at least for me, one of the attractions of model railroading when I was a kid was remotely operating electrical trains and turnouts. Today, C/MRI takes this to the extreme.
electronics is a significant part of the hobby and often a significant expense. It is also a learning opportunity. I I think Paul Mallery’s books were a big influence at the time and Linn Westcott made significant contributions. I missed Bruce Chubb’s comprehensive series of articles.
given the types of questions in the electronics forum would it be too much to have a monthly Model Railroader articles discussing anything from basic wiring of a layout and LED circuits to discussing and developing software for for some pico-processor (e.g. Microchip)? How far should they go, is model railroad software a topic for a model railroad magazine?
Of course the next question is who would write such articles?
Gidday, it is as far as I am concerned, but the electronic aspect of the hobby is definitely not why I am into model railroading. However it would be rather churlish, and selfish of myself to say that Model Railroader should not pursue that aspect more, thus depriving those who are more interested in the electronic aspect.
That’s a pretty subjective question. What is technical to me may be “simple stuff” to others - and yet “rocket science” to other others…
Model Railroader is THE vanguard magazine of the hobby here in the USofA. And, the Hobby has been losing participants for many years. So one of MR’s main objectives (from my point of view) is to aid newcomers to the hobby, as well as provide entertainment/education and stimulation for the rest of us.
All of that is a very tall order, and while I agree that those efforts should be constantly reviewed, they are doing a pretty darn good job.
I don’t think getting too indepth with technical stuff is worth it anymore. MRR did have it’s “Symposium” articles years ago but tthat was how to build things that didn’t exist in the market. Today with things like CMRI, auto reversers and DCC those articles are moot.
And I don’t know if you have been reading but they have had some tech articles about led, automatic turnout routing and more, most of which has no place on my layout so I haven’t looked closely at them. And of course the articles like here’s a block detector and how you hook it up (which does apply to my layout) But that’s not really in depth.
OTOH Kalmbach does have tech books availible for purchase that do cover some of the more techy aspects, but keeping the mag as an entry level and introduction type seem to work well.
Well yes actually, if one was interested in TTO operations, which it would seem many modelers are. It seems like a good followup to the Operaters column and ties it all together.
Is it geared towards the new modelers who just got a train set, no it isn’t. But for modelers who are interested in getting startered with TTO yes.
My layout (if I ever get it operational) will be mainly CTC but the expansion into the retirement layout will have some “dark territory” so having a little background on how to opewrate that will come in handy.
As some posters have observed, this is one of those occasions when we see just how big the world is, and what a variety of people it holds. I confess to a certain amount of frustration at being shown, for instance, how to wipe dust and paint off a railhead–the more so because the same information has been appearing for years. But I have to trust the publishers at some point. They go to some trouble and expense to determine what will give their product the most (profitable) appeal; my opinion just doesn’t have the same research behind it.
I think the strategy of using the magazine to introduce the hobby to beginners or near-beginners, leaving the next layer of complexity to special issues or little books, makes good sense. I, too, have appreciated Andy’s recent Operators offerings, but am mystified by devoting so many pages to this TT&TO stuff. I’m not sure I’d get any more from a page on general (as opposed to DCC-specific) electronics again, but I don’t think I’d complain, especially if it were user-driven.
Besides the special issues and books (which can run into money), I’d like to see more done with the video magazine. I don’t think I’d take anything out, but watching Steve Otte build a water tank is worth ten illustrated articles of the same process for me. Similarly, letting me see and hear a newly released loco is better than a printed review, even though I like those, too. What I’m looking for now, to follow the water tank example, is another video in which Steve shows how to apply turnbuckles to the bands, and make puddles from leaks under the structure, and maybe animate the spout–possibly with a detection circuit that senses a tender has stopped underneath, or a sound chip with an under-layout speaker that has running water and clanking chains, and so on.
It’s this next-step, second-level, stuff that I hear the OP asking about; at least I’m asking. Whether it’s
If I can’t hook up a wire from my power pack, and pull a string to switch a turnout and have my layout running, I’m in the wrong hobby, If I want to dabble in electronics and computer stuff I’ll start building computers.
Do I care about D.C., A.C., DC-3 or microprocessors or locos that make really tinny sounds, not really, am I having fun—you bet.
Linn Westcott himself once wrote that there are certain topics that are just better suited to being covered in a book than in a monthly magazine. One example he gave was the extremely basic stuff for beginners - the beginner needs and wants to know so much, all at once, that to parcel it out in pieces month by month does nobody any good. And those who already know the basics feel like they are being ignored.
That is why the yearly, or almost yearly, project railroads in MR touch on some basic topics pretty lightly unless they have an interesting (and often deliberately chosen for that reason) new technique to explore and explain. If you really intend to follow along and build the project layout you probably need more (the supplemental videos perhaps take on the role that specialized books once played).
Read these forums long enough and you realize that we tend to have short memories for articles that appeared even just a few months ago. So even if there was a reintroduction of the Electronics Symposium (which I certainly would not be opposed to), if today is the day you need and want to know about constant lighting or certain infra-red block detection circuits, and that information appeared in the past, as a practical matter it is almost as if it never appeared.
Older readers who remember the Linn Westcott era of MR recall that some highly technical articles appeared in his time, including a multi-part article about building your own pantograph milling machine that I really wonder if even one reader ever built, but Westcott sure did give it the column inches. MR would publish lots and lots of electronic circuits – and then over the following months the corrections and repudiations of that circuit would appear. As a reader back then you got in the habit of making annotations in the margins about corrections and changes because they were fairly common. And yet Wes
Mixed emotions here. I do think it’s time for most beginners to be referred to Kalmbach’s books rather than repeat ad infinitum.
I WAS very glad to read Andy’s excellent t.t.&t.0. article as I’ve been learning that method with some difficulty at monthly ops sessions.
The dispatching article finally made it clear in a pretty basic manner. I tried to sit with our dispatcher and see how things worked but I was always need on my regular jobs.
Many people (certainly not all) in our hobby are discovering Ops is fun and many of us also feel it may be one of our best methods of attracting new members (especially gamer youths) to our hobby.
So, I like the new (although still minimal) focus on operations with MR. The electronic circuits and build your own model lathe, etc. are not something I’d ever do (admittedly no aptitude) but would still welcome them in a separate monthly column like the old days.
when Westcott published his articles on transisotor throttles, i’m pretty sure there weren’t many transistor throttles on the market.
is it in a magazines interest to publish an article on, for example, “how to build a cheap auto-reverser”, when it has advertisers that sell auto-reversers?
In the past the “books” we’re really a pull together of articles from the magazine. These would have a common thread- electronics, scenery, etc. With the digital world we live in today, one can and probably does do that with each google search. The difference was the items in the book were screened through the editor, usually someone the buyer had some confidence in. Yes, mistakes happened in the text, but the intent was there and the discussion was valuable.
In some ways forums like this one are taking the place of some of that. The problem is it can be like telling a story from one person to another down a line of people. The info coming out the other end may not be anything like it started.
For me, the hobby is very dynamic, and these changes lead to a lot of uncertainty. Particularly for people who are new to the activity. Some serious assessments about the pros and cons of certain aspects is missing. It is all well an good to discuss the application of a real railroad train control as applied to a model layout operation session. However, it might be equally beneficial to discuss the application of various techniques to control the locomotive speed when in a consist and when alone. Or what is a power district and what are some of the ways to set it up. Or perhaps, when to use splines and when to use foam for roadbeds.
I realize that some or all of these have probably been discussed, but with the dynamic nature of the hobby, It wouldn’t hurt to cover them again with the current trends.
As an example, I will not buy a book on DCC that was published before 2006. Why, because it is out of date. Where do I go to get the best up to date info? It would seem that the leading magazine in the hobby would be the right place. The magazine should periodically discuss certain aspects and then point to a data base of material that has been sc
I remember years and years ago, early to mid 90s, one of those electronic symposium articles actually addressed this question. Basically, he was responding to (probably) letters asking why there weren’t more electronics articles. His response was twofold:
it had been determined that they were very niche articles and that few readers would be getting much out of the pages for them to be regular articles. Now, remember, this is around the same time that the “Build your own EasyDCC system” series ran for the better part of a year.
a simple matter of real estate. Circuit board drawings and circuit diagrams simply didn’t fit on the pages very well.
To answer the original post…I would say no…compared to past issues starting from the 1980`s on back…there were more detailed construction articles such as the interlocking tower article…and the more detailed layout construction issues.
MR is in a tough place for reasons outside its own control. The publication industry is shrinking, magazines are either getting smaller or going under.
Just look at the magazines published for the modeling community. We had Model Railroading, Rail Model Journal, Mainline Modeler and probably a couple of others I forgot. Sadly they are all gone. So for whatever reason, the demand for hobby publications has decreased.
MR has to do a balancing act. Too technical and the newbies will be intimidated and find no value. If they cater to the beginners, then the rest of us complain about the lack of information. So they are doing what they need to do to survive. Their future, along with the rest of the publishing industry lies in online content. At least they recognize this, unlike others who are no longer with us.[xx(]
I think they do a pretty good job balancing the articles in terms of offering something for everyone. As others have said, they can’t get too specific topic wise nor cater to a certain level of expertise, lest they alienate a segment of their readership. One thing that I do notice from time-to-time is how some articles almost leave the reader hanging or wanting that one crucial piece of information, reference, or necessary picture to make a good article great or more complete. But all-in-all I enjoy the magazine and look forward to when it arrives in the mail.