I was just wondering if any of you are lucky enough to have all 777 issues.I think I have 554 starting with the Feb. 1953 issue. I did not start buying them until 1982 and a lot of my second hand issues are in bad shape. Kalmbach is planning on making the old issues availible in some kind of different format.[:D]
So, what is your oldest issue ?
I think it’s ?/78’. It’s the one with the Ted Benson article on Nevada. It’s one of my favorites. I used to have about half of the 70’s & early 80’s and every issue from 87’ to 98’ (along with several other train mags.) but most of them did not survive a long distance move in 98’. I only kept my favorites (about 20). I really kick myself for throwing them out but at the time I had little choice.[banghead]
I’m guessing '73/'74 time frame, but I’ll have to check the stacks. And I’m not sure if I’ve picked up anything older at a show or something. I think I have most of them sorted by date, at least the older ones. Add MR, RM, RMC, Firehouse, Fire Chief, and a plethora of other assorted railroad- and fire-related mags and it’s a lot of paper.
Volume 1, Number 1 from November 1940. Don’t have all of them but a large majority and a solid set from April 1963 through the present, (it’s kind of hard to accept that I have a magazine subscription that’s older than some members of Congress and all the contestants on American Idol).
I think mine is 1997 its the one where they of a pic of my favorite engine CSX 237 getting stranded on a bridge in Charrlotte,NC and a nose after shot.
kevin
Some time in 1975 I believe. My wife asks me from time to time to get rid of all the boxes of old TRAINS, PTJ, R&R, etc. NO WAY JOSE!
I bought my first issue in July 1965 for the princely sum of 50 cents and began buying them continuously in November 1967, finally subscribing in 1997. I have also picked up back issues in earnest and my earliest issue is from 1948, uncertain of exact month.
My oldest issue is September 1942.
I have a complete collection from about 1956 to the present. The oldest issue that I bought on my own when it was new was July 1962.
…I would have to check in my boxes to be specific but in general they must range back to the 60’s…Do have a RAILROAD magazine as old as April 1946…Believe I do have a few RAILROAD copies back a bit earlier in the 40’s.
I have all but the very first issue, and it’s not Nov 1940 or Vol. 1 no. 1. There was a 16(??) page preproduction issue published by Kalmbach. I’ve actually seen two copies side by side, and paged through one of them, so it’s not imaginary. Didn’t even ask the price because I was afraid of two things: the price and the fact that I might be foolish enough to spring for it. So I’m still one short of a complete collection. And yes, the mag has been around longer than I have, but not by much.
I started subscribing around '93 or '94, but have some back issues to around '86 or something. I guess I should work a little harder at filling out the collection.
I have a small collection of 12 from '77-'78 which I recieved from my father. The oldest one is from June 1977. My favorite one from that collection is the October 1977 issue.
I am older than the magazine and started subscribing in 1948, but left all my issues behind when I moved to Jerusalem in 1996. A pity. I remember the description of the Chicago - Jersey City ride on the Erie, Edward Hungerford’s columns, the write-ups on the steam holdouts on the NY & Long Branch (K4’s), the N&W, and Canadian steam, mostly with David Morgan, the writeup on Beebe and Clegg, the C&O from Cincinnati to Hammond, Indiana, the circa 1966 “Who Shot the Passenger Train?”, an early description of Swiss railroads, “Grass Grows on the Midland” on the Colorado Midland, the first major USA abandonment, the Pennsylvanina narrow gauge Landstown Jonesville and Southern or something like that…a lot of wonderful reading. But today’s magazine is just as good and interesting.
My oldest is January 1979. Started subscribing in mid-to-late '79, later bought the earlier issues from that year that I lacked.
My oldest is the first one I bought. August of 1959. I have tons of them. My 7 year old son is learning railroads from them.
“Wherever there’s a bathroom, there’s Trains Magazine”
Mitch
My oldest issue is Febuary 1968. I’m hoping to eventually get hold of some of the earlier issues, though.
My oldest issue is Febuary, 2000. It has a great article on the lines through the Fraser and Thompson River canyons.
My oldest original issue is I believe May 1980, about the Berkshire and the first part of the Western Maryland story. Oldest issue I own is from 1965.
The oldest issue I got new was AUG. 1956.My parents bought me this issue when I was 4 years old,and the mag shows it! I have a few older issues I bought used,including a few in the old smaller size.
April 1961 featuring the Strasburg Railroad, which is where I bought it. I didn’t know there was such a magazine at the time. The trouble was I was just a kid and a lot of the information in many articles was over my head.