I was reading the article on freight car trucks and a couple of thing caught my eye:
o - This seemed to be similar to an earlier artice a number of years ago, but without the charts of available model freight car trucks(Jeff Wilson - Dec 2003).
o - All of the examples appeared to be of Kadee Products trucks.
I re-read the article this morning, and they mention that they used Kadee trucks in this article, and that a ‘complete’ guide was available as a ‘download’ to subscribers. I looked at the ‘download’ and it had the nice chart of available trucks from various model manufacturers that I remember.
My question is if they are going to do an updated article, why not generate a new chart with the currently available model trucks in it? And why did they only use Kadee trucks this time for the examples? Is this ‘Product Placement’ advertising that Kadee paid for?
Jim,Over the years MR has ran several infomercials pushing this or that brand as the absolute top line products…I remember when Central Valley trucks was all the rage and pushed as the standard replacement trucks.
When you have some free time to kill thumb through your back issues and you will see a pattern MR used over the years pushing certain brands,KD couplers,nickel silver track,DCC or other new and improved modeling or operation ideas or in some rare cases “gimmicks” that isn’t really needed…
I agree the article should have been updated or better rewritten.
I still refer back to the original article from time to time (hard copy) and also to Jeff Wilson’s “The Model Railroader’s Guide to Freight Cars” which also has a good discussion of the evolution of freight car trucks. I needed this kind of information more when I was modeling the transition period but now that I model the late 1960s it is still useful to know what roller bearing trucks I should have expected to see back then. I have a pretty good notion of what solid-bearing trucks to use.
What struck me more about the latest article was the strange way the trucks were lighted and photographed – they all looked like they had received a dusting of talcum powder, presumably a function of the lighting. It was not, in my opinion, very flattering to the trucks from Kadee – who might actually wish someone else’s product had been chosen, but for the fact that the good visual quality of their trucks is well known.
Mainline Modeler had a three-part series on freight car trucks. The Nov. '93 issue showed photos of prototype trucks, while Dec. '93 had 4 1/2 pages of photos showing available versions in HO scale, and Jan. '94 offered another 4 pages of photos of HO scale ones. Most, I think, are still available, and, of course nowadays, there are many newer ones on the market, too.
"Tisk, tisk, glad my memory is somewhat too short to remember that this article was maybe done before. I read the article, thinking it was all very good information! I’ve been in the hobby long enough to know who’s freight car trucks I will be using and really don’t care whether Model Railroader Magazine was attempting to influence what I purchase! Do you guys really read articles with an eye towards what the publisher’s ulterior motives for printing this article where? Is “Big Brother” really involved in Model Railroading?
First at 67 I still have a fair memory and above average reflexes.
To answer your question,I don’t think one can’t help but see the infomercial articles MR has written over the years.My favorite was the one about how bad a bright boy was and how it scratches your track-these scratches could be seen under a microscope at 10X.IIRC it was about buying a high dollar track cleaning car,polishing your track or something like that.I found that article laughable at best.
Why should Kalmbach who publish’s MR turn down $$ for paid advertising of some MFG’s product. I would not blame MR or anyone else for that matter. Would not be a MR magazine if they didn’t make any money. It is still your right to choose what You like.
There was an article in MR back in the late 80’s-mid 90’s on the evolution of freight car trucks; it was by Rand Hood, as I recall (I could be wrong on the author). I have not read the April issue yet, but I do know that that article some 20 years ago was very informative and useful, especially to me, who had just recently gotten into scale model railroading at that time. I know that I still have the article, as I have saved all of my back issues of MR over the years.
I’ve read the article twice now, once simply because I was interested and like what Jim Hediger has to say and a second time to see if I could detect the “Black Ops.” the magazine is attempting to foist on us. They used Kadee trucks in the article and give Kadee credit along with suggesting a “short list’ of other manufacturers. If Kadee paid Kalmbach to use photos of their trucks is not known and presumptuous of anyone to suggest! However, this is a part of business and none of my concern.
Did the article cover some of the trucks in standard usage since railroads began? Was there some history of the beast, was the article well written and informative? I would have to say yes on all counts.
If there is “Black Ops.” involved here, I can’t see it and don’t feel there is any reason to believe so! However, you guys can certainly have as much fun with this line of overly critical thinking as you want! Have fun!
No black ops needed…One just needs to read the article as it was intended with a open mind.
KD trucks are good without a doubt but,there are better wheels sets and trucks available today.Why not run a article covering these?
Why rehash(rerun?) a old article? This isn’t the first time MR ran a rehash article.I’m sure it was intended for new modelers or maybe some returning modelers that missed that issue years ago.
Long time readers like me can’t help but think: Huh? Again?
I thought the article was very short on detail. I was actually looking forward to that one and was disappointed by the content. A couple of things that would have been helpful would have been the dates some of these trucks were banned from interchange. I believe there were a couple of dates mentioned in the article that would give a nice time frame that some of the trucks could be used on ones models. If one is trying to model a realistic setting and keep as many of the details as era specific as possible little things like that are a big help. There are as has been mentioned other sources for this type of information.
Wow, you guys have really good eyesight and intimate knowledge of Kadee trucks!!!
The only way I knew that they were all Kadees was the from the one mention in the last paragraph that said the pictures were all Kadees. The one at the end where they listed 12 other manufacturers of HO trucks.
I saw the point of the article as explaining different prototype trucks for model railroaders. Given that it has been over 10 years since the last time - seemed like a good idea to me.
I think some of you guys might be reading more in here than really exists.
Maybe they used Kadee trucks because they’re readily available and Kadee has a good variety in their lineup. By using the same mfr for the article, you eliminate variability in detail between mfrs and you can see a more-or-less apples-to-apples comparison of the different trucks. If it wasn’t Kadee, it would be Walthers. Not sure if any other mfrs have a similarly wide variety.
It would have been nice to see prototype photos instead of model photos (or in addition to them), but access to decent photos of every type might have been an issue, and if you use models you can shoot them all under identical conditions.
Just my thoughts, I usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I will not comment on whether this is a Kadee advertising piece or not but I agree with J. Rob that this was a missed chance by MRR. I would have loved to learn more about the history of the truck manufactures. Who were the major manufactures ? What yer did they build what type ? Did they go out of buisness when someone eloses techonology cornered the market ? Who ran the company ? Were they a sister company to a major railroad etc…
OK Group it’s time for an offical “Kadee comment”. First, Kadee had no part in this artical directly or indiectly. We didn’t know about the artical until we receive our copy of MRR and we were rather surprised and yet flattered that only Kadee trucks were photographed, thank you Jim. I do believe that the point of the artical was clearly made. It being only a “brief” review of common types of trucks and when they were used. This gives the “average” modeler enough information to select the correct type of truck to put on their model to match their particular time era. I don’t think the artical was meant for much more than that. The normal scope and size of magazine articals simply won’t allow the extensive historcial data of truck manufacturing along with the related history of the ARA and AAR and their involvement in truck developement. As mentioned, perhaps Jim used Kadee trucks because of the avilability and our large selection, however, he did fail to mention one of the manufacturers that also offers a large selection of very nice trucks and that’s Tahoe Model Works.
I’m glad you brought this up. It was certainly helpful for newbies, even though incomplete. I have found most of the articles in the MRR mag to be substandard of those articles of say 15 years ago.
ONe key way to know MRR used to be a serious key reference source is to read other publications and how they reference those older issues.
I will renew my subscription because it supports the industry and it provides some good information. But my NMRA mag has much better articles if you want the detail on how something is done or on a subject matter.
Since I am a supplier to the RR industry I also get Progressive Railroading and the other one I can’t recall now–lol. Those have shrunk too. BTW, there were some recent articles on trucks in those magazines.
For anyone interested in a more exhaustive list of available trucks, at least for pre-1960, the late Richard Hendrickson’s material is still avialable here https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bz_ctrHrDz4wcjJWcENpaDJYbUU/edit?pli=1 . MRH also published an article from Hendrickson in the May, 2013 issue with more in-depth information than the piece in the latest MR.
Why, with the opinion you have shared here, would you continue to spend money on what you feel to be such an inferior product? I certainly wouldn’t; but, then I like model railroader and appreciate the hard work the writing staff put’s into the magazine every month!
Also, did you know that much of the quality of the information put into the magazine, is written by Model Railroaders, much like you and I? Have you ever contributed? If not, why not? Since you so easily can recognize what constitutes a good article, it would be very easy for you to provide some excellent material!