I’m one of those people who believes there’s no substitute for holding an actual magazine while digesting it, and Model Railroader is one of few magazines I always read cover to cover. So for a couple decades I gave a lot of space to shelves for them. Then I lived long enough to survive more than one desktop PC and/or laptop beyond its capacity for upgrades. When I moved the most recent of them to the shop instead of junking it, things changed.
Using my Trains subscription, it took some time and effort but I eventually downloaded every back issue of Model Railroader and a few other titles as print-easy pdfs. It isn’t as much fun plopping in a chair to read one, but I no longer have to spend time over the printer-scanner to make my own copy of an article or image that I think I can or should use for my railroad. I just wish there was a real comprehensive index, the annual ones offered by Trains being close to useless.
For those who may doubt the value of having access to back issues here’s this: I assembled a fleet of six Mantua Pacifics, because the first one I obtained had strong sentimental value, and the others were dirt cheap and easy to obtain. All these years later, they remain a great foundation for all manner of overhaul and update. They all lay on the shelf for longer than I care to say, because the plans I had for updating them seemed so unlikely of bearing fruit. Just browsing through back MR issues in my digital collection, though, turned up more than a dozen pertinent and often detailed articles loaded with information sufficient to take them off the shelf and get started. I’m not done with overhauling, detailing and electronically updating them yet, because I handle them as a set, not one by one. But the end result, which is in sight now, will surpass my wildest dreams, and my railroad will have the fleet of versatile and excellent motive power I’ve always wanted at costs I can afford. Plus I really enjoy the work involved.
My workbench resides in an alcove between my layout room and my wood shop. The test/programming track on the workbench is connected through a hole-in-the-wall directly to the layout but can be isolated from the main when needed. My library is a lot more compact, although still pretty substantial because it mostly resides now on a freestanding hard drive. A great deal of the shelf space it used to live on is now a helix.
I still believe in print media, and the usual answer to how I use my spare time is still browsing old mags. But I have a lot more space now than I used to, and I like that too.
