Is anyone else on here interested in buying back issues of Model Railroader magazine on CD/DVD. I am thinking like the 5 or 10 years in a box set. I think it would be cool to see how this hobby has progressed over the years, and to see the old ads and stuff from 60+ years ago. How many disks do you think the first 25 years would take? How much do you think something like that should/would cost. Just a thought.
Steven,
While I agree it would be fun to see how things have changed and progressed in MR over the last 60+ years, I’m afraid Kalmbach would have an issue (no pun intended) over you doing this. If you are doing this for yourself - i.e. for you ONLY - that’s one thing. However, if you are doing this with the intent purpose of either distributing it and/or making $$$ from it, that’s a violation of copyright.
Tom
I would point out that this same subject has come up more times here than I’d care to say. MR/Kalmbach has replied in several of the previous iterations that they had no interest currently in issuing volumes of older MRs on CDs. Anyway, in all likelihood, were such CD volumes ever to be issued they’d probably not include all the vintage ads, more likely only just the articles.
CNJ831
Just to be clear… I was referring to purchasing CDs from Kalmbach.
Also I did a search before I posted and didn’t find the posts you refer to. Sorry 
N-Scale magazine put their first ten years of publication on CD/DVD for, I believe, $25.00. I have absolutely no idea as to how they may have sold since being offered a few years back.
Be patient–the copyright on Volume 1/Issue 1 expires next year; you can then pretty much do with it as you want.
Were Kalmbach ever to do this I might very well be interested in some 1940s/1950s issues; when olproff offered his extensive collection of MRs up for donation I made a bid on 8 of the years between 1948 and 1958 but somebody apparently made an offer to take the whole kit-n-kaboodle off his hands. My wife doesn’t like it–she says I have enough magazines to provide ballast for a Great Lakes freighter–but I will be looking for back issues at the silent auction at Milwaukee next summer.
Hi
Yes I think that would be a good idea, but I doubt whether Kalmbach will do it. I suggested a while back that it would be a great idea to have an electronic index of every issue on a database. (After all the index is printed in every end of volume issue so someone collates it at Kalmbach) and all they would have to do is get someone to punch it in. But they had no intention of doing it. Shame, both this and the DVD of past issue would be great for the hobby. Oh well…
Barry [8D]
I too think this is a good Idea. For those of us that were not born during that time, there is a wealth of infromation that you can only get at the Library now! And some of these are going online access only. Yes I would some set of CD/DVD
Kalmbach seems pretty savvy when it comes to special projects, so I’m guessing they don’t see enough potential sales at a price point to justify the effort. Pity, even though I have all but about 6 issues back to 1950 and a couple dozen before that, I would be interested. Those back issues take up some space.
Enjoy
Paul
This is why I posted. I wanted to see how many people would be interested and how much they would be willing to pay. So that if the numbers made sense that Kalmbach would consider it. So If we want this then we need to tell Kalmbach who we are and how much we are willing to pay. Then hope the numbers add up. Maybe if Kalmbach gave us an idea of how many and/or how much then maybe the subject can be decided once and for a great while(never say never…lol).
Zigg, I would again suggest a careful and thorough search for the archived forum threads regarding this question, using various possible word combinations for a title search to recover them. In several of the past threads on this subject MR/Kalmbach personnel came forward and answered this question in detail, including the why nots and difficulties in approaching such a project. I would also point out that several of the past threads went to a number of pages and the only conclusion that could be drawn from them was that the number of people truly interested was relatively small (most were looking for an unrealistically inexpensive price per decade for a CD set) and that the cost and time involved would be largely prohibitive on Kalmbach’s part at this time.
Probably odds would be better for seeing the eventual creation of an on-line pay-as-you-go complete article database along the same lines as the more limited article/subject downloads we see offered by MR here currently.
CNJ831
The real value would be in being able to search for something way beyond what using indexes (either their annual paper one or the seemingly no-longer-updated online one) can do – so for example every picture caption, every mention in a letter to the editor, and the like, would be searchable.
Dave Nelson
my local hobby shop is always buying estate sales and I usually pick up old 40’s-60’s issues of MR for a buck a piece…I have a complete set of 1951 and 1952 MR to date and a bunch of random ones as well
I too like the older magazines, they actually taught you how to do things, how to wind your own motor, how to build an outdoor sized layout complete with engine that is powered by a player piano motor, wheels made from condensed milk cans…
Back in the day, in this hobby you had to fend for yourself. I missed all that by 30+ years but still love reading about it.
Kalmbach cant do anything about us letting eachother borrow magazines we already own. Some sort of round robin arangement or if someone was willing to start a website were people could list which issues they have and are willing to loan out. Postage being taken care of by the person doing the borrowing…
Just thinking out loud
R/
Keyton