With Trains, Trains Classics, and their special issues having recieved this treatment or slated to, are there any plans for something similar with Model Railroader?
I would bet 10000 dollars that NO would be the answer. There is money to be made if they did but I don’t think the small amount of money to be made would justify it to the publisher.
I might take you up on that bet. My own hunch is that if the Trains complete disc collection has been a success, a Model Railroader complete edition on disc may be likely. While a good case can be made that the oldest Trains magazine is more directly interesting and relevant to a current day railfan reader than the oldest Model Railroader is to a modern modeler, MR has a larger circulation. Also the older issues featured scale drawings which are still of interest, so it is not just a matter of nostalgia.
Dave Nelson
This question has come up and been cussed and discussed several times on these forums, and the answer seems to be, “If you wait until the 12th of Never it may happen, but is highly unlikely due to the potential price that would be asked for the set.”
Oh, man…does everything in the whole wide world HAVE to be on one of those silver discs now? I like my magazine collection, and my collection of categorized torn-out articles and covers, all three-hole keypunched and put in three-ring binders!
To each his own, as they say.
Well yes, to each his own. I have a large and nearly complete collection of MR, and nearly as many RMC. But I would consider buying MR on DVD.
Personally, I don’t understand why people do what you have done - cut them up - but again, to each his own.
I don’t know what the cost might be, or how they might break it down into groups of years, but depending on th answers to those questions, again, I would consider it. Especailly since it might include a search function possibly better than the current online index.
Sheldon
I have suggested this before on this forum, but recently, a friend gave me a bumch of 1990s MR issues (and a few 1980s old chestnuts as well). As I paged thru them, I realized that I had no interest in the ads- they only brought back painful memories of the prices I COULD have paid for this or that item years ago.
Some of the electronics articles were fairly dated- particularly those that suggested I run down to Radio Shack and get all the parts to assemble my very own thingamajig to duplicate freight car sensor mechanisms on a real railroad (etc.) and that I should use my 500Mb hard drive computer complete with a black and white CRT monitor to do the programming.
On the other hand, there were some great articles on various layouts, scratchbuilding cars or upgrading locomotives- these have residual value as the years go by, not to mention “blueprint” plans for a passenger station or a structure than can be kitbashed or scratchbuilt.
So, I would now suggest that a selective edit of these old issues might be the way to go- save each cover for nostalgia, save the critical craft articles, drawings, diagrams and the layout photos and other images (particularly the old real railroad photos)- to create a set of resource DVDs, rather than an exhaustive compilation of each issue. This would streamline the process and perhaps make it more appealing to many contemproary modelers.
Cedarwoodron
And so exactly who sits and decides what information is “valuable” and what is not?
I still use a relay based signaling system, but use solid state detectors. The operation of my layout does not involve any “computers”, yet I use wireless radio throttles.
I still prefer wire screen for my scenery, I still scratch build with wood and card stock as well as styrene.
The info use consider “worthless” may be exactly what someone else needs.
Sheldon
Just to add to Sheldon’s point – even old ads are good for something other than grieving over past bargains missed out on. Whenever you find yourself saying “why doesn’t someone make _________?” it is not uncommon going through old magazines to find that someone did. And now you know what to be looking for at the better swap meets. This is particularly the case for those of us who have switched scales or switched prototypes at some point.
My own experience is that MR articles, particularly the structure construction and Dollar Car articles are of value until you get back to the very early years of the magazine.
Dave Nelson
well, then, it’s back to all-or-nothing. Judging from the raucous silence coming from MR, i am not too sure we will see entire-issue compilations on DVD anytime soon. But then again, I would be a willing customer to purchase them as a subscription item over time. I was just offering a possible streamlined scenario for the concept itself.
The issue of the ads is not that clear. AHM and others offered the same merchandise for year after year, and perhaps decade after decade, with exceptions for new stuff that was marketed by Athearn and others as time went on. But doesn’t the new products decsriptors of MR is neach issue also cover a great many of these newer items (relative tothe years being surveyed)?
The other side of my own argument is that I would like to see the historic aspect of the hobby preserved in all respects, and that places me on the “whole-issue” side of the scale in the end.
And- as for very old issues- it is sort of neat (that word ages me!) to see original arti8cles by Linn Wescott, etc in the old days. The seminal influences on the hobby should not be forgotten.
Cedarwoodron
Sorry for the typing:
I meant that retailers such as America’s Hobby Center. Long’s and Polk offered the same stuff every year (and newer stuff).
The “New Products” described in each issue of MR… is what I meant to say in that sentence.
Cedarwoodron
Those who like to reminisce over prices ‘way back when’ seem to forget what their salary was at that time compared to today. Sure, you could get a boxcar for 50 cents, but on a monthly salary of $35 as an Army Private, I couldn’t afford to even splurge that much unless I skipped a day or two of eating.
I have every issue of Model Railroader since 1963. Until about 25 years ago I looked through every issue at least once a year, but that got to be too much effort. More recently I used various on-disk and on-line indexes to search for articles.
Unfortunately my collection is currently very disorganized and in a storage shed where I don’t have easy access.
I bought the Trains Magazine DVD and would love to have a CD/DVD set of Model Railroader. I have looled at other peoples copies of older issues (50’s and even some 40"s). I found many of them interesting and the often contain information that is still useful today.
How did they do the Trains DVD release(s) - by given decades or something? Did they leave in ads and notices of Knox & Kane fan trips, Betamax train videos, Kodachrome processing and the like?
Personally, it’s best to leave in the ads, notices, and old classified even - for example, the most enjoyable parts of looking at old National Geographics from the 1930s/40s are the issues where the library didn’t remove the ad pages to save space. Could they get the retail price for a DVD set from 1934 to 2009 (75 years, IIRC) down to, I dunno, US$89.99 or something?
Heh, you could compare 20 years of America’s Hobby Center ads, and see if you spot the differences - you may need to use a blink comparator between ads like astronomers use to detect distant, slow moving asteriods…
The Trains release is 70 years, all issues complete. It fit on two DVD’s.
Gentlemen,
The answer to this thread is “yes.”
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information.
Sincerely,
Neil Besougloff, editor
Best reply EVER! [:D]
DAMN, I just lost 10 grand. [:'(]
Well done Neil.
Great result for those with crowded trian rooms.
Best Wishes
Patrick
Before Neil replied I would easily bet $10000 that it would happen and in the near future. Seriously. I just hope the search function works well.