What was your favorite feature story from the October 2003 issue of Trains Magazine? Please vote then share your comments below.
Polls on Trains.com are not scientific and reflect only the opinions of the users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, the readers of our magazines, nor the public as a whole. Bottom line, our polls are meant for fun and to stimulate conversation amongst our forum users.
You know every month you ask, I share my comments, but worst of all, the fact that no body could care less about what I have to say or anyhting like that. You know, when i post my comments, i kinda would HOPE they are used for the betterment of the magazine… I’m not saying that the magazine is terrible, in fact it’s the best train magazine there is on the market, However the price is almost highway robbery. 8 bucks for a magazine of what… 100 pages? i’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and say 175 pages. Thats almost armed Robbery! there should be laws against that… But like last month… i said the same thing and I think You skipped over that part, so i’ll say it again… Remeber the figures, where it coast 5 dollars difference to subscribe and to buy it at the newstand? I’ll try writing that agaian. Maybe this time it might work!!!
You wanted my comments you got them, i have a feeling i’ve wasted a lot of energy typing them, because in my opening line, i get the feeling… you couldn’t care less!! I was always taught “If you don’t care, don’t ask” So take 2, let’s hope i get an aknowledgement from an exectuve in the Trains.com comitee acknowleging the the Canadian price for a copy of the magazine, is a “little” Steep.
Because Erik, you must think that i am a stark raving mad lunatic, No one I work with will purchase your magazine due to the extremely elevated prices… I can come up with a list of names if you want, i’d say it’s around 20-30 people, Just so that you can truly see i’m “Not the only one”
Yours truly,
Kevin Ilaqua.
Please feel free to e-mail me, or anything like that. just press the “E-Mail” button…
I have to admit the first thing I look for in every issue of Trains magazine is articles about Amtrak. The Magazine is always current of what’s happening to the service.
Mike Duprey
I liked the alco article and the blueprints.it gives me a map if we decided to take a roadtrip.
stay safe
Joe
My favorite articles involve stories about and by people involved in railroading. Railroading to me is an action adventure involving human activity and big machines and structures.
As far as the cost of the magazine, I don’t find the subscription price out of hand.
…I’ve been reading TRAINS mag. for many, many years…I suppose I should say I enjoy photographs of any railroad subject…Especially enjoy the articles of the big Union Stations [and photos], that were main stream some years ago…Some articles in the past of the construction of such and more were supreme…Enjoy articles such as the reopening of routes over the rockies in recent years…and of course photos showing work necessary to do such. Would even enjoy some articles of ROW’s now abandoned that were high profile in recent past…[Of course photos]. Remember the famous South Penn effort across the Pennsylvania mountains 100 years plus ago…Lots of it still visible across the hillsides of Pennsylvania…Actually the Pennsylvania Turnpike [the original portion], followed much of the old S P survey…all interesting railroad history…I could go on but these are just some of my thoughts…One more thing…I like articles, photos and features on Amtrak too…It’s all we have in the long haul passenger business…
the whole magazine is greattttttttttttttttttttttttt
I cannot vote yet as I wont see the magazine on the newstand over here until the end of the month, October that is.[8D]
It’s hard to pick one as the whole magazine is usually great reading and information. I am a little upset because you forced me to pick one over the other. I enjoy reading the magazine and all the articles. I do however agree somewhat with Kevin over the Canadian price. I realize the difference in the monetary system and the cost of postage plays a large part of the price. I guess that’s what we have to pay to live in a great country
kevin
I like the one on Alcos. I wished they had identified the men on the engine crossing Erie Junction. With it being in my home town. Just courious as to who they may be and If I may have know them.
The TRAINS staff could have devoted the entire magazine to “In Service to a Nation; Men of the Southern”, and I would have been delighted. As one who loves “human interest” stories related to railroading, this was definitely one of my all time favorites.[:D]
Just one question.If a diesel loco has a diesel motor and generator to generate its own power.plus a huge fuel tank wich adds to the weight for traction.whats inside a electric loco for them to be so big.and what do they do for traction…
Your magazine is getting worse as time goes on. It isn’t the just fact that the subscription price is out of control, the reduced content as compared to the past. It’s the quality overall!
I would suggest your sales type get off their chairs and get some appropriate advertising to help put the kids of you and your staff through college and stop letting the subscribers pay the freight, so to speak. It does work for other magazines where subscriptions are $30 for 3 years. Yes there are advertisements but the advertisements are interesting too if they fit the readership.and less than a 3rd of the content. Maybe your trying to “hammer” your potential advertisers, too. No wonder there are limited advertisers. If you have more advertisers, you can charge less for advertising and–for subscriptions. There’s a concept! Unless you’re trying to become multi-millionaires over night.
The stories are not as interesting as in past years either. Just like there are lots of places to see in the North American Continent, never mind going to east overshoe Africa. There are just as many railroad subjects to cover in North America not just fictional stories. I have to believe there places and things to cover that have more to offer than trying to make Hutchinson, KS sound like Chicago. Not that it’s not a nice little town in middle America, please–.
Get to work! You’ve got about another 2 years (sucker) before I get to renew my subscription. I’ll be watching. By then, the renwal ought to be $200, if things keep going the way they are currently going.
philg
REALLY!
I collected some prices for you all, i don’t subscribe to them aLL, but here are some prices for everyone to look at
Road and Track magazine. 4.99 CDN for 156 pages
Motor Trend: 4.99 CDN for 156 pages
Import tuner: 5.99 CDN for ~ 220 pages
Performence Auto and sound 5.99 CDN for 371 pages, 20 bucks to subscribe for 1 year
UMM 122 pages for 4.25 , 10 issues for 10 bucks to subscribe
Maxim Blender: 4.99 CDN for 156 pages, 17. 97 Us funds for 1 year to subscribe
Trains magazine 6.95 CDN for 90 pages, 70 bucks CDN to subscribe anually…
Now something IS WRONG with that price… time for someone to take immediate action.
Erik you started this topic, and i have yet to see a follow up… are you waiting for someone to Lie and say something nice about the price so you can throw your commentary in?
This also brings into Question about the executives on the board of TRAINS, no one i know will purchase it due to the insane price., and 2 other members have voiced their concerns over the price… yet why havn’t the executives tuned into this topic, let alone this fact and make an attempt to resolve it?
Hey Bergie,
I voted for the Amtrak story, found it very interesting and enlightening on the overall Amtrak picture. But I enjoyed all of the articles ini the Oct. issue.
I do agree with Kevin though, the price is a bit steep up North here. That’s why I don’t subscribe, I pick and choose the issues I will purchase.
Jeff
Kevin, let me shed a little light on your comments. Now remember, it’s just me, no one of significance speaking. [:D]
First, let me address some of your pricing concerns. Trains Magazine at $6.95 Canadian equals $5.18 US (as of today, October 2, 2003). The US cover price is $4.95, roughly the same cost. A subscription to Trains for a Canadian is $54, not $70. $54 Canadian is only $40.28 US. That’s actually cheaper than the $42.95 US sub price. Not bad considering GST and added postage expenses. [;)]
Next, comparing a niche title like Trains to a large magazine like Road and Track or Motor Trend isn’t comparing apples to apples. The potentail universe of readers for those magazines is much larger than Trains. Also, without checking, I would assume they have much larger readership and I know for a fact that their advertising universe is much greater than Trains’. Look at the ads in those magazines. Large ads from auto manufacturers, booze, cigarettes, automotive parts. Even if you’re comparing us to a niche like performance auto and sound… think about their advertising. I’ve never seen it, but I have to assume that they’re selling a ton of aftermarket auto parts (and stereo components) to kids who want to convert their moms Civic into a dirt-bike-sounding “performance” vehicle. Do you know how huge that market is? Trains sells videos, artwork, excursion trips, etc. Compare the size of our markets.
To philg’s comments… I sold advertising for our company for several years before moving over to Trains.com. Tell our sales types to get off their chairs and get some appropriate advertising? Sorry, it’s not that easy when you’re talking about a niche magazine. You can’t go after anyone you want. Think about our potential universe. Think about it for a while. What comes to mind as an appropriate ad for Trains as compared to a consumer magazine that you suggest that sells for $30 for 3 years? Those are obvisously magazines with huge consumer appeal. Not niche magazines. The adver
FIFTY-FOUR DOLLARS Canadian a year?
“Vol-a-main-armé” as the french like to cvall it, that means… thats’ Armed robbery! for a tiddley magazine like that, although great content… 12 issues of 90 pafges does not add up to 54 dollars. plus mailing fees, plus cheques woritten or money order, i’d be LUCK to speand less then 60 bucks…
you can call me a liar for 10 bucks.
Rolling stone is 35 Dollar a year, published twice a month, 200 pages each issue
Erik…I think you made a reasonable case for the pricing of the mag…Of course we all want our “stuff” as inexpensive as we can get it but the way you explain it seems reasonable. For me, if they’ll just make every effort to keep the quanity and quality of the photos coming I will be pretty well satisfied…
Again, comparing Trains Magazine to a mass market, universal appeal magazine like Rolling Stone is not comparing apples to apples. Look at their circulation. Look at their number of ad pages. Look at their advertisers. Do you see anything there in common with Trains magazine? [?] More readers, more advertising, more major advertisers, etc. The more you produce, the cheaper it gets.
We’re talking Universal Studios and MGM versus Sunday River Productions and Pentrex. How many people see productions from Universal Studios and MGM versus Sunday River Productions and Pentrex. How many ad pages must those major movie studios run per year in Rolling Stone to promote their movies? How much do they spend in advertising? Rolling Stone’s large audience of key readers (within the movies studios desired demographic) help fetch high price ads. How many people, in return, see the movie ad in Rolling Stone and then go see the movie… thus starting the cycle all over again? When was the last time one of your friends said they were going to the movies to see Cabride from Kansas City to Chicago? Railroading is a niche. Music, television, movies, and pop culture - the topics Rolling Stone covers - are not. There are probably 100 readers of Rolling Stone compared to every one reader or Trains.
Everything is different, Kevin. It’s good old fashion economy of scale. It’s relative whether you’re building and selling automobiles, or freight cars, or magazines.
Armed robbery? There’s an old saying: price is only an issue in the absence of value. I’d rather pay $54 (Canadian) for Trains than $35C for Rolling Stone because I’m interested in railroading. I’m not interested in reading about the latest garbage churned out by the music industry or Hollywood. I’d pay to read Trains magazine -which covers what I’m interestes in - and I wouldn’t pay to read Rolling Stone. Trains covers what I like. Rolling Stone doesn’t. Which is more valuable to me? I don’t care if you’re talking about Rolling Stone for $
Eric,
Up to about two/three years ago here in Kansas City, Trains could be found on high end grocery stores, and Wal-Mart magazine racks, but now they carry MR at best. That is a little disappointing for a railroad town such as Kansas City. Borders, a national book store chain, and a couple of local book stores, are the only places that I’ve seen Trains and other train and model railroading magazines on the racks. I’m sure Kalmach’s accounting and subscription departments have taken notice.
Also, there aren’t as many railroads today to report on as there were 20 years ago. I used to subsribe to Pacific RailNews. It started out reporting on all railroads mainly west of the Mississippi River. Each railroad had its own column. Then after the BN-SF and UP-SP mergers, the title changed to RailNews to include the eastern roads. I guess that wasn’t enough to fill content and subsription needs, and Kalmach purchased RailNews around 1997/1998. Why? I don’t know. Was it the competition?
If another mega-merger occurs, the chances of content decreasing increases. Hopefully the Trains’ staff will find a way to put the meat back in.
Take