The other day, I posted a topic entitled “How would you change MR?” The response has been very good, with a lot of well thought out comments and suggestions.
I’ve read the submissions and it would seem that the general opinion is that there are a number of features that many of us would like to see return. I’m sure these would be in an updated format but at least the content would be back. There are also a number of things that we agree we don’t like.
There was one suggestion that really caught my interest. It was suggested that Kalmbach start a new magazine geared towards the more experienced modeler. I’d wondered about this myself. I think there’s probably a market for a publication that’s aimed at those of us that have been in the hobby for a long while. The one problem I would anticipate is advertising. How many of the current advertisers would step forward to increase their advertising budgets so they have ads in both magazines? Obviously, the magazine won’t be in publication long if it doesn’t get the revenue it needs. If an advertiser leaves the current book for the new one, that doesn’t help Kalmbach.
I’m not experienced in the area of marketing publications. I assume that Kalmback has people who are and maybe they’ve taken a look at this and decided it just won’t work.
All I can say is that I’d certainly be intertested in a magazine that addresses this market and I’m sure there are many others who’d be intertested as well.
In any event, based on the comments on the first post I hope someone at MR is listening. I’d like nothing better than to get a copy of MR that takes me a lot longer to read than the current version.
There already is a magazine geared towards the more experienced model railroader. We can go back and forth on how we would want MR to look but to be honest I bet they would probably lose newstand sales. Thats where the money is. The more how to articles that MR could publish would take away from all the fancy pictures that drive up newstand sales. Joe Blow, a curious “wannabee” model railroader picks up a copy of MR every other month because of all the very nice pictures, not because he wants to learn how to scratch build a freight house or kit bash an old passenger car into a piece of MOT equipment. Lets be honest, MR does a good job at getting people INTO the hobby, its up to those people if they want to go farther into it. If they do then they will eventually find a need for the OTHER magazine and find it better appeals to their level. Thats just my opinion and I’m sure a few people will think I don’t have a clue about what I’m talking about. [:-^]
As an intermediate model railroader, I really like MR… the only thing I note missing this year has been the scratchbuilding quick projects they used to have the last page or so of the magazine… I loved these little projects as a newbie! Anyway, what “other” magazine are you referring to? Again, I am relatively new, forgive my ignorance! Train on!
Although I still subscribe to MR, I agree it’s geared toward beginners (nothing wrong with that), RTR (I use some too), and showcasing “wow factor, look what I have (but sometimes didn’t build)” mega layouts that only unlimited time and dinero can build. It is anemic on scratch building, construction articles, humorous articles, and mainly focuses on HO standard gauge.
There are other magazines that cater to us people who prefer alternative choices in modeling. Railroad Model Craftsman concentrates more on scratch building, advanced kits, “hands on” construction articles and much less on showcasing layouts. Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette is the ultimate magazine for scratch builders and non-mainstream modelers (like me) in other scales besides HO. Although it concentrates on narrow gauge and other smaller backwoods railroads and layouts, these articles are useful in any scale and gauge. The layouts and dioramas featured are actually built by their owners, some as small as 3’x4’ - in 7/8 scale! - have comprehensive information on how they were built. It also has excellent plans in every issue for rolling stock, locos, cabeese, and structures. Besides those two magazines, there are other specialty magazines for us alternative modelers like Light Iron Digest, Maine Two Foot Quarterly, and a few others.
All in all, Model Railroader is a very general magazine for those that want to test the waters before deciding whether to advance and find their nitche within the hobby or drop out all together.
Kalmbach tried your suggestion in the late '50s and early '60s with a magazine called Model Trains aimed at beginners. Model Railroader was to be for the more “advanced” model railroader. In fact, the famous Portage Hill & Communipaw project layout started out as a Model Trains project layout. The last couple years of the series moved to Model Railroader when Model Trains ceased publishing.
When Model Trains ended publication, Model Railroader made a big deal about how they were not going to forget either constituency.
Fact is that a magazine devoted to beginners is almost doomed to failure for several reasons.
in US culture, nobody wants to consider themselves a beginner for long
a constant and high number of beginners is needed each month to replace the “graduates” into the advance
Kalmbach does have some some annual issues - Great Model Railroads, Model Railroad Planning, How to Build Realistic Layouts that would seem to address the intermediate modeler. Looking back over the last 4 issues TOC I see a number of articles for the intermediate modeler. There are also numerous books available from Kalmbach for the intermediate modeler. This doesn’t look like a problem to me.
Frankly, I’m not sure the market will support another monthly magazine. A number have just folded. Plus a magazine for just advanced modelers - I assume we’re talking parts/scratchbuilding here - doesn’t look like a good bet to me since it probably won’t have a very broad appeal.
Since we have lost 2 (or3) mags this year, there may be a market. MRRing & MLModeler were more to the craftsmen end of the hobby. I remember a review of the Walthers 40’ truck trailer. This is a 10 mionute kit, 30 if you detail & weather it, yet some genious wrote 1 1/2 pages about it - without detailing & weathering! What really gaulled me was the complaint that a row of rivets was only 109 instred of 111 (or some such pair of numbers)! Do even rivet counters get anal enough to get upset over 2 rivets in an 8’ vertical run? At any rate, after 40+ years of the hobby, I still enjoy some of the basic articles as well as some of the more advanced. New products & technology make some “basic” articles very useful to some of the “old timers”. Only a few years ago, DCC was cutting edge that only the electronic “nerds” could understand! Now, even I can understand and run MRC Prodigy Advanced and program a new loco!![:D]
I’d like to see a monthly ‘regional’ layout visit of a real layout by someone who’s name is not one of the so recogninzed 30 or so that they seem to rotate between. We seem to see features from the same modeleres over and over with a few new salted in here and there. How many times have we seen Eric’s Utah Belt. How about a feature on Art Hill’s corner canyon or Brunton’s Helix for example.
So, how could it work? First, divide the country into 3 or 4 regions plus Europe and Australia. Then each month have a layout visit to one of these different regions in sequence. Shoot the whole place, let us see what they did good and what they’d like to improve. These layouts would look like one of ‘ours’ not one of ‘theirs’ meaning that you do not necessarily see the money flowing off the table, but you see the work of a real modeler. No photoshoping the backgrounds, we don’t mind seeing the basement window, we have one on our layout room, so what.
Real layouts done by real guys and gals are very interesting to me. I love to see the benchwork, the under construction stuff, things not finished, modeling in the raw if you will. Why? It keeps it all in perspective, lets me feel good about some of my work while trying hard to extend myself in other areas.
Idea #2 Neat Shop areas
How about a monthly shot or two of the best workshop areas?
Idea #3 Monthly teen layout
Each month, run a picture of a railroad being built by a teen modeler, and let it be the teen’s work, not grandpa’s that gets published. Encourage teens and youth.
Idea #4 Benchwork of the month
Unique pictures of benchwork under construction, stuff we would find interesting.
There is some wisdom in this statement, if these mags were predominatly aimed at the craftsman. I’m for building basic skills, the foundation required to become a craftsman.
For example, one reads over and over that foam is the way to build a mountain scenery. Has hardshell and zip texture techniques become obsolete? Do they no longer have a place in our hobby? Is it foam or else?
equal time for all scales. sometimes it gets a little disapointing when there are very few N scale posts which is what I model. I still enjoy all the other scale’s. It’s always fun to see what other people can create. Other than that the only thing that I think would be nice is if the magazine was as thick as a phone book, full of pictures, all color, same price, and came to my mail box twice monthly.
There is some wisdom in this statement, if these mags were predominatly aimed at the craftsman it sounds like the market for that reader is soft. Why would MRR pursue interests where the periodicals for that niche went belly up. Me, I’m for building basic skills, the foundation required to become a craftsman.
For example, one reads over and over that foam is the way to build a mountain scenery. Has hardshell and zip texture techniques become obsolete? Do they no longer have a place in our hobby? Is it foam or else?
Joe-Daddy, that is not entirely true. Just in the last couple of months the scenery technique using cardboard strip forms and red-rosin paper was given prime coverage by MRR.
I’m not sure we need a new magazine to compete with MR and/or RMC.
I know I have nits to pick with MR from time-to-time, but I think it really does cater to mainstream model railroading.
For those with a more craftsman/advanced bent, there’s RMC.
For those into narrow gauge (and highly-detailed stuff), there’s NG&SL Gazette.
For us N scalers, there’s N Scale Railroading and N Scale Magazine (the former more mainstream and the latter craftsman-oriented to include scratch-bashing N scale steam).
O scale has several magazines that range from 3-rail to Fine O Scale.
Garden folks have their magazines.
S scale has two magazines (one is for Sn3 exclusively).
I saw Red Rosin paper coverage in RMC, did MRR cover it as well? Either of which further emphasizes my point, is hardshell and zip texturing no longer a suitable, acceptable way to do scenery?
I’d like to see a monthly ‘regional’ layout visit of a real layout by someone who’s name is not one of the so recogninzed 30 or so that they seem to rotate between. We seem to see features from the same modeleres over and over with a few new salted in here and there. How many times have we seen Eric’s Utah Belt. How about a feature on Art Hill’s corner canyon or Brunton’s Helix for example.
So, how could it work? First, divide the country into 3 or 4 regions plus Europe and Australia. Then each month have a layout visit to one of these different regions in sequence. Shoot the whole place, let us see what they did good and what they’d like to improve. These layouts would look like one of ‘ours’ not one of ‘theirs’ meaning that you do not necessarily see the money flowing off the table, but you see the work of a real modeler. No photoshoping the backgrounds, we don’t mind seeing the basement window, we have one on our layout room, so what.
Real layouts done by real guys and gals are very interesting to me. I love to see the benchwork, the under construction stuff, things not finished, modeling in the raw if you will. Why? It keeps it all in perspective, lets me feel good about some of my work while trying hard to extend myself in other areas.
Idea #2 Neat Shop areas
How about a monthly shot or two of the best workshop areas?
Idea #3 Monthly teen layout
Each month, run a picture of a railroad being built by a teen modeler, and let it be the teen’s work, not grandpa’s that gets published. Encourage teens and youth.
Idea #4 Benchwork of the month
Unique pictures of benchwork under construction, stuff we would find interesting.
I thought I was a noob and here I am…obsolete already [:P] Anyways, well, hardshell is FAR from dead in my house… I used it to build my mountains… pictures probably next weekend! [:)]
Actually, S has 4 if you count the NASG Dispatch. The Sn3 Modeler is twice yearly, S/Sn3 Modeling Guide has had trouble maintaining their every other month schedule, S Gaugian and Dispatch are every other month and maintain their schedule. But still, for a minority scale we do pretty good.
And you’re right, overall there is a pretty good selection.