I just got 102 Track Plans and it is so much better than 101, yet it is a cheap magazine, not a book that will last. I understand that if you make it cheap and charge less for it you’ll sell more, but this is the one I want on my shelf, the one I will send people to the store or library for.
Cheeses.
…that is when I start looking for a bindery…
publisher too cheap to do a sequel properly. To paraphrase Bill Cosby; ’ what is wrong with the 102nd track?
Thanks,
I thought this would go to page 7 without a response.
MR does it righ in needed content…but does it wrong in quality of product.
I don’t think they intended this to be a book but just a magazine. They may chnage their collective minds but they haven’t replaced the 101 Track Plans book and I don’t think they are going to just like they won’t reissue the book on John Allen.
Irv
Corsair; The John Allen book reissue would be a good idea but these people…?
This is how most North American companies falter - north and south of the border. They start with a good product which draws a loyal fan base- then over the years they dummy it down and cheapen the presentation. They eventually farm out production off shore in order to save money. The product suffers again. The loyal fan base leaves and they lose business. They don’t blame themselves for their problems, but blame the loyal fan base for abandoning them without looking in the mirror.
Get a stick-on binder edge with notebook rings and put it in a binder. That way you can keep it on your shelf and not have to worry about tearing it up.
Now let’s say a person asks for advice about designing a layout. Now I would say go get 102 Track Plans–oh wait, Amazon.com won’t have it. And they can’t get it from interlibrary loan, cause guess what. It’s not a book.
But they can get that antiquate other book–one where the turnout geometries don’t work and the spaghetti bowl track plans are fudged to make it look good on paper–101 Track Plans.
Actually, you can get it from InterLibrary Loan. The only catch is you need to supply the page numbers so they can send the photocopies to your library. I had to go through this for some research I was doing. More putz work involved but you still get the info.
Matt
Ill say it was a marketing move. The timing of the magazine was right about the time people think " What does little Billy or Judy want for Christmas?" So lets put out a book on track plans and make it a magazine to get the old juices flowing and an intrest in what we do.
I liked that they inculded not just the project layouts, but ones like Fedral street, and ones done by modelers. I kinda like it but I have to agree with SM, its going to get dog eared here at my place and I wouldnt mind having a book form of it,but I will take what I can get
Further question - is there any new material in these 102 plans, or are they all ones that have previously appeared in MR? Being that I have a rather large collection of back issues, I probably have each and every one, and if not, they are probably in the track plan database online.
If there’s a lot of all-new material, well, all bets are off.
I’ve actually built two layouts using 101 Track Plans for ideas - even if a lot of the layouts are spaghetti bowl types. They all aren’t, the shelf section has plenty of sincere point to point ideas. 101 TP also has the original G&D, and you’ve seen what that grew into. Many but not all of those plans had previously appeared in MR, but WAY back. I have some issues old enough to contain the articles those plans came from. I also fleshed out my collection of the oldest issues with ones that have John Armstrong ideas in them - interesting seeing the plan he was presenting which developed yet another of his ideas as presented in Track Planning for Realistic Operation or Creative Layout Design. Most of the concepts were developed in various plans he drew and wrote multi-page articles on back in the 50’s.
–Randy
Randy,
These are definitely plans that have come from MR the last 8 years or so. But that doesn’t bother me much. It’s nice to see them side by side. For instance if you have a 10 x 12 room. There are about 30 different options you can choose from. Just looking at benchwork configurations side by side can increase your options. But the main benefit is for the newbie or the person designing a layout after a long hiatus. These people will go to the hobby shop looking for track plans. Will they get the better 102 or the older 101. Which will the hobby shop stock a year from now?
Just like Modeling the 50’s started as a couple of magazines and became a book, I suspect this one will too. That is, if it sells well.
Enjoy
Paul
I don’t see the big deal. Most of the how-to manuals I have bought over the last 30 years are in magazine format and they have held up pretty well. Even my bible, John Armstrong’s Track Planning for Realistic Operation, is still in good shape even though I have reference it hundreds of times since I bought it back in the 1970s. The cover has come loose but so what. The pages have all held together and the information in it is still invaluable. As the old adage says, don’t judge a book by its cover.