Although I may have been exposed to earlier issues of Model Railroader, the only one that has popped out at me as one I recognize by both its’ content and cover is the June of 1963 issue. Back then, 50 cents was difficult to come by for a kid. I had had my tonsils out and Mom asked me if she could get anything for me and I asked for a model railroading magazine. At the time, I didn’t have a layout and the neighbor kids and I would get our HO trains together and build long point to points on the basement floor. I was hooked on the hobby of HO Model Railroading and I remember pouring over this magazine for hours and am sure I read every page and every ad.
However, I actually purchased the September 1963 issue of Model Railroader and this one magazine caused me to start building and actual layout. I was very motivated and influenced by Chuck Yungkurth’s Bellefonte & Snowshoe layout. I liked how he related the progression of layouts he built to this one thyme, the idea that it was based on a one time actual railroad that was swallowed up by the Pennsylvania Railroad and he showed where the real railroad was located in the Pennsylvania Allegany Mountains. The names of the towns just seemed to fit a model railroad built back at this time, Bellefonte, Snowshoe, Grass Flats, Gum Stump, etc. This layout had all the features I though a layout should have bridges, tunnels. I also loved the fact that the Black & White photos made the scenery look so realistic.
If you have the ALL Access Pass, go back and take a look at this layout, make comment; or, tell us about a layout you were very inspired by!
Bellefonte and Snowshoe are actual towns in that part of PA, go past there frequently.
Back when the column was “Along the Line” (like in the 1936 issue in the current issue of the week), that part of PA was a hotbed of railroad activity, lots of layouts in that area, and several articles written on the groups that operated on each other’s layouts at the time. Still is, actually - there is still an active group of modelers who do op sessions on each other’s layouts as well as a large club in the area.
The oldest issue I physically own (especially since I ditched most of my paper collection after getting the 75 year DVD) is the Jan 1944 issue, I picked up the entire year 1944 on ebay some time ago, long before the 75 year DVD. Pretty much all things history interest me, so it was very interesting reading about how modelers coped with all the restrictions caused by WWII.
First issue purchased new by me? Long forgotten, but we always had older issues of model railroad magazines around, including 2 issues of RMC from the 50’s that I read and re-read constantly as a kid. One of them had, instead of the usual track plan, a sample of a crudely drawn plan and explanations of what was wrong with it. I must have read that article 100 times, drilling into my head what makes for a bad plan and how not to make those same mistakes.
First issue I read, was also the first issue I bought - November 1971. I bought the December 1971 issue the next day. Between the two of them I was hooked. I really loved the color layout drawing for the East Broad Top in the Dec '71 issue.
I have almost every issue back to 1947 and a few before that back to 1940. I stopped buying the old issues after the 75 year collection came out.
My first issue was one my father bought for me along with my first train set in 1973 or 1974; I don’t know which it was, because I no longer have it. I subscribed to the magazine in 1992, long before coming to work here, and have every issue from then until now. I had purchased a few off the newsstand before then, though.
But the oldest issue I own is one I found in a railroad museum gift store, April 1965. Since that’s the month and year I was born, I had to get it. Turned out to be quite an important issue, including Linn Westcott’s Zip Texturing and a John Armstrong track plan.
And though I can’t rightly count myself as “owning” the copies in my office here at work, they do include a first edition bound volume of Vol. 1. [:D]
Mine was October 1949 bought with my paper route money. I was absolutely fascinated by the article on “cold steam” locomotives. These were locos powered by dry ice and controlled by electrical signals in the track.
Until I bought the 1944 issues, that was the oldest one I owned. I found it in the gift shop at the Caboose Motel in Strasburg while waiting to go eat in the dining car, and the live steam with dry ice thing made me instantly add that to the pile of issues I was buying, had to be 20 years ago or so.
Mine was the October 1961 issue. I must confess that I found Railroad Model Craftsman first in a drug store magazine rack just a month or two before. Wow, two magazines dedicated to an adult hobby of model railroading! I was only 11 and had the usual Lionel. I had no idea such a hobby existed. The October 1961 issue was my intoduction to the great Whit Towers and his Alturas and Lone Pine RR. Still have the issue minus the cover and TOC pages. Memories!
The first issue I bought was August 1964 (and my copy has the order coupon for America’s Hobby Center neatly clipped out) but over the years I bought back issues solid back to 1949, with isolated issues before then, as well as the reprint bound volume of 1934 that they used to sell.
I had a bound volume of the 1941 (? I think) that I sold a few years ago. This was the small format (5 x 8?) and of course all B&W. I still have issues back in the 1950’s when I started my subscription. Still have most of them.
Oops, my bad - yeah I reacted more to your title than to your text! The similar layout I liked, also by Chuck Yungkurth, was the Gum Stump & Snowshoe in the April 1966 issue. Back when it seemed I was going to be living in apartments for a while I always intended on building that layout because it offers a lot of operation in a small space. Gil Reid’s drawng made it look almost deceptively spacious. And Yungkurth warns that the structures would be tricky to fit the space.
I also remember being intrigued by the Three Small Layouts article in November 1964 MR - the second issue I ever bought – in paricular the Metropol Terminal because I had a couple of small engines that could have run on those 10" radius curves: the Lionel geared version of the Athearn Hustler, and the Tyco/Mantua 0-6-0T. But taking a fresh look at that article now, I am more impressed with the Wittenburg Station passenger terminal track plan – a bean shaped track plan worthy of Iain Rice!
Yes I have the all access pass, and yes I will take a look at that issue.
I cannot really think of any particular issue that inspired me - except maybe the two series of articles by Bruce Chubb and Ed Ravenscroft that inspired my control system.
My first issue was the one I “stoled” from my dad, I don’t remember the year but it must be around 1968-1970.
Dad had all the issues since 1951 and I completed this collection from second hand magazines library and Ebay, which bring me in 1937.
So I am Belgian and have all ( two are missing I must admit) the MR issues since 1937 to today but don’t have the CD.
They are a never ending ressource of informations.
And as a conclusion I congratulate the staff of MR for the march issue which bring me lot of excellent memories of the MR in the 70’s and 80’s for their quality and interest.
Interesting responses. I rented a house for three months waiting on occupancy of the house I was buying at the time. The owner said I could sort through the attic for books and magazines if I wanted to as he had no intentions of moving them as they dated back to his parents living in the house. I found several 1939 to 1942 MR magazines which the owner said I could keep if I wanted them. That was in about 1975 and I found them last year when I was looking through a box of old MR magazines I had saved from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. One of the more interesting article in one of the really old magazines is on building a passenger car from cardstock materials. I believe Jim Hediger had a similar car on one of his Histories according to Hediger clips a couple of years ago.