Hey All, I’m curious to know what your favorite issue of Trains Magazine is, and why it’s your favorite. My favorite Issue currently is Trains Magazine: EMD at 100 - It’s my favorite as it thoroughly explains the history of Electro-Motive Division (Now Electro-Motive Diesel) and how much has changed over the last 100 Years, and what’s expected to come and how a small locomotive builder can impact railroading history.
Let me know what your favorite issue is!
Have a good Monday!
One of my first issues I bought was in the mid 1960s which had an article about the D&RGW Monarch Branch. Ten years later they had an updated article.
GabeTehGameh:
Your question is one that strikes me as both normal and kind of weird. Myself … I’m a very, very longtime reader of TRAINS, and in my old age, everything kind of blends together. Thus, I would dare to ask what were the most memorable TRAINS issues? The very first issue I bought was super memorable, in 1969 about Reserve Mining. Also, I bought back issues including the 1968 Griffith’s article on the Blue Mountains in Oregon, with a photo of UP passenger train No. 106. That one picture was super memorable!
On the weird side, TRAINS readers are unlike readers of Sports Illustrated or Popular Photography. In those journals, once a magazine is read, who cares? But I think most TRAINS readers file the magazines away for future reference as something meaningful to them.
It is unfortunate that your thread didn’t take off with replies, just like so many new threads these days! I guess there are not many railfans left. Maybe Kalmbach should have started a new magazine called ‘Space Travel with Video Games.’
The Classic Trains special issue Fast Trains. Because it’s what trains first offered over stagecoaches and canal boats 200 years ago.
Somehow we have forgotten that.
I also remember the Reserve Mining issue. And thru the 70s I remember articles by Stienhimer, Benson, etc. mostly with black&white photos.
That’s tough. I think I tend to gravitate towards the issues with a common article theme that tell an evolving story. One example would be the issues with the history of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus trains (and circus trains in general) I’ve collected those issues. I also thoroughly enjoyed the issues on ALCO and the B&O that came out several years back for their big anniversaries.
The one that sticks the most is the issue with Big Emma (and I believe a shot of the APT-E in Railroad News Photos).
My favorite issues usually covered railroading in the Cleveland area. But one issue had an article that so touched my brain and my heart at the same time that I knew I had to assign it to my students in Advanced Placement US History. I’m referring to the February 2001 issue and its important essay on Jim Crow in railroading. The students were floored by what they read and it made for some insightful discussions and essays. That issue’s subject also caused a debate on this forum (you can Google it).
Whether it was riding on trains or working for the railroads, American citizens of color experienced railroading differently from white citizens, and not in a good way. Maybe (or maybe not) that explains their relative absence from fantrips, railroad clubs, and this forum.
That was one heck of an essay that still resonates with me.
MidlandMike:
Ah, you liked that Reserve Mining TRAINS article of over 56 years ago too! Fascinatingly, a Kalmbach competitor in recent times ran an article about that once ‘Reserve’ line today! And, unbelievably, most of the same locomotives were on the roster!
I used to have a contact in the Central Valley of California. He sent me a picture of an old EMD SD locomotive operating nearby on a short line. I checked resources, and low and behold, that Central Valley locomotive was once Reserve Mining 1218! Thought you would find that of interest …
I’m going to have to search the archives for that issue.
One thing I do know is that African Americans were well represented on fan trips of the New York Transit Museum when I lived there. As well as well represented among the authority’s employees. Likely a correlation there.
Here in the U.K. ‘Railway Modeller’ did various articles on layouts based on a Scottish theme.. A number were of the North British Railways built by Ian Futers. Some were of the Borders Railway near where I live.
Trains issue I think mid 47, on Kiski jct
Glad to hear that Northshore (formerly Reserve) Mining is still operated by Cleveland Cliffs, although like many mines it is sometimes idled by slow demand.