is it worth joining (seems to be $35 a year) ?
p.s. edit: sorry, it’s actually trainorderS.com
Thirty-five dollars a year? Sounds a bit like Arizona’s semi-annual vehicle emissions check; a totally useless program whose primary purpose is to separate you from $27.00 of your money! It’s been in for 35 years now, it has been demonstrated over and over again to serve no useful purpose nor to garnish any benefit, but nobody knows how to shut it down!
Trainorders is a message forum that evolved out of some early attempts to create internet “channels”. It’s a privately owned board (as opposed to this board which is basically a promotional tool for Kalmbach) and runs on subscription fees rather than online advertising.
I always thought the content was a little thin, and the focus is very much on western railroading, with a strong Southern Pacific base. While I don’t play the “I only care about my favorite railroad” game, the nuances of the SP are about as interesting to me as a city bus, so I didn’t find it terribly useful.
You can read the first page of threads in each forum for free (usually goes back about 3-4 days) so definitely browse through the site and see if it’s something you’d like. The focus is more towards railfanning, so the modeling forum is sparse, but I remember seeing some very detailed work being displayed there (of SP second generation hood units, 'natch).
On one hand the information can be very good, on the other hand “TO” tends to be “by the Californians for the Californians”, especially on the model railroad forum. There can be good posts, but there is a dominant “clique” that will then mock or shout down anything they don’t agree with. I read their front page periodically, but it’s not worth the money unless you live in Kalifornia or model the SP.
thanks gents…looks like you just saved me 35 smackers (but don’t expect a cut!)