Way back when Joe Mcarthy was a Senentor (Red Scare) Was Kalmbach Affected at all?

And did Mr Kalmbach Support Joe Macarthy? Or Disavaw? Or Ignore?
What will history say?

[%-)]

As one who lived through that time, I don’t remember McCarthy ever speaking of RRs. He was too busy rooting out the evil commies from Hollywood, State Dept, etc.
The early Trains Mags were very non-political, mostly following the AAR party line.

Why do you ask?

What the hell does it matter?

You need to get a life!

Is this another off topic joke?
Allan.

Bored huh?

Peterson…step away from the medicine cabinet and drop whats in your hand.

I think it was during the McCarthy era that America produced it’s first shackle box cars.
Perhaps it was Kalmbach who first exposed the story?

I heard a rumor once that Budd, seeing the handwriting on the wall for passenger travel, was working on a plan to steal the government’s shackle boxcar business with a new design that put people in metal cans (stainless steel, of course) 6 at a time, just like sardines, and stacking the filled containers inside specially modified auto racks. Giving rise to the term ‘high density corridor’…[8]

Al Kalmbach was a lifelong friend of Frank Ziedler, who in addition to being a charter subscriber of MR the magazine and I think a charter member of the NMRA, was the long time mayor of Milwaukee Wisconsin and a lifelong member of the Socialist Party. (Milwaukee had Socialist Party mayors for about 50 years, 1910 to 1960 if memory serves).
Mayor Ziedler is, as of this writing, still alive and active in his 90s and whenever MR has a major anniversary Ziedler pens a brief memoire of his old friend Al Kalmbach. But to my knowledge they were friends on the basis of trains and model trains, not necessarily politics. Nonetheless if Sen McCarthy was anti Socialist and anti Frank Ziedler, and I would have to suppose he was, then I imagine he might have regarded Al Kalmbach as part of Ziedler’s circle and hence no friend of his And likewise it is hard to imagine Al Kalmbach supporting a Senator who would have been so vehemently critical of his old friend Ziedler.
But I am utterly unaware of anything involving McCarthy and Kalmbach the man or Kalmbach publishing ever appearing in print. Nor do I recall any editorials or other discussions in old MR or Trains magazines from back when Kalmbach himself had a say in the editorial content that were really political in any manner. Linn Westcott would write an editorial now and then that was mildly free enterprise oriented but hardly doctrinaire. Trains had a sometimes interesting, sometimes tiresome columnist named John Knieling (spelling?) who was so vehemently anti union as to almost become incoherent. His columns were very controversial at the time (1960s to 70s).
Now and again there would be speculations in MR about what kind of model railroading was being done back in the USSR or Czechoslovakia or Poland, and back in McCarthy’s day that might have been enough to arouse some suspicions believe it or not. And of course there were real harsh letters when MR published plans of the little railroad station that was Jimmy Carter’s campaign hea

Thank You…Sen Joe Mcarthy of Wisconsin(Also of course were Kalmbach is based) came up in the news again. So I wanted to know the connection if any.
I know that the Millwakie roads electrics where named little joes but that was after Joe Stalin not Joe Mcarthy

NUTS!

Hehehehehe

Not one but two major leaders in model railroading associated with Socialism? Hehehehee

I’m smirking quite contently to myself, this after being told oh so many years ago by a local model railroading group that I wasnt allowed to be a model railroader unless I belonged to a certain non-socialist political party. I thought they were insane and have been a happy Lone Wolf modeler ever since, as I havent found any other Commie Pinko Model RR’s in my nieghborhood to share with, Hheheheheheeeee

Vic the Happy Bolshevik[:p][;)][:D][8D]

If you make your passenger trains run on time, you must also be a fascist…[:D]

Your assuming I can GET my passenger trains to even run[B)][:D][}:)][;)][censored][D)][(-D][:-,]

If they don’t run, they’re not late, right? It works.

At least you have a layout.[:(] Mine’s not finnished yet.