I got in my possession some train magazines I bought at an antique store recently. I am wondering-did they quit making these mags or did they change their name? The magazines are 1) Model Trains 2)1001 model railroad ideas 3) Railroad Modeler
thanks, stephen
p.s. the final score was Saints 42, Cowboys 17-so much for the playoffs[:P]
Model trains was a sister pub. of MR that stopped back in the 60"s I think.It was aimed more at the beginning RRer. Had some great $1 projects by various authors but E.L.Moore was my favorite. 1001 MR Ideas was a special kinda like great model railroads or MR planning, I’m not sure weather Railroad Modeler is still being printed or not.It had a little different slant than MR so was interesting for that.
Trains.com Index is where you can get many of the answers…
Railroad Modeler was put out by Challenge Publications in the early-to-mid 1970s.
I’m thinking that it lasted from about 1973 to around 1976 or 1977. If I remember correctly, it was published out of Canoga Park, California, and had glossy covers enclosing heavy newsprint/pulp pages.
They also used to publish “Rail Classics.”
A couple years ago, Challenge Publications was still in business and put out magazines on mountain biking, aircraft and ships. I get the impression that they’re no longer in business, though. I know that Challenge was not especially popular with too many authors.
Why can’t I get info like this on model train manufactures.
They also did “Scale Modeler” magazine, and like you said they weren’t popular because they did not pay ONE CENT for the articles they used! Many years ago I picked up a 1/25th scale Peterbuilt truck and kitbashed it by adding a scratchbuilt hydraulic crane, opened one of the sleeper doors, weathered and detailed it quite a bit. I visited an LHS in another city and noted one of the models in their showcase had its photo on the cover, it was featured inside.
So I submitted an article on my weathered Peterbilt. It was accepted and was featured in ten pages inside, including a full color center spread. I kept waiting for payment or some kind of acknowledgement, but never got one. I visited the LHS again and was told the owner of the featured model in their showcase had the same experience, no payment whatsoever.
I wrote them several times, asking as a minimum for the return of my original color slides used in the article. Never heard from them, period. Needless to say I never considered sending them anything again. By that time I’d had a few photos printed in magazines and was getting paid for them, so I knew this was the industry norm, with the exception of Scale Modeler. Around then Kalmbach’s “Fine Scale Modeler” magazine and it probably put this other scumbag magazine out of business.
They also did “Scale Modeler” magazine, and like you said they weren’t popular because they did not pay ONE CENT for the articles they used! Many years ago I picked up a 1/25th scale Peterbuilt truck and kitbashed it by adding a scratchbuilt hydraulic crane, opened one of the sleeper doors, weathered and detailed it quite a bit. I visited an LHS in another city and noted one of the models in their showcase had its photo on the cover, it was featured inside.
So I submitted an article on my weathered Peterbilt. It was accepted and was featured in ten pages inside, including a full color center spread. I kept waiting for payment or some kind of acknowledgement, but never got one. I visited the LHS again and was told the owner of the featured model in their showcase had the same experience, no payment whatsoever.
I wrote them several times, asking as a minimum for the return of my original color slides used in the article. Never heard from them, period. Needless to say I never considered sending them anything again. By that time I’d had a few photos printed in magazines and was getting paid for them, so I knew this was the industry norm, with the exception of Scale Modeler. Around then Kalmbach’s “Fine Scale Modeler” magazine came out, and it probably put this other scumbag magazine out of business. They did pay for submissions, I had two in their “Readers Showcase” over the years.