Are there any Information Station articles you would rate as “must have?” I’ve only been an MR subscriber since February of this year, so I don’t have any back issues with the IS articles. I frequently see people reference various books, such as Armstrong’s “Realistic Operation” book (which I have), but was wondering if any of the IS articles could be considered “must have” for beginning model railroaders.
(I’m in the design stages of my first layout, in N scale.)
ehowe, I’m working on my first layout in N scale as well. I have not tried the IS articles (so I apologize for not answering your question), however, I did find the book “N Scale Model Railroad That Grows: Step-By-Step Instructions for Building Your First N Scale Layout” helpful in getting me started, and it’s only about $10 on Amazon. What’s nice about the book is that it follows a layout from start to finish. Starting with little knowledge about how to proceed, I found this approach made it easier to grasp and think about the “big picture” instead of reading disjointed articles about specific topics. I’m not following the book’s steps exactly or using all its techniques, but it did help me organize my thoughts, to plan ahead and figure out what problems I needed to solve and in what order. I am using a modified version of his benchwork which I’ve found very easy to work with so far. I’m not that far along in what I’ve actually completed (track layout is set and soldered but not on the layout at the moment, cork is glued down and some topography done --you might wonder how the track is soldered but not in place; that would need some explanation, which I’m happy to provide if interested), but I do have my planned steps from start to finish mostly settled.
Also, if you haven’t already found them, MRR’s site has several articles that are free. Some are utterly useless, but others have a nugget or two of wisdom. They are located at: http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/004/474duagg.asp
Some time ago I participated in a very strong converstaion on the forum regarding past issues to be preserved in digital form for use by CD’s or download. The pricing, technology and uses or needs came into the discussion.
I think that someday there will be a complete collection of MR for everyone to view on the internet but probably not at great expense to MR who owns the material. Then there are many people who probably have copyrights to much material over the decades and getting permission for each and all content before putting up on the net has got to be a headache.
I find some of the freebies useful but am not using the paid articles at this time.