Opinions of Trains Special Issues?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am wondering how many of you buy the Trains and Classic Trains special issues?

I am referring to issues like Diesel Victory, Steam Glory, Locomotive and In Search of Steam.

Personally, I really like these issues. [8D] Just curious what the guys on this forum think of them?

Thanks,

Jim

2

I subscribe to Classic Trains which I receive 4 times a year. I just got my winter edition yesterday with my MR. That was a double treat. Being a transition modeler, Classic Trains is more relevant to me than Trains. They have a nice spread about the last decade of the Lackawanna. Although my layout is freelanced, it is set in the same area as the Lackawanna and is heavily influenced by it.

3

Desiel Victory, Steam Glory and Steam Glory 2 are some of thier best work. Because of this Im considering subscribing to Classic Trains that appears to match my transition era very well.

4

I buy 'em and I read 'em; like all other periodicals they have articles which stroke my immediate interest and others which mitigate my insomnia. I am a history major and I find some history books do the same thing.

5

I have bought several of these issues and generally like them. My one complaint is that they sometimes are just photo issues (i.e., the written content is weaker than the pictures). That is actually my complaint about Classic Trains in general, that it tends towards being a picture magazine without a lot of good written content.

6

I really like the issues you listed and purchased them as references. The stories in “The Search for Steam” take me back to that era when I read those stories in the Trains Magazine. For me, it takes me back to a special time when my Dad was still with me and we were watching many of the steam locomotives that the stories were written about.

I always smile then I think of the CB&Q engineer in the Steam for Steam stories that took slack and did not get the train rolling on the first try or so. I have watched that more than once and the engineer usually applied much more thottle on the second attempt at starting a train. We watched a PRR J1 attempt to start a westbound train one evening after dark at the Effingham Coaling tower and somewhere back in the train, some of the brakes were still set. That engine would ring fire around the circle of all the drivers as the engineer tried to break the train loose, but in the end they had to walk the train and fix the problem.

It might not be as interesting to some today with all of the changes to the railroad industry, but in the steam era, the skills of the people and the quality of the locomotives were both extrememly important.

Cheers

7

I have been purchasing the quarterly and the special editions for three years, about the same time I have been in the hobby. I have enjoyed them because they contain what I would call a suitable mix of narration and imagery to help me to get oriented to my own transition modelling better. I missed Steam Glory I, but did purchase the next two specials and found them to be well worth their few dollars.

My compliments to the Kalmbach staff for their work on Classic Trains.

-Crandell