting in February 1982.
I began my first real layout project in the early 80’s and three articles ( Or series) were instrumental: 1) Frary & Haden’s Carrabasset and Dead River ( HOn2-1/2). 2) John Olson’s Jerome & Southwestern in HO. I used a similar track plan 3) Gordey Odegard’s Clinchfield in N scale. (I used N gauge Peco track for my HOn2-1/2 layout based on this series). I also used all of the old Linn Wescott articles on wiring, L- girder construction and hard shell scenery. Peter Smith, Memphis