I understand he was against the whole concept because he was afraid you’d eventually put the magic box to use “photographing” people and thereby stealing their souls…
I miss the good ole’ daze, before MR had an interesting web site and a cool forum where everyone can comment and post their layout pics and stuff. Sigh
I know they named the loco after Governor Clinton. Didn’t know he owned it. (Hillary is a couple of centuries too late to be the first Clinton prominent in New York politics!)
What I really miss is the Dollar Model Projects (though, I admit, the price would be more like ten dollars today.) Simple little articles on scratchbuilding watchmen’s shanties, culverts, lineside details and other things that don’t start off with a fully assembled, DCC equipped locomotive and fifty bucks worth of detail parts from obscure sources.
My favorite Silver Plate Road cartoon was the one where Mister Van went trash can diving (after perfect hand rail wire) while escorting his wife in the Easter Parade…
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I miss the drawings and Bull Session the most. I also miss the “Model Railroading is Fun” slogan on the cover.
Enjoy
Paul
Too bad we got the things you mention at the cost of losing the ones we listed.
It’d be nice to have both.
Or as Miz Watt said, “Jimmy, boy, yer wasting yer time messing with me tea pot.”
It’s all a matter of perspective. I believe you could also call today’s MR more professional and polished, and the MR of those past days “campy” or “folksy”. A more polished look will appeal more to advertisers.
At least when I put my publisher hat on that’s one way to think of it. (I’ve been a professional magazine publisher in years past – but not in the model railroading hobby), my [2c]
To counter all this is a trend back to more of a personable, home-spun look for publications in recent years. Baby Boomers especially are coming to appreciate products that take less of the big-business “Madison Avenue” approach. Moving back to folksy actually makes your product feel warmer and more personal to your readers. As Baby Boomers age, they’re becoming more picky in this regard. I expect in the years ahead you’ll see more magazines hearking back to their roots since the Baby Boomer market is significant.
I really miss the line drawings that headed up different editorial sections. They provided a nice reference to ninteenth century trade publications and industrial catalogs from the true golden ages of railroading.
Anyone remember “Model of the Month”?, too.
As somebody else mentioned, I miss paint shop as it was under Jim Hediger. But since everything is all RTR we don’t need to paint anything anymore.
I forgot about Bull Session, that is a loss.
Also, all the product reviews seem to be RTR stuff, don’t the reviewers build structure kits or car kits anymore?
In the new products section, I don’t care about the type of model headings I care what certain manufacturers are making or importing and ignore other manufacturers.
Rick
Oh, really??? Then howcome I keep encountering posts and responses complaining that the manufacturers don’t ever provide lokes painted for the XYZ Railroad? When MR dropped that column ten years ago or so they said that it had been an managerial decision and based upon a purported lack of interest in painting.
Everything is not ready-to-run but there certainly is a demand afoot to make everything ready-to-run and there is a considerable amount of moaning, groaning, and bellyaching that the manufacturers are ignoring particular railroads or at least appear to be geographically prejudiced. So what happens? there is a rash of complaints expounded on this and other forums that ABC company has never painted their model of locomotive X in the colors of the PDQ Railroad but always seems to offer their offerings painted in the colors of the STU Railroad; so they introduce locomotive X painted in the colors of the PDQ Railroad and what do they get for their effort? “X locomotive is a Phase XXXVIII model and the PDQ Railroad never owned any of that model but did own six of the Phase XXXIX models and why hasn’t ABC company brought out a model of that phase because there are seven of us members of the PDQ Historical Society and we would like to see models of the Phase XXXIX produced and where do the manufacturers get off charging $100.00 for a locomotive?”; and just as sure as they paint this model out in the colors of the PDQ Railroad a hue and cry goes up from the STU Railroad modelers complaining that it sure seems like ABC company is always bringing out models painted in the livery of the PDQ Railroad. I sometimes wonder how much antacid is consumed daily in model railroad manufacturer’s boardrooms!!!
I’ll have to agree with you.
People who are starting, in the hobby ( like me [D)] ), have little idea from the words alone what was done - MR feels like it has moved a bit away from beginners that don’t know much to support the advanced hobbiest more - I’m lucky in that I have a few copies from the 90’s and they had the feel of supplying the begginer with information that I don’t feel in the new format.
That’s what I was talking about in the original post.
I do indeed. It was, of course, an outgrowth of how Trackside Photos used to work.
And with all the advantages of L-Girder and Hardshell, I really wonder why there are so many people (on the one hand) going back to butted-grid (with its precision cutting requirements), and on the other hand, abandoning Hardshell for (not especially environmentally friendly) styrofoam. Or why people seem to have abandoned Zip-Texturing for more modern innovations (e.g., ground foam and electrostatic grass), rather than simply adding those modern techniques to the (inherently expandable) palette of techniques we call Zip-Texturing.
MR has changed of course and it has adapted itself over the years. But then I have changed too over those years. When I started my subscription in 1961 I was a rookie model railroader and it was MR that taught me all the tricks of the trade and now after somany years I consider myself a dyed in the wool model railroader who has seen and tried it all. It used to take me an hour or even more to read MR and now after 30 minutes I turn the last page. But is MR to blame for that or is it that I am just not that interested anymore in a number of topics knowing that at my age I will stick to the familiar. I used to study the articles on marvelous big layouts hoping to find ideas that I could incorporate in my layout and now I just look at the pictures and read the captions and the whole story and philosophy behind it just doesn’t interest me anymore. But then again I don’t blame MR for that, because it’s not for me individually that MR is put together.
I forgot about Bull Session too.
But Jim’s “Paint Shop” articles were the the first inspiration to “weather” cars. Granted, my 1st efforts were a “splatting” of Floquil “Instant Weathering” out of a rattle can, or similar sloppliy brushed on Floquil “Dust” but either way he was also an inspiration for painting & decaling, since all the cars I do are just that, so I can correctly replicate a prototype-no RTRs for me at this stage. Here’s a couple pics-the 1st a car that I was inspired by Jim to do about 1979-80, & a Railbox I did late last year.
I use the butt joint because it is easier and quicker than mortise and tenon. The grid construction allows for more under the layout storage and provides a stronger framework for moving the sections of a layout.
Enjoy
Paul
Quite the opposite, Gregg. In recent years MR has become largely the realm of the beginner, certainly not the advanced hobbyist! Most unfortunately, what I think you are seeing is the progessive shift from informative to superficial journalism abroad in the land today. Certainly, MR is not to be singled out in this. Increasingly, the intent of most magazines, even news publications and the especially TV news programing, seems to be momentary entertainment, not the actual education its audience.
Over the last decade or so, one sees a steady shift toward more and larger images and away from informative text, everywhere. Meaty, thuroughly instructive how-to’s are rapidly dwindling, or have shifted to separate offerings on CDs. Of late I have even noted a number of articles in the hobby press that, while supposedly about building some item or other, failed to go into anything like sufficient detail for the reader to actually execute the project themselves. Little wonder that many experienced model railroaders have, or are about to, give up on the printed publications entirely.
Get used to it, I’m afraid. It seems not unlikely that the future of most hobby publications is to become just grand monthly picture books. The “reader” will be expected to simply ogle the incredible pictures briefly and then cast the magazine aside. This could be even more typical of any on-line hobby magazines that might arise.
The one thing I miss most is the G&D picture on the back page!
I used to look at that first.
I allways looked at the scale drawings and wished that I could build something like that.
Now it is all RTR
But all in all, I look forward to MR each month.
UPPD
cliffsrr
If you remember ole’ Bill McClanahan’s Silver Plate Road cartoons then you have already dated yourself!!!
As part of a reorganization project I just ran into my bound 1949 MRs and most of the issues for those bygone years had a Silver Plate Road cartoon in them; good humor such as McClanahan expounded in those cartoons never go outdated.
I’m not exactly sure of the years that this cartoon series ran. I had MRs for 1948 and they were in there; I have another volume somewhere from the mid-50s and they were in there but I don’t remember any from my 1960s issues. McClanahan was a prolific cartoonist and I used to enjoy his caricatures accompanying his articles almost as much as the articles themselves. One I particularly remember accompanied an article on layout access: it showed a seedy looking character with a fishing pole shoved into a tunnel; the caption underneath read “You have never reached the height of frustration until . . . . . . . . . .”. Believe me! I came to appreciated that cartoon and I need to say no more!!!
In fact, The Silver Plate Road cartoon did not originate with Bill McClanahan but actually had its beginnings many years earlier. It was the brainchild of John Kalback and first appearred in the pages of MR toward the end of 1939. John wrote it monthly up until 1945, when his service in the military brought it to an end. In 1947 and through '48 it reappeared in MR as the work of Paul Geczl. Only very late in 1948 did in come under the pen of Bill McClanahan and I think continued until somewhere around 1960.
CNJ831
I miss the FREE train show listings that they used to have in the mag. They took it away so they could add more “CONTENT” but then brought it back later on but charged for the service.[:(!] This left a very sour taste in a lot of small Model Railroad clubs mouths because the Free service helped support their shows. Small clubs barely break even on shows and adding another expense to people that support the magazine is just not right. Thanks to the “other” magazine for still caring about the small clubs. I know, I know, you can add it on line on the MR website for free but the thing is not as many people as you think have the internet.