The Back Issue/Digital Archives Book Club Number Six for the week of March 2 will focus on March 1978 Model Railroader

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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I read the RPO column and it truly seemed the comments made, could have been made today! One guy complained about the cover photo of the December 1977 issue, so I had to go back and see what he was talking about. The photo is of an area of the Carrabassett & Dead River Railway, seen in Dave Frary’s Book on Scenery and the photo won third place in MR first ever color photo contest. The photo is very well done, however the wispy cotton puff of smoke coming from the loco’s stack doesn’t look very real. Most of the letters in this RPO Column had to do with the December 1977 issue. This has lead me to need to look at this issue whch many of the writers felt to be a watershed issue.

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In these trips through the archives we will undoubtedly see prices for products from bygone days so I thought this cost of living calculator might give us some perspective:

http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

For example, that FSM structure that sold for $36.95 in 1978 would cost $132.45 in today’s dollars.

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I purchased one of those Controlmaster I power packs and got many good years out of it on my old DC layout. I still have it and it still works but it has been relegated to powering turnouts and other accessories at the far end of the layout. Kind of like a retiree taking a part time job.

I used the inflation calculator to figure that $39.98 MSRP for the Controlmaster I in 1978 would