Kalmbach Updates (Firecrown)

General
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Craig here. I am the new owner of the Kalmbach titles.

First off, let me appologize for the cluster that was the forum migration. We underestimated how unstable the legacy platform was and the migration to a new forum platform would be.

The new forums are built on an entirely new platform, so getting locked out, outages, and other issues that you experienced should be a thing of the past.

Also, there is no need to do the clunky photo conversion thing that everyone was used to in the old forum. Just copy and paste. You can do that with video as well. Please do - we want this to be an engaging experience.

For updates, we are working on a number of things.

When we bought the Kalmbach we had a gun to our heads to get the office moved over. Kalmbach sold the buildings and we were required to secure new office space and get up and running. We completed that in July.

Second, we migrated the old Kalmbach ecommerce platform to Shopify, which is far more stable and easier to manage. We are in the process of expanding the merch in Q1/Q2.

The forums took longer to convert than I would like. This is on me. We should have communicated the status. Some of this was internal communications and the fact that the forums were down didn’t get flagged with the priority it should have; that won’t be an issue going forward, as I am taking personal ownership of the forums going forward (with the help of a badass technical team).

Next, we are working on migrating the Trains.com website to a new platform. This has also taken longer than it should have. A lot of this is technical related, which we have a fix for. Our hope is to have the websites converted off the old platform soon - the current platform is a nightmare of an experience.

Last, we are making plans on the upgrades to the magazines. This is happening. It will likely be summer before you get the new format, but it is coming.

In the meantime, if you have issues or ideas, please let me know. Don’t forget to invite your friends to this forum. I promise it will be a much more delightful experience than you had before.

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I hope you know how much we appreciate what you’re doing. Most of us have been very loyal to the Kalmbach name and products through its ups and downs.

We know how much the system needed help, and we thank you for all your hard work.

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Craig,

My name is Jason and I am from the Chattanooga area and I would like to say I can’t wait to see the updates to all of the magazines you have from Kalmbach. I noticed on the facebook pages saying that Kalmbach is still responsible for the pages and I happen to have a model railroad myself. I would love to see the layouts you guys have brought down here one day and hope to see them on display.

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Thanks for your candid reporting of your hard work. Meantime, it sure has been frustrating for those of us who “depend” on RR discussion. It’s confusing for me to get the hang of how this works, but it sure looks neat. Thanks again for your time well spent creating this. endmrw1215242158

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Hi Craig:

First off, very happy with the forum upgrade - looks and works great!

I’d like to renew my print subscriptions, but cannot seem to login to my account. Resetting my password does not work - never get a password reset email. I suspect that might be due to an old (now defunct) email address, but don’t know how to fix it. Tried creating a new account, and got error messages saying it already exists! Grrrrr! I’m sure this will eventually get resolved when you finish upgrading everything but what do you suggest for now? I don’t see a customer support phone number anywhere.

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Thank you for the kind words about our forum upgrade, and thanks also for your interest in renewing your subscriptions. Our Customer Service number is 877-246-4843.

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I like your vision and the planned execution of updating the web sight. I am hoping that when I log in that the lead honking ad to join will go away and the request to renew two months into joining will also be history. I really like how your updated forum looks and operates and am hoping that the updated website will be executed similarly.

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Craig,

I am excited for the new website update, which will hopefully archive the old content present on the site and make it easier to find. It is slightly frustrating that the best way to search the site is through Google instead of through the website itself.

As for suggestions, I would like to see a larger library of videos available to stream through Trains Unlimited. It would really increase the value of the service if the subscription included a library, or rotating selection, of films that Kalmbach produced for both Trains and MR. The light selection of video material was partly the reason why I canceled my subscription to the service and remain just a print subscriber.

For the magazines, I would like to see more Trains articles that focus on the business side of the industry and the personalities that drive these companies to do what they do. For MR I would enjoy an expanded section of the monthly layout tour to explain how the model railroad is operated and how closely they attempt to replicate the operational procedures it every prototype.

It’s an exciting time of change, and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Jim

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I’m not going to tell you what to do or how to do it, because this new forum is a significant improvement on what we had. I do appreciate the frank communication about your intent, and your willingness to see some intrinsic value in it that’s worth your investment.

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Thank you very much for keeping the brand alive and well during these times.

I am a traditionalist been a longtime subscriber on and off since the 1980s both MR and classic toy trains.

Which got me to be a subscriber to fine scale modeling

I enjoy the print versions as well as the digital. Been trying to get use to the digital but sometimes it’s hard I have a bad brain injury so some days are good or bad but I anxiously enjoy each magazine as they arrive.

I know it’s not you but having issues with your third party customer service trying to get a 7.99 monthly account get going. I know not your fault and transitions are hard.

In the past I led those integration teams to figure out how to incorporate new acquisition to the brand so I wish you the best of luck and look forward to your success!

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