I did a post a while back about “HO Model Trains”. This old magazine would morph several times before being absorbed and then let die. I had found about 15 copies at an old train show, back in June from the earliest issue in 1948 with the last in my little pile being Dec 1959.
Another interesting thing brought it back to mind. In the current issue of “The Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette”, The editor, in his editorial, remembers fondly how he rode his bike down to the hobby shop for each issue of “HO Trains”. He noted that this was the first magazine, early on, that rapidly developed a Narrow gauge column, “Slim Gauge says”. The magazine’s cover byline was “Strictly HO gauge”. Apparently, what they meant was “Strictly HO Scale”. Nonetheless, they developed a lot of early info around HOn3 with plans and car data, etc., when the gauge was still 100% scratch build for the most part. I noted this myself from my small holding and it was great to see the editor also note this.
The other interesting thing is the changes in management on the masthead and size of the little publication. Ultimately it would rival Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman in size and that was, surely, what secured its doom. I note that the name changed twice more as did the cover format.
Once Kalmbach acquired it in the 50’s it blossomed, but by 1959 it was a nice sized publication and the new cover motto was “For all ages and all gauges”. And the publisher on the Dec 1959 issue’s masthead is “Lynn Wescott” (famous for his many MR contributions and Kalmbach books). It got to looking too much like MR in spite of being from the same household and, ultimately, went away along with the first pass of Lionel, Marx and American Flyer.
I remember the magazine just as “Model Trains”, and recall they had a cartoon mascot for which they held a contest to name him. The winning name was “M.T. Hopper”, I assume because it meant “empty hopper” as well as “Model Trains hopper”.
They had a pass exchange list, and they listed me a few times. Got passes from all over the world. It was exciting to me as a pre-teen/teen to get 3-4 or more letters a day for a month or so. I still have my collection of passes, now which are almost extinct in our hobby.
A pass was a certificate gievn to employees and customers of the railroad to allow them to ride on passenger traisn for free or for a modest reduced fare. Depending on the importance of the person issued the pass, there may have been restrictions, such as no riding on peak times and so forth.
Model railroaders took up this idea and offered ‘passes’ for their model railroads which were exchanged with visotors and then, via the magazines, with other model railroaders around the world. Sometimes the passes were completely serious (other than the modeler’s made up railroad name), other times they have humerous bits about them, like humerous slogans or some humerous ‘rules’ on the back.
I remember the old Model Trains magazine (I did not know it was the successor to the old HO Model Trains which I have seen for sale at swap meets). It was aimed at the hobbyist who was making the transition from toy trains or the first train set to true model railroading, but it was nonjudgmental about equipment. Thus it would feature nicely done Lionel layouts where the owner had done more in the way of permanent track and scenery, as well as HO. It also had articles about how to build rolling stock for Lionel, Flyer, but also HO. In fact it is rather a telling point that Model Trains, aimed at modelers who were not sophisticated but just beyond the beginner stage, had construction articles that rather exceed in difficulty and skill expectations what MR typically publishes today. Of course back then a kid in school was taking mandatory shop classes!
Another thing Model Trains did exceptionally well was the “Railroad You Can Model” prototype feature – where they would show structures and track arrangements with prototype photos, and then usually a model track plan the followed the prototype closely. Some of the best examples of those wonderful articles were in Model Trains, not Model Railroader.
Linn Westcott believed, I think with some justification, that too many articles in the model press back then had titles like “build a gondola in S scale” where in reality that title was simply discouraging people from reading it who could build that same gondola in any scale – that is why the plans show scale feet after all. That could explain why it dropped the HO name when Kalmbach acquired it. To some extent today we are seeing the hobby move away from Westcott’s view, as there are now numerous N scale magazines, an O scale magazine or two, and as a consequence some guys complain that MR and RMC have become “HO” magazines by default. I think i
Dave, Your points are well taken. Ideas, building tips and thoughts are, quite literally, “gaugeless”.
Still, I hug the bi-monthly, “Narrow Gauge Gazette” as a core source for me. I take MR because it has many good articles and tips. As you mention, other great ideas are spread in many other scale specific magazines that many of us might not see.
We still have these forums and I have already benefited from ideas and tips I have seen here. This is something that Lynn Wescott never dreamed of.
Oh, I suspect Westcott would see the total sense in a narrow gauge special interest publication, assuming it wasn’t just , for example, HOn3 to the exclusion of other narrow gauge scales. In fact I think there were some back in the 60s. Similarly, back when he was editor of MR there were a number of magazines aimed at traction modelers (perhaps there still are) and he gave free publicity to those magazines whenever he could. He was aware of and supported various special interests and their publications, he just thought that gauge itself need not be regarded as a special interest. On that topic if you ever see Model Railroader’s initial issues, the scale plans were not given in scale feet but in inches – intended to be built in O, and the measurements were VERY approximate because they only got down to 1/8th of an inch as I recall.