Model Train Index Still Available

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I was doing a crawl and happened to locate the data-base for the original Model Train Index !

While the search engine doesn’t function, all the data for each issue appears to be intact …

http://web.archive.org/web/20060511023536/index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?L=1&tmpl=tm_magl

Mark.

2

It appears to be hit or miss on the issues depending on what the archive has. Some issues don’t appear and others have incomplete TOC. A lot of images are not appearing. Really is more remnants than anything else.

Paul

3

As I said in an earlier thread, the “wayback” machine turns your website into an abomination. I had them take my pacificcoastairlinerr.com off because it was so mangled that it was unrecognizable.

Harod

4

Thanks for posting that link. I downloaded everything I could find. While far from complete it’s more than I had.

5

If you haven’t done so already, you might want to grab the annual MR indexes for the last five years that are posted here http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=ss&id=9

Enjoy

Paul

6

May I suggest to our hosts that they offer the existing data in the index on a CD-rom for sale to allow use at home, thereby preserving the data and the work that went into it, and its usefullness, without having to convert it to modern web standards.

I for one would be happy to pay $30 or so for a working copy on a CD.

Sheldon

7

Even if all the information was placed on a disc, there still wouldn’t be a functioning search engine … which was the beauty of the whole thing.

Want an article on telephone poles ? - one click gave you all the magazines (month and year) that had telephone pole articles … which saved a LOT of time sitting flipping through YEARS of magazines hoping to find something.

There’s been more than a few times recently that I’ve cussed at the fact the index wasn’t there any more, and I DID have to sit there for two hours trying to find a particular article.

Mark.

8

Without the search function it’s no better than a pile of magazines. I have went back to the back issue selling pages for Mainline Modeler and NGSL Gazette for seaching. They have a fairly complete listing of articles.

Harold

9

I’m not a computer genius, by why cann’t the same search engine software that ran the thing in the first place be placed on the disk and downloaded to an individual’s PC for exclusive use by this data?

I’m sure it can,

Sheldon

10

There may be copyright/royalty issues involved depending on how Kalmbach’s deal with the developer was structured.

Enjoy

Paul

11

Thanks for this information Mark. Compared to the 2005-2009 pdf indexes, there doesn’t seem to be much data left now. It is better than nothing. I have just taken over the running of my train club library which has not had it’s list of contents updated in many years. Without indexes, the older magazines are hardly used. As I have just missed out on the old indexes being available, I will have to find some other solution.