On occassion I look back at old issues, reread favorite articles, etc. Today I pulled the first issue of MRR I ever bought. The september of 1986 MRR was a great issue to hook me into the hobby. 1) A nicely done layout by Paul Dolkos, not large, something any of us could do, and included an article on how he weathered his yards. 2) Great Trackside photos 3) 3 scratchbuilding articles 4) scenery construction and photography how to’s 5) Articles on painting and electrical techniques 6) and my monthly favorites; Trains of Thought, Bull Session, 7) and plenty of prototype information.
These are the issues I like. Well rounded. Something for everyone.
MR Nov 71 followed the next day by Dec 71. Together those two issues introduced me into the hobby. The color trackplan for a model railroad of the EBT in the Dec 71 issue is what really hooked me.
First magazine I ever read was the Nov. '86 of Model Railroading. My first MR subscription started with the Oct. '88 issue. I’ve subscribed every year since. At the time I used to love the Student Fare column and was disappointed when it was taken out. My continuing favorite is Trains of Thought and Trackside Photos. The new DCC column is great too.
I have to aggree about enjoying Trains of Thought. It may be the first thing I read every month. I am not completely sure why Koester’s column on the philosophy of model railroading always intrigues me, but it always make me think…
Gee I feel like a real old kodger among all you youngen’s.
May 1967 MR.
It was bewildering, all the terminology … HOn3, N scale (I knew about TT, S, and O from library books, but’s what’s the N stuff?) … journal box, draft gear, frogs, fish plates … it took me several issues just to start getting a handle on things.
Now 40 years later, I find today’s MR still to be interesting. Oh, I’ve been in the hobby a long time now and many of the articles aren’t as fascinating as they were when everything was all new. Now it’s more of a treasure hunt in each issue to find some cool technique to try. Plus I always enjoy the ads and keeping up on what’s new in the hobby. The May 2007 issue of MR is especially full of great pieces of treasure for this old-timer! One of the best in recent memory.
My first that I bought was August 1964, but my buddy Bill and I had been reading it for free at the local magazine rack ("this isn’t a library, sonny’) for some time prior to that. Aug 64 happened to be a color cover – a lovely Southern 4-6-2 in green on Linn Westcott’s own layout – and I think all covers after that one were in color. And they started a reprint of a classic series by Frank Ellison, The Art of Model Railroading.
I have since acquired all issues back to 1950 and a few scattered ones before that. About every three years I read – ok, skim, but I do look at every issue - through the entire collection from beginning to end, in order. And each time I do that I find in nearly every year’s volume at least one article, drawing, or photo that I never noticed before and which I now badly need.
When I think of it I ink in any corrections and additions to prior articles since the index does not always do that for you. The only exception is electronics articles which no longer look useful.
It is a great resource especially now that we have this wonderful index online to help find stuff. Slogging through all the paper indexes was and is no fun.
I was playing with control line model airplanes, when I ran across FINELINES #1 and I sold all my model airplane stuff, started playing with model railroads stuff and finally wound up working in HO … Chuck
Really? I wonder why - not like anything big was going on during the early/mid 1940s… [:P]
I would have thought there would be a lot of articles on fabricating various parts and stuff using wood (which was not war-rationed I’ve read). Tell you the truth, I’d hate being a modeler during that period - I guess I’m spoiled, having been a modeler since 1975 or so (well, my dad did most of the modeling then), and coming of age in the 1980s when lots of higher quality rolling stock, detail parts, prototypical-looking models etc started hitting the market (OK, perhaps not as super detailed as todays, but still plenty good).
Oh, I still remember the October 1976 issue, since it was the first MR I read (more like studied) - can’t remember, say, March 1997, but the early ones I read…
Question for those of you with issues from 30, 40, 50 or more years ago. How well do the old modeling techniques hold up? Are a lot of them still widely used today or have they been replaced by techniques and materials they are easier to use and/or better looking?
You old kodger. Your not alone. My first issues were the years 1953 through 1959. They were my dads and I discovered them when I was four years old. I already loved trains and finding all Dad’s MRs was like finding treasure. I still have all his MRs and most issues published ever since. I’m glad I have them. Being a person who is most interested in steam era shortlines and narrow gauge railroads I find that I frequently refer to issues from the late 1980’s back to old 1953s. Most issues of that period are now ragged, patched up and worn out but then so were many the old railroads I like so much. Bruce
In 1962 the Air Force had sent me to Vandenburg Air Force Base for three weeks of special training and then they extended me for another three weeks - they eventually wound up sending me home a week early - to take part in a missile shoot. That put my financial status in the category known as broke.
I had just enough money to buy three cartons of cigarettes at the commissary - a dollar and twenty one cents a carton if I remember correctly - which left me with about six dollars burning a hole in my pocket; I drifted into the Base Exchange looking for something to read and wound up purchasing the July '62 issues of MR and RMC - the cover price was 50¢ and with the exchange discount it came down to 39¢ a copy. Don’t ask me why, of all the magazines on the newstand I picked those two to purchase except that they - the magazines - dealt with modeling and I had been toying for a couple of years with ships.
By a quirk one of the guys in the barracks had some experience modeling and, in a way, he lit the fire within. I have not missed an issue of either MR{/i] and {i]RMC since and, through swap-meet purchases, have everything from Jan '59 to date. My MRs go all the way back to '47, the last year the magazines were published in the smaller format, I had a couple of late -30s, early '40s issues but they got wiped out a few years back when a water leak in the upstairs apartment managed to center itself directly over the counter where these issues were lying. Every time I go to an NMRA convention I look for old issues being offered in the silent auction.
I periodically take out these old issues and glance through them; as has been stated they had some fantastic scratchbuilding articles in those bygone days of yesteryear, many more then today, and I have marked several things for future construction; my modeling i
My first issue was How to Build Realistic Layouts. I was amazed at how realistic a simple scene could be and I was hooked. The first regular MR I got was the September 2006 one. My favourite article in that was the Information Desk concerning big hooks.