Another MR garden railway.

Model Railroading would seem to be a 'superset' that includes the 'set' of garden railroaders. As long as MR has chosen to become the 'People' magazine of model railroading I think the article fits. If you are looking for a specific type of model railroading there are plenty of niche publications out there to meet your needs.

What are the chances that MR would publish something like Chubb's CMRI series these days? I'd say none... it's a changed publication.

---john.

Roger, I guess I don't mind much especially now that I have a model of a Garden railroad of sorts in my train room. My son saw the pictures the garden railroads in the latest MR and people riding on the trains and got an idea. Now we have Sponge Bob mounted on top of my Heavy Mountain with a small piece of red foam on the cab roof for a seat. This does not fit in with the theme of my layout very well but then neither did the Mountain even when it was an HO scale locomotive. The kid thinks its even better than Thomas so Sponge Bob will ride for a while longer on his garden locomotive. Bruce

"Bruce Favinger"

For kids? Whatever holds and maintains their interest. Go for it.

The "Thomas'", and now "Sponge Bob's", of the world rule!

-- Cheers Roger T.

Those bastards!

Actually, I though of it more as another "celebrity" railway.

I thought a "celebrity" was someone famous. Karlb

Oh no! It's taking up valuable room for those REAL model railroads! I'm going to write MR and tell them to publish articles only on the model railroading that I like.

Seriously, I think it was cool to see that the cartoonist who draws "For Better or for Worse" had real life inspiration for the model railroading husband in her comic strip.

and c'mon guys, do we really have to bag on every issue of MR after it comes out?

"Tim Gill"

Given the way the magazine is going? Yes!

-- Cheers Roger T.

Indeed, it is. Sticking a loop of shiny prefab track down among the aspadistras and running gaudy toy trains built to a variety of scales on it is not real model railroading.

While you're at it, remind them that they have a specialist garden railway publication, and that is the appropriate place for garden railway articles.

I wouldn't mind betting that they don't dilute the content of that publication with articles about modelling a specific prototype in finescale HO...

This is probably only of interest to a reader of the comic strip - the rest of us couldn't give a toss. And again, it has nothing to do with model railroading. The value of such an article to me is nil.

It's either that, or simply stop buying it altogether. I'm leaning towrads the latter.

All the best,

Mark.

I had the same happen with another group, namely camping. Trailer Life had many articles on motorhomes and yet there was a Motorhome Life devoted exclusively to motor homes. Their explanation, which would be the same as MRR is that the "parent" magazine is for all campers/railways, and that the specific magazines are just for those people. Most of the articles in MRR fit any gauge, indoor/outdoor. The principal is the same. I don't intend having a garden RR and yet I see something interesting I could possibly use in the photos.

Chuck Callaghan snipped-for-privacy@virginia.edu

Yes, it makes me wonder. My wife picked me up an issue recently because a Malcolm Furlow layout was featured. (She thought she did a good thing)

I stopped buying MR a couple of years ago when IMHO it became a means of pushing layouts built with all the plastic stuff Walthers, Bachmann, Atlas etc. had to sell.

I'm surprised to see garden layouts in MR. I remember 25 years ago when the magazine would not feature tinplate or 3 rail because it was not scale model railroading. IMHO garden railroads *rarely* look scale either.

BUT, times change and we have to accept the fact that our hobby is mostly driven by the instant gratification types. They dovetail very nicely with the people marketing all the plastic kits. AND, it seems many just don't have the time available for intensive kit building as was done in times past, or so the magazines tell us.

I can understand why things are changing, it's just business trying to survive. But I still miss the layouts built by the craftsmen. They were sooooooo inspirational.

Doug

"The sky is falling, the sky is falling...."

Let' see...

Pg 54, Roque's Bluff, a beautiful little layout by Ian Rice which includes good information about Proto:87 standards.

Pg 60, Working Interchanges, an EXCELLENT article on operations, one of the best I've read. Lots of illustrations, examples, and ideas.

Pgs 66, 68, 70 Three How-to articles on detailing engines. One by Jim Six.

Pgs, 77 & 88 Standard layout articles in N and O scale.

Pg 90, Track Buyers Guide. Extensive guide to track. Lots of photos, specs, charts, etc. Good, basic information for beginners and experienced model railroaders alike.

Pg 100, The infamous garden layout.

I wonder if some folks who complain here even read the magazine. If you didn't enjoy that issue, you surely must be THE expert in Model Railroading, needing no further input from mere mortals.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

"Mike Tennent" <

Mike.

You missed the point of my post.

Kalmbach have a magazine devoted to garden railways.

So, why wasn't the garden railway featured in THAT magazine?

Does the magazine devoted to garden railways feature any HO scale indoor railways?

I doubt it very much. So why should a magazine about model railroads feature a garden railway, especially has there was another garden layout featured a short time ago.

AFAIC, the garden railway was featured in MR simply because the modeller is the husband on Lynn Johnston, and not because he's done a fine job on his railway.

-- Cheers Roger T.

Not here, it isn't.

All useful and interesting articles. None of which were published in Kalmbach's garden railway magazine.

Which should have been published in Kalmbach's garden railway magazine. Mind you, it's not even a particularly good example of a garden railway, so perhaps that why they fobbed it off on the readers of MR. Presumably if the builder wasn't rooting someone "famous", he wouldn't have gotten a look in.

If I didn't read MR, I wouldn't give a toss either way. Since I do give a toss, that should tell you that I read MR, and expect better from it.

No, Im not THE expert in model railroading - how will a second-rate article about some bloke's second-rate garden railway improve my model railroading expertise?

All the best,

Mark.

No, I just don't think it's particularly valid.

OK.

Maybe it was. I have no idea.

Probably not, it is a magazine about GARDEN railroads, after all.

Hmmm, let me see...

Model Railroad magazine... Articles on all scales... Garden model railroad is model railroad... Model Railroad magazine publishes article about it...

Sorry, but I guess I think a magazine about model railroads can publish an article about a garden model railroad.

By that reasoning, we shouldn't expect any articles about N, HO, or O scale next month?

And you know this with such certainty because...?

Frankly, I thought it was an interesting article on an aspect of the hobby I know little about. The layout appears to be well done and the idea of actually riding a model is intriguing. It must be a blast.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

It could have been. Not reading that magazine, I wouldn't know whether they have written about his operation or not.

Of course not. It is specifically dedicated to garden railways. Model Railroader is not specifically dedicated to indoor, scale model railroads. Ever since there have been garden railways, it has run the occasional article, just as it has sometimes run articles on toy train collections and tinplate, though the policy on that has varied over the years. That Kalmbach has a magazine specifically dedicated to garden railroading does nothing to narrow the scope of Model Railroader's coverage, nor is there any reason it should. It isn't as if they dedicate all that many pages to the subject, and many of us rather enjoy reading about what is going on in other areas of the hobby.

Mark Alan Miller

Nah, it's a garden railroad, a completely different thing.

All the best,

Mark.

And many of us couldn't give a toss. Many of us would regard garden railways as a separate hobby entirely.

All the best,

Mark.

Did any of you notice the new advertiser on P.41 "Riding Railkits"?

Maybe that has something to do with the article being printed.