being in the hobby for only four years and 15 years before that having an interest only in German Railways has given me a bit of a surprise. While going to various train shows I picked up some Trains Magazines from the late 80’s and early 90’s and am really enjoying reading them. It is amazing to go back in time and seeing all the pictures of the power of the day and reading about the issues at hand. Reading the articles from back then and having an idea how things unfolded creates an interesting twist to todays railroad scene.
This begs to ask the question do you go back in your stack of magazines and dig out the older copies and re-read the articles? If you are relatively new to the scene do you also pick up older magazines and read them as well?
Minus a couple of gaps where the budget didn’t allow me to acquire various magazines, I probably have about 35 years worth of railroad and model railroad magazines (obviously including Trains and MR). It can be most fascinating to go back, especially to see some of the now-fallen flags in all their glory.
I found an old magizine (I think Walthers) from 1950’s. Back when phone numbers were of 3-5 numbers long. If I could go back in time with the money i have now, I would have the best Steam collection ever!!!
I’m always going back and re-reading my past issues (back to 1972). It’s always a mixed experience. Watching the Milwaukee Road and the Rock Island expire vs. seeing Conrail survive & prosper and finally sell to CSX/NS. Always, Amtrak getting jerked from crisis to crisis. Some things change, some things stay the same.
I do go back through the old issues; they are fascinating. In fact, I have been posting questions periodically on this board, when I see something of interest in the 80s or 90s and wonder “whatever happened to that”?
For example, I’m not certain whether Amtrak still runs a “Fast Mail” train out of Boston - it’s not listed in the public timetable.
…These kinds of magazines most likely do not get thrown away by fans such as us…I know that is a problem with me. What to do with them. I have boxes of such stored and really don’t get back “into” them much, but they are there if I would care to “find something”…
I have them back quite a few decades. I have a few old RAILROAD mag’s back as far as 1944. Of course B/W photos, and drawings and lots of railroad stories in them then.
There will come a time I must find a “home” for them…
Same problem here. What to do with them. I file them in a box, by year and month.
These are valuable magazines for me, not only for the wealth of information, but also the reading enjoyment. I also keep my CTC, TRP, and Classic Trains plus my old Sky and Telescope. Hopefully my next house will have a large library room.
Does anyone buy the binders from TRAINS? I have considered it, but at $14…a bit steep. Are there other alternatives?
Office supply stores have holders that will hold a year’s worth of most magazines very nicely. The cardboard version I usually get comes several to a package. They assemble easily and fit nicely on a shelf. Add a suitable metal shelf unit (remember - magazines get heavy) from your local big-box and you can store quite a few years of magazines in a small space, plus they are easily accessible to boot.
My problem is a substantial collection of fire service magazines as well…
I think I have every railroad magazine I ever bought. My dungeon is running out of room. Yes, I occasionally resort to them when I need to look up something.
I bought some binders once, Ed, but don’t use them because they take up too much room. The way to go for me would be bound volumes (and I do have a couple), but those are more expensive, and would be like buying a second copy of all of the issues.
Of course, the ideal nowadays would be to have everything on a CD that I could just slip into the computer and pull up any page from any issue, from 1940 right up until, say, the end of the last volume, indexed and cross-referenced. Anyone offer that service at a reasonable price? If that ever happens, get ready for one heck of a garage sale!
If I had the time, I’d scan in a recent issue just to see how big it would be. Of course, I’d have to do it at work, since I don’t have the PDF software at home, and that just complicates things.
I’m sure there would be legal ramifications for anyone other than the publisher selling electronic copies of the magazines. Still, it would make a great resource. Especially considering that some of my copies are anything but pristine.
…It really is a problem. I am sure…very sure, I have never knowingly thrown a “railroad magazine” away. Wonder why that has happened as such…?? I get 3 automotive / truck publications as well and I do give them away. Yes, I’m an automotive fan as well as a “railroad” bug, but it seems I don’t have the same concern giving away the automotive mags after I’ve finished with them, that is…if they don’t have an article I can’t live without.
The old Trains magazines are storehouses of information. More for the pictures than the articles. A lot of history is forgotten as are the correct details for an era on both the railroad I model and other railroads. I chuck the modlemagazines as the control methods become very dated. I now subscribe to the philosophy that if you are not careful the junk will expand to occupy the space available so I try to limit the space for it.
National Geographic did what Carl suggested and put all their magazines from the begining of time to the late 1990’s on to CD’s. I personally thought the effort was a failure, not because of the images but the user interface was terribly difficult to use. Finding a particular article or subject was just not a pleasant experience. Finding an easy way for the user to get what he wants is much harder than scanning the magazines. I only used that software about a half a dozen times and then I put it away. And it cost me in th low three figures at the time if I recall correctly.
AK - I suspect the best way to use such CDs would be to simply put as many magazines on each as they will hold (possibly even going to DVD’s - I understand they hold more) and have a separate index. Look up what you want to find then go to the appropriate CD/DVD and find the article.
If we assume that a year would fit on a CD, you’d have an index disk (updated with each release of a new year’s CD), then individual CD/DVD’s with the actual magazines/articles. Granted, it’s a manual interface, but it’s also the simplest approach. The truly serious reader/researcher could invest in one of those carousels for CD’s.
You can do searches like that on Trains now, but you can’t get to the article itself in most cases. All you know is that the article appeared in the June 1963 issue. Between on-line and a comprehensive index on CD/DVD, it really would just put the actual issues in digital form instead of on paper.
Yeh, what to do with all the old magazines. I had Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, Trains, CTC, UP’s Info Magizine and now The Streamliner, Union Pacific Historical Society’s Magazine. Model Railroader went back to the late fifties, the others not quite as long. The time came when the wife and I had to move and really downsize. The magazines were in boxes (many) and a number of years in slip folders with the name of the magazine on the back. I thought about advertising, but because I didn’t have a lot of luck selling my model railroad equipment, I just knew the magazines wouln’t sell, so guess what, with heavy heart and much reluctance they all went into the trash.
All that is, except The Streamliner magazines as I am still a member of the Historical Society, and the Info Magazines. We are in a retirement community and just did not have the room. Do I wish I still had them? Once in a while I do, but they are gone, so no worth wishing. I can’t get them back. I might be willing to sell the “Info” magazines - anyone interested?
I’ve got “TRAINS” mags going back to '72, “Railfan” back to '86, “Classic TRAINS” since they started, plus odd sets of Pac Rail News, CTC Board, Extra 2200 South, Trains Illustrated, Model Railroader, the SOO historical and CNW historical mags, and who knows what else…all packed away in my basement in handy plastic totes.
Started around 1980. Was really just getting into the hobby and saw an issue of Trains in a local stationery store. Picked it up. Bought it. Life was never the same again.
One of my favorite things I own is the issue “The Death of the O&W.” I saw it just sitting at a table at my club’s gathering a year or so back and grabbed it. (Well, paid for it of course). Everybody else seemed to really be interested as none of them realized it was there. I like the older issues for comparison, how things change! And I very proudly expanded my vocabulary every month thanks to DPM. Those were good times.
When I asked about the possibility of digitizing back issues on a CD or DVD, I figured that if Kalmbach itself didn’t want to do this, they could contract it out. In the old, lower-tech days, nearly every periodical worth anything was sent to Xerox University Microfilms for placement on that medium. Hadn’t thought about them for a long time until I passed Zeeb Road in Ann Arbor earlier this year (I used to have that address memorized!).
I started buying Trains in 1962; and have been able to back-date the collection by nearly ten years. I could probably do better than that, but won’t bother until I can figure out some dungeon modifications.
After I graduated from college in 1969, I started my subscription to Trains magazine which I still maintain. I have saved all of the magazines. About 1980, I discovered an older gentlemen who was selling his Trains magazine collection which dated back to Volume 1, Number 1, published in 1940. I bought the collection and currently own every issue of Trains magazine ever published. The information contained in the issues from the 1940’s and 1950’s is fascinating. I never tire of picking up an older issue at random and reading it fom cover to cover.