Greetings!
As part of our editorial department’s on-going efforts to produce the best magazine possible, we’re looking for a few people in the Milwaukee area who could come by our offices on a weekday to be determined to meet with the staff and discuss content. Here’s a great opportunity to help influence the direction of the magazine. If you’re interested, please drop me a line to jwrinn@trainsmag.com.
Not within an easy drive of Waukesha? Don’t worry: We’re exploring ways to do this “On the road.”
Have a great Monday, everyone!
Jim Wrinn
Editor
Jim, you asked American railfans to rank the states in the January 2007 issue, with results that were questionable at best. New Jersey came in 7th, ahead of Texas (14th) and New Mexico (29th). This leads me to believe a majority of American railfans are provincial, preferring their own or neighboring states. I’m gussing if you ask Wisconsin railfans about content, they will ask for more Wisconsin articles, a state which has always received at least their fair share in Trains.
I really enjoyed the article on the Sunset route, and your article on the CSX line through Georgia. Andy’s article covering ethanol and the Iowa Northern was terrific as well. Could we have more articles like these, along with anything from Fred Frailey or Tom Murray?
I would also like to see a return of articles on Regional Railroads. These have become few and far between over the past couple of years.
Do you have the Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov 1992 issues handy? Michael Blaszak wrote on IC, CM&W, SPCSL and GWWR. Even 15 years later, these articles are still enjoyable. Perhaps he could write something on the Indiana Rail Road. I have not read anything on their operation of the former CMSP&P Louisville line.
How about an article on post-Katrina New Orleans?
(Or at least a Murphy Siding thread)
Why not a webcast? That will allow you to select participants from a range of backgrounds for each discussion including international subscribers (like me!).
First, a suggestion on the website: The news items are short enough that having one page for all news on a particular day would be far more convenient than the existing arrangement, which wastes time as one has to return to the date title and then to a specific item when going from one item to another . It is a lot quicker just to scroll past an item that one wishes to skip. and I suspect most readers read all the news on one day at one time anyway.
I appreciate your following some past suggestions, and would like to make a few more. You have devoted articles to particular car types, particularly modern freight cars, aluminum covered hoppers, etc. I think good articles with history and some modern development including overseas would interest readers on double-deck passenger equipment, both suburban and long distance, and the history of lightweight cars in general, perhaps even going back to Stillwell. I continue to wonder how Mexico gets along without any intercity passenger service. I bet it has hurt tourism. The revival of steam seems a popular topic on the website, and an intelligent look what has been done even in the USA with applying modern inventions to existing locomotives (Grand Canyon Ry for example), the German modern passenger steam for high speed, and what would a truly modern steam or steam-electric locomotive really be. This may be prophetic with rising oil prices . Does any builder have any research going on this direction? A summary article on the death and rebirth of the trolley car is long overdue, with a graph showing the amount of street and interurban mileage during the whole history of the technology, from the orginal 1886-7 Richmond Sprague electrification through the peak around 1919 or so, and the deepest valley around 1968-1980 and the partial recovery. A sidebar should give dates of inventions, the first double truck car, introduction of air-brakes, the Birney, fir
I love the “Ask Trains” feature, expanding that to cover a few more questions would be great. Also, I would like to see more photos, not only photos taken by the staff, but photos from subscribers as well. If you go through the forum here, you will find we have a quite a few talented photographers. Perhaps make it a quarterly feature, where you pick 6-10 photos submitted by subscribers, and feature them on the last few pages of the issue. A “how-to” section on railrod photography could accompany those photos…
I love the magazine, the articles are informative, and the layout is great, but somehow after reading each issue, I find myself wanting more. Since I don’t subscribe at the moment, I buy it from the local hobby shop…
My daughter bought me a B & W Trains mag at a yard sale. I forgot how much the mag has changed. I have not read the last two issues as I keep rereading the “classic”. While I know change is going to happen please more blast from the past for us AARP guys and gals. And one has a front page article about my home town RR the KCS. Have looked at pictures. Stay Happy RMR
Huh? (imagine head-scratching smilie icon here)
I’m glad that Trains Magazine is asking readers’ opinions on things. I would also add my support to the idea of it being more widespread than just the Milwaukee area, but I’m not sure how to accomplish that. Maybe, try to use that-there new internets thingie?[:)]
I used to buy every issue. Now I only buy when something from my neck of the woods, the southeast in general, South Carolina in particular, is in the issue. Needless to say I have purchased very few issues in the last couple of years. It seems like little old South Carolina, home of one of the nations first railroads, would rate some sort of article at least once every 5 years. I’ve never been to the northeast or the midwest, so railroading in those areas has very little interest for me. Sorry if I stepped on any toes but I have to vent now and then.
You are right, there has been very little in Trains about SC lately. Sometime around 2003, the former CSX line was removed through Columbia, and the Silver Star moved from the SAL station over to the ex Southern station. That should have been mentioned in the magazine, but I can’t remember reading about it anywhere.
On the other hand, they can only print articles if someone submits them.
Murph, you’re not interested in post-Katrina New Orleans, vs pre hurricane?
I would like to see a wider variety of features on a line by line system. The last issue I really enjoyed featured Southern Pacific’s (now UP) coastline.
Nanaimo raised the same point I noticed with that ranking of the states. First off, what makes one state better than others is subjective at best, in the eye of each beholder. But I wonder if we could have seen more honest results if the contest had been open to all Trains subscribers (not just a core, local, on-line fan base), and if the ranking was based on this: If there was one state you could spend a week railfanning in this year, OTHER THAN YOUR OWN STATE, which would it be? Now, I can tell you from experience living among railfans in California, the Northeast, and the Northwest, there are very few of them west of the Rockies who would have chosen Illinois, and not a huge number from the Northeast who would have chosen Pennsylvania or New Jersey. On the other hand, when I lived in New Jersey, most of the guys I knew asked me why on earth I left Idaho to live there, and their destinations of choice for summer trips were usuallly west of the Rockies, way up in New England, or the PRB of Wyoming. Yes, there are provincial fans. I was one until my parents moved from southern California to the Inland Northwest when I was about 20, and I learned there were indeed great places beyond Cajon and Tehachapi. And during my nearly eight years back east, I found plenty of interesting places in upstate NY, neighboring PA, etc. But more to Jim Wrinn’s point that started this thread, it’s still possible for Trains to glean a wide range of reader suggestions for the future of the magazine even if those readers are Midwest locals who drive in for a visit. Trains started out and carried on for many years, successfully, with staff members who come mainly from the Midwest. And at least two other personalities who started in the Midwest, Mike Schafer and Jim Boyd, demonstrated their ability to see beyond the Mississippi and Appalachians and edit magazines that garnered strong followings on both coasts. That’s not to say they shouldn’t establish and maintain strong ties to contributors from the far reaches of North America; having
It sure sounds interesting. But, I don’t know. Recently, I’ve been getting vibes that I don’t know what shinola is…[:P]
It certainly would make a good article for the magazine. Speaking of…I know it’s easy for all of us to say they should do an article about this or that. I wonder if there is a format that the editors of Trains Magazine use to evaluate story ideas or submitted stories? A story on that would be very interesting, whether in the magazine, or on this forum.
More shortline stories would be nice. Or maybe revisiting shortlines that were featured years ago.
What is the policy of Trains on which historical periods to cover? I have been told that the magazine’s purview is to cover railroad subjects throughout the entire history of railroads, whereas Classic Trains is intended to cover railroad subjects from a specific, limited era, although I have never heard the definition of that era. If it is true that Trains is intended to cover the entire historical period, how is it decided how much coverage to give to the various periods?
Shortlines from the Carolinas and Georgia!!!
Joe
I’d say the reason you never read about this anywhere is because it did not happen. The Silver Star comes down CSX and stops at the Amtrak station near Devine Road. The old Southern station is now a California Dreaming. No CSX lines have been removed tht I am aware of in many years. What I imagine you are talking about happened in the 70s and 80s. It was the railroad relocation project that moved the former SAL off a bridge that ran along Lincoln Street (as well as some other trackage) to what is now called the ditch. CSX and NS run side by side in a trench that took the rails off of major roads like Blossom and Gervais and put them under bridges.
At this time, the passenger depot was moved from the old Seaboard station on Gervais to the new Amtrak station in the ditch. By the way, most of Columbia’s old railroad stations still stand, with the exception of the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens station which I think was on Green Street.
Most of this happened before I was a railfan and even though I was visiting Columbia then with family, I don’t remember seeing much of this at all, including the industrial area in Devine Junction that is now frat and sorority houses or the Lincoln Street viaduct.
Joe H.
Columbia, SC
Joe, you are right. I should have typed 1993 instead of 2003. I believe the former Seaboard Station is now a restaurant. From aerials it looks like a long fill was created north of downtown so the CSX line can loop over to the current alignment.
[#ditto]
I think an article on today’s modern railroader would be a great place to start. CSX REDI center as the center piece of an article would be a great place to start. There are numerous questions about how to get hired and what it is like to be employed by a Class I railroad. Getting this information first hand from the perspective of a New Hire and an Old Head would shed the light on what it really takes to survive in today’s railroad.
Maybe an article on upcoming modernization of the consists with automatic braking systems, RCO systems. I work on the Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanoga lines of CSX. I would like to see some information about the IC/CN/CSX Superterminal in Memphis. Maybe even an article on Memphis as a whole would be nice. It is a pretty busy piece of real estate. UP/BN/NS/CN/CSX and numerous shortlines within the city should make a pretty good article.
I have enjoyed some of the recent features…such as “That Seventies Issue”, and more recently “How much does it Cost” issue.
How about a monthly feature…“Short line of the Month”…similar to the current Map of the Month.
Another suggestion…rather then have just one month a year to feature pictures by your readers…have a section, much like you do each month in Model Railroader, contributions monthly…perhaps broken down into regions…East/Northeast, South, West/Southwest, Northwest etc…
Mike
Henderson, NV