Dont force people to digital. trains website it ad full, I hate to use it, So i prefer the Magazine., More Shortline Railroads, Not everyone can afford a huge layout, Look what Boomer has done, And Lance Mindheim, Tom Klimoski, with smaller layouts, just my thoughts,
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Harold, for Classic Toy trains, I have started including articles that are for budget minded hobbyists, both in print and online. For instance, see the Winter issueâs tips column for inexpensive holiday flatcar loads. Iâm also trying to review locomotives at a variety of price points, (see my new review of the $80 Thomas starter set: Lionel Thomas and Friends Battery Operated Train set - Trains). I appreciate your comments!
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Iâd like to see more international passenger coverage. And more data driven/informational articles. Along the lines of the old Steffee fastest trains types of articles. Or like the recent articles on the development of Illinoisâ high speed line or the interview on Diridon. I read those word for word. In depth stuff. Online rarely has in depth anymore.
Also your maps are excellent so keep them coming! Forget news. That I can get online.
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more pages of course, but i realize that comes with more advertising. The big issue with MR magazine is trying to balance the needs of folks new to the hobby with interests of the more experienced, so that some large % of the articles arenât about something really basic.
The other thing that would be extremely useful - especially if applied to back archives - is an archival list of articles by issue, so one can look up topics. Maybe reserved for features like âhow-toâ and 'Industries you can model stuff," as opposed to Tony Koesterâs column meanderings and similar regulars. The columns are kind of useless. More features less columns.
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Iâd love to see a more comprehensive registry of local hobby stores and clubs. It seems there is a barrier that prevents all to register. Can this be free and easy? Maybe just require a re-registering confirmation once a year so the listings donât become stale.
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Jeff,
I think your ideas are great, especially moving product announcements etc⌠to the website, rather than waste space in the paper mag. I am not a buyer, Iâm a builder so all these announcements are ignored by me.
Returning the magazine to instructional items is what I want to see as well.
Regarding layout tours, letâs get more small layouts, rather than the huge monsters that most of us will never build. They are impressive, for sure, but aside from the photos, the text is boilerplate from one huge layout to the next. Nothing of value for me, I like to know HOW the builder did this or that rather than trying to describe all aspects of it. Focus on one or two things and give us some great pictures.
I just had another thought. I read through the old issues of MR my dad had accumulated going back to 1950. In the 70s, I would read these and learned so much from guys like Linn Westcott. He was very much like me with varied interests in the hobby. Electronics, scenery, photography, all these things made him a great model railroader.
My reading of MR and the electronics articles lead to a career in electronics. I eventually left that but still tinker away and love anything about using electronics to improve our layouts.
If we want the younger generation to get into model railroading, I think there needs to be something in it that they can identify with and learn from. Maybe we can inspire another young individual to take up a career they learned about through the magazine.
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I hate the Trains website as well. That is due for a new upgrade in coming monthsâŚ
Trains should operate like freightwaves.com or Yachting. With news and content.
@Nick great ideas here on MR archives. Add AI search to the historical content.
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What do you mean by a registry? Can you give me more context here?
Indeed - we need to get younger people into it, which means giving kids hands on experience when they are young enough to shape their curiosity and passion
Do not make the mistake of assuming that forum users speak for all magazine subscribers.
Survey subscribers, not forum users.
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Craig, Many years ago there used to be a program called the Worldâs Greatest Hobby, started around the year 2000 by Kalmbach website still exists, https://www.greatesthobby.com/). The previous version of this website had a listing of clubs across the country. You could search for a club near you.
The original version of Trains.com was supposed to have clubs and thereâs a community section mentioning them, but sadly, they never materialized.
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This is a general observation regarding all former Kalmbach publications: until five or so years ago, there were NEVER any typos. I was amazed this was so consistent over DECADES of reading! Then, something happened and every single issue had at least one misspelling. What happened?!
Youâre correct about addressing the forum first, IMHO, and fantastic improvements! A much, much better experience on my mobile phone, so you win already. Iâll be back with suggestions for the print magazines, but thank you for finally making the online forum much more user friendly.
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Hi Jeff,
Youâve obviously been thinking about whatâs in Model Railroader and I appreciate that!
Youâre right, itâs been a while since we had a layout design contest, and the idea of building the winning layout is intriguing, but would take some thought to figure out how we might do that. Keep the ideas coming!
Eric
Well, through the years I've felt the articles have become more like children's picture books rather than articles. Almost like it is trying to be a video that it isn't. I like in depth and good writing of "what it is" or "how to do" and really "why" sorts of things. I mean pictures are great but there needs to be enough words to go with them. The "Build an HO Scale Hotel" was much better than others of late. And that brings up ... Each month there used to be a scale drawing of something, like the one in this article on page 66. I really miss those.
Then it seems like there used to be several regular monthly features like the âTrains of Thoughtâ. Canât even remember the titles, but I do remember enjoying them. Just chat and ideas like a converstation rather than a âhow toâ.
Two, months of Rod Stewartâs layout? I donât care how it was moved. How a millionaire does something is nothing like we mere mortals will ever do. Oh sure just hire a moving company for 100K. ??!? boring.
For the model railroader magazine, I would like to see articles on industrial engineering history. The purpose would be that when we scratch build some rail served industry, we have a good idea of what is going on in the factory. What are those major pipes for? How does that thing work over there work? The articles would not need to cover the entire history of say, grain elevators, like the books do. You would say, discuss some industry that was in operation in say, 1920 and cover what the equipment did, the layout, how cars were loaded and unloaded. It does not have to be totally comprehensive either. It could be, here is an item of equipment that was used to do something. Here is how it worked. Then, a scale drawing would be great. How it could be modeled or printed.
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Paul, What a neat pun, truly Craig is on the right âtrackâ. I agree and add: The more I fumble around this site, it is amazing how âloadedâ it is with information. Itâs hard to find any âbaseâ Craig has not covered. I tried to think of some pun for loaded, but came up âemptyâ. Old men humor can be soooo boring. endmrw1221241251
Regarding the print magazines, I personally like their length to be readable in an hour, maybe two. If itâs longer than that, I end up setting it aside and forgetting to finish it. Adventure Cyclist was reworked with more depth and breadth, but it takes too long to read.
I think the balance of technical information and opinion in MR is about right. Make sure you provide information to beginners as well as more experienced modelers. I would point out the amateur radio organization ARRL, which introduced a separate magazine for beginner-to-intermediate hams. I found it very helpful.
I second the note on spelling errors, and extend it to grammar. We know that Lynn Wescott was unusual even in his day, and we will probably never see a âconsummate grammarianâ like him again. But a little less rush, maybe less content, and skilled human proof reading could only help.
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