If you look up at the yop of the forum, the older TRAINS logo is there. Change of heart?
Well now would you look at that. Shades of David P. Morgan!
If they can get the content of the magazine up to snuff they just might get me to subscribe again.
Mark Gosdin
The “Trains” marquee on the front of the magazine looks like they have gone “retro” in the past several months as well. (with the red background)
Back in August eolafan and I were among the folks who visited with Mr. Wrinn and his graphics designer at Rochelle, where they were displaying several options for modifying the front cover to see what people thought. I think they’re getting alittle more flexible in the cover graphics, and maybe Jim and I might’ve helped steer them that way.
I was at a train show this weekend and bought several issues ranging from 1973-1988 and they got the old logo.
When I made my previous post a couple of posts back, I was still seeing the slanted current logo. Now I’ve got the old one.
Cute sig .gif, AG.
Make some suggestions here on what you’d do if you were made editor.
I’m still trying to figure out what you guys are talking about, because it still looks the same to me - a red TRAINS in block letters tilted uphill with the word MAGAZINE in smaller print under the NS of TRAINS.
Was it something else in the past?
Other than the article selection in the February issue, (Long Island RR, Oakland’s Station), and the May Dinner Train issue, 2006 has been a terrific year for Trains. Keep the Fred Frailey and Tom Murray articles coming.
For 2007, I would like to see articles on diesels put back in the magazine, rather than in special issues. I would also like a large heavy-reading steam article in Trains once a year. I think an article covering the difference between Shays, Climaxes and Hieslers would be outstanding.
OK, I will.
David P. Morgan and Mark Hemphill loved/loves trains. (from now on, I’ll just use present tense). As does Jim Wrinn. That’s where we start. Nobody is reading TRAINS who doesn’t have a passion for trains.
I think TRAINS has to walk a fine line. They are a “foamer” publication publishing pictures and catering to people who just don’t understand why Amtrak doen’t put the “Grand Canyon” back on. They are also a very serious publication dealing with serious railroad issues. Getting that balance right is bound to be a problem.
Hemphlll is a railroad man who was brought in to edit the publication. Wrinn is a journalist/railroad hobbiest who was brought in to do the same. The difference shows.
Wrinn does do serious stuff, such as the coverage of the gen set locomotives. But there’s no George W. Hilton or Kneiling, and there’s none of that great stuff Hemphill wrote about why the Denver-Salt Lake City D&RGW was a really bad idea. Wrinn’s a journalist, not a railroader. He can edit a magazine - but the difference shows.
My suggestion would be to tilt the balance back to more serious stuff.
But I still like TRAINS. I first subscribed when I was 12 using paper route money. My last issue will arrive after they’ve closed the lid on me.
I’m not sure if I had anything to do with this change [:I] , but if you are right I am glad to have helped. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!
I think greyhounds has got it right here. What I miss is the more of a Railroad professional’s take on the articles. It’s not that any of the current issues are “bad”, I’ve enjoyed every one of the ones I’ve bought off the rack. There’s just something not quite there.
I’d love to see a blend of the old Train’s ProRR-articles and the newer Train’s Journalist’s approach. If were lucky that’s where things are headed.
And I’ll be shelling out my hard earned dollars for a subscription again.
Mark G
Good, I like the old logo.
I think you stated my view as well. Very well put.
Wrinn does a great job dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s and packaging it all into an entertaining package, but the business relevance seems to have suffered in the trade off.
The writing itself is probably sharper under Wrinn, but the topics that really interest me seem to be fewer and farther between.
For the first time ever, I went into the magazine store and thumbed through both trains and classic trains before buying, remembering how dissatisfied I was with the December and Winter editions (respectively) of both mags last year.
Glad I looked before I bought, and I’ll just leave it at that.
Back when I was asked for my (dubious) opinion on a “new” logo for Trains I instantly spoke up for the retro logo. I say, GOOD! Now, lets see if the content can go retro and step up a notch, too. The Buffalo Sabres brought back their original blue sweaters for their “third” sweaters and that’s good. Now their “new” logo looks more like a slug than a charging Bison. And, no, not a locomotive frame with traction motors and weight that uses extra power from a “mother” unit, the sort of insect…( I flunked science a long time ago) so I can’t say what a live creature slug is! OK, OK I’m way off topic. I know that. My bad.
Looks good! Retro is cool.
Adrianspeeder
New logo or old - doesn’t matter to me - I just need enough identification so that I can tell Trains from my wife’s Martha Stewart Living!
dd
And what would Martha do with an old exhaust stack?
sounds like a topic for new thread;)
dd
same here