Amen.
TableTop scale - in the US, 1:120 sale. 120" (10 feet) on prototype is 1" in model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TT_scale
Smile,
Stein
I have enjoyed reading Tony’s columns over the years. They are well written and he has a great sense of humor and the absurd. At times I get the feeling that he’s just goofing off with trains and he knows it. Tony conveys that “what, me worry?” kind of joy/ridiculousness with the hobby that I find some how oddly reassuring.
As for influence, Tony has had a remarkable and positive influence on the hobby. My layout would look a lot different if I hadn’t read Mr. Koester’s words. While there were others in the hobby saying the same things at the same time, Tony was very visible and thus had a big influence. He helped popularize lots a good ideas in terms of layout design, ops etc…His coal fork extension articles in the 1990’s were a big influence on me personally. The flowing trackwork in those yards was great.
Guy
I don’t think you are a troll. I just don’t agree with you on Tony Koester. Tony has done alot for this hobby and even though you don’t like the fact that he does steam railroading rather than modern era stuff, the fact is that once upon a time the only way to model railroad was to do it with steam. It’s something that most of us don’t have to do in a age when diesels and diesel electrics dominate the railroad scene. So what. Tony has done it.
Ehrn you have made it into print like Tony has you can put forth your own concepts and thinking. Until that time arrives, I’ll enjoy reading Tony’s column even if everything he writes about doesn’t always apply to the Hudson and Hartford.
Irv
jmbjmb,
“All I said was one persons preferences should not be considered the standards for another.”
I agree! That has NOTHING to do with what I said! So why did you comment on what I said?
Sheldon
That is not what I said. And it is not what Bob said, if I may speak for him.
Again - re-read my orginal post.
Sheldon
Nowhere did I say I agree 100% with what Tony writes each month. What I object to is the idea that Tony considers those who don’t agree with his opinions to be somehow lesser forms of model railroaders. I don’t get that from his writing.
–Randy
IN MY OPINION, and in the opinion of a number of others here:
If you feel that Tony, or anyone in the model press is “PUSHING” their way of modeling on you, than that is YOUR problem of perception. They are not standing in your layout room, making fun of your layout, telling you you “must do it their way” or you are not a “real” model railroader.
What they provide is in a magazine, you can read it or not, you can accept it or not.
You should not put them on a pedestal just because their name is in print. They are you peers, not you superiors, UNLESS you allow yourself to be intimidated by what they write.
They offer the magazine and the information in it for your review and approval or disapproval, not the other way around. You are the customer, you have the power - unless you allow them to have emotional power over you.
NOW - I do feel from time to time somewhat disapointed that MR and other magazines in our hobby do not provide a wider base of OPINIONS on how to approach the hobby - but that in no way makes me feel like I have to do it the way Tony, or anyone does, just because their name and ideas/views are in print.
They are in print BECAUSE they set high personal standards, and met those standards to a degree that others in the hobby repect their achievements - that does not even imply that everyone agrees completely with how they model - it only means they did just that, set high standards and met those standards - and therefore others MAY be interested in learning/knowing about what they did and why.
It is not their responsablity to write every word they print in some mamby pamby, politicaly correct, soft, gentle, “this is just a suggestion” way so as not to intimidate or offend those with low self esteem. It is the job of a writer to use words to convey his own passion and belief in his subject - and again, if that bothers you, that’s your problem - not theirs.
If you resent them because they have more or did more, then you are small mind
Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading Tony Koester since he was an editor over at RMC in the 1970s, but I never got the idea that he was fanatical or arrogant. In a piece about modeling railorading’s eccentricities, he admonished his readers to say, “you may, I wouldn’t.” And I was also a bit bothered when he displayed what I thought was excessive sensitivity to criticism by other modelers, or fear of confusing knowlegable viewers of his layout.
It does strike me that Koester is more of a popularizer of other people’s ideas than an innovator. And as far as I remember, he always gave credit where credit is due.
I think Koester is an excellent editor, and that *RMC’*s quality visibly declined after his departure, and still hasn’t fully recovered. OTOH, I can’t say that I was impressed with Koester’s book on operations, which in my opinion, is a lot less accessible than Bruce Chubbs’s.
And just because a writer works in a different scale or era doesn’t mean a reader can’t learn from him.
Sheldon, you posted:
“BUT, the insecure, small minded people among us would rather I (or Tony) not voice our goals and standards as it makes them uncomfortable - even if we never said or implied that they should do the same. They assume that just because we voice our preferences, that we are somehow expecting/demanding them from everyone - nonsense! Grow a spine and be comfortable with your own chices in life.”
In other words, it reads like this to me: “If people state that they don’t share Tony’s or my opinions about our approach to modelling, as Tony and I describe them, they must be insecure and small minded.” In yet other words, “If people disagree with me disagreeing with either them or with Tony, they must be simple minded and insecure.” Or, more concisely: “I can do it, but not they.”
Literacy is my business. And value-laden words like spineless, simple minded, and insecure don’t really have a useful place in discussions about our hobby when comparing methods or approaches between discernible populations. They raise false distinctions and polarize what follows in the way of discussion.
Please, from now on, just disagree without being disagreeable.
-Crandell
I’m worried this may be the direction this thread is taking… downhill and fast LOL 
OK I have read TK is past issues, I havent read this months column so i have no clue as to who the 2 other folks are, frankly I dont care but I find all the smoke and fury being whipped up here is rather fun to read though. I have adhered to a philosophy that I have found to be completely true and that is
THERE IS NO WRONG WAY TO BUILD A MODEL RAILROAD
…meaning if YOU are happy with the results, the results meet or exceed your expectaions and you are enjoying those results using your layout, than THAT is ALL that matters.PERIOD
TKs approach reflects a proto heavy approach to MRing and thats fine for what he and others who adhere to that approach enjoy doing, but MRing encompasses a very large audience whom dont all want to be doing the same thing. For myself I have always enjoyed the modeling process more than the actual operations aspect, frankly I find operations to be extremly boring, and as such dont use any such organized system on my layout, am I missing anything, to some they will say hell yes, to them I say, I’m not you.
Where I get my knickers in a bunch is when someone starts insisting that there is only a certain “correct” way to model a railroad, a "correct "way to do scenery, or a “correct” way to operate, sayz who? not me. Its like what is the “correct” way to do scenery, foam with zip texture, foam with plaster cloth cap, or traditional cardboard framing with crumpled newspaper and a plaster strip covering? the “correct” answer is: none of the above, its what works best for you under the conditions and constrictions you are working with. On my layout traditional plaster scenery would be far too heavy so I’m using foam/zip texture, which I’ms sure some tight crotched types could find a dozen things about it they dont like, too bad, I’m very pl