Another MR garden railway.

As do I. What I don't accept is non-model railroading content in a model railroading magazine. That's not what I'm paying for. I do look elsewhere. MR is one of a number of magazines I purchase regularly, but it's the only one that is suffering such a sharp decline in quality. I suppose I will reach the point where I'll stop buying it. So much for their efforts to attract people to the 'world's greatest hobby'...

And neither is this statement relevant to the topic. Mind you, it's been a long time since I've bought a paper, or watched television news. If I want my intelligence insulted, I have friends who will do that for me.

I don't expect it will, either. But since this is a model railroad newsgroup, I air my grievances here. Writing Kalmbach would obviously be a waste of time. They've made a editorial decision based on a sound assumption - that the bulk of their current readership are passive and compliant, and will put up with almost anything...

'kenoath!

All the best,

Mark.

Reply to
Mark Newton
Loading thread data ...

That sort of arrogant BS doesn't even warrant a rebuttal.

Get over yourself, man.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

Reply to
Mike Tennent

I am not sure if I agree with Mark, however, I will not purchase a subscription to Model Railroader anymore, and I rarely purchase single isssues, as, in my own opinion, the overall quality of the magazine, in general, has gone down the tubes. My last subscription was a freebie (won it it a model RR show) and even free, most of the issues had very little of interest in them for me. I currently have two more certificates for free one year MR subscriptions, I will probably end up giving them away, or selling them on Ebay. I have always liked Railroad Model Craftsman much better, as well as Rail Model Journal and Model Railroading, (and I continue to purchase them at my "local" model RR shop) all are much less commercial, and give much more useable information on prototype and scale modeling, and also deal more with smaller, Fallen Flag and various regional modelling, then MR. MR, from what I have seen, glues itself to the big carriers, and the carriers surrounding Milwaukee. As one who enjoys Pre-Conrail Eastern roads, I personally can only take so much of BN, ATSF, UP and Wisconsin Central, month after month, and layout articles which seem to go out of their way, to highlight those roads, and the MR advertisers products. MR's coverage of the roads in areas that I am interested in, are sparse, at best. The other, smaller magazines do a much better job of this, and even when my own specific interests are not addressed, I still find many related articles of interest in the other mags.I don't expect to see the EL, CNJ, D&H or LV published in every mag, every month, however, I would prefer to see articles on Wabash, NKP, RF&P, ACL... etc.... then always reading about the UP, BN, ATSF, BNSF, NS and CSX. As for Garden Railroading, to drift back on topic, I enjoy seeing and watching them, maybe one day when I am rich and famous, and my HO scale version of the

1968 era corridor from the Delaware River, up through Allentown, Scranton, Stroudsburg and into Binghamton, is started and completed, I would even consider putting a Garden Railway in, just for kicks, but, I personally prefer to purchase magazines that are more selective in what they publish, those that are more in line with my own interests, geared more to scale modelling. If and when, I ever take interest in Garden Railways, I will be the first one to purchase magazines dealing with them.... at that time. It seems to me, that MR has no real specific direction, in what it publishes, or atleast, the directions that it appears to go in, are of little to no interest, to me, and apparantly, many other modelers. Jeff
Reply to
JJRNJ

Did you complain in the 70s when MR featured a live steam 4-4-0 on the cover? Or when they visited the Riverside Live Steamers?

---john.

Reply to
John Haskey

LB> In article , LB> snipped-for-privacy@bigfoot.com says... LB> > LB> > Hmmm, let me see... LB> > LB> > Model Railroad magazine... LB> > Articles on all scales... LB> > Garden model railroad is model railroad... LB> LB> OK - there's the bone of contention. No garden railway I've ever seen is LB> a "model railroad" because the scenery is not to scale. LB> LB> Some of the rolling stock is very well done, but watching it go under a LB> 1:1 oak tree somehow detracts :-).

Is this really any "stranger" than an N scale train going by under a 1:1 scale coffee table top? Or a H0 scale train making it way past a 1:1 scale toilet (See page 26 of "How to OPERATE your model railroad", by Bruce Chubb, Model Railroad Handbook No. 30)?

LB> LB> -- LB> Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs? LB>

\/ Robert Heller ||InterNet: snipped-for-privacy@cs.umass.edu

formatting link
|| snipped-for-privacy@deepsoft.com
formatting link
/\FidoNet: 1:321/153

Reply to
Robert Heller

RH> Larry Blanchard , RH> In a message on Wed, 17 Sep 2003 09:34:04 -0700, wrote : RH> RH> LB> In article , RH> LB> snipped-for-privacy@bigfoot.com says... RH> LB> > RH> LB> > Hmmm, let me see... RH> LB> > RH> LB> > Model Railroad magazine... RH> LB> > Articles on all scales... RH> LB> > Garden model railroad is model railroad... RH> LB> RH> LB> OK - there's the bone of contention. No garden railway I've ever seen is RH> LB> a "model railroad" because the scenery is not to scale. RH> LB> RH> LB> Some of the rolling stock is very well done, but watching it go under a RH> LB> 1:1 oak tree somehow detracts :-). RH> RH> Is this really any "stranger" than an N scale train going by under a 1:1 RH> scale coffee table top? Or a H0 scale train making it way past a 1:1 scale RH> toilet (See page 26 of "How to OPERATE your model railroad", by Bruce RH> Chubb, Model Railroad Handbook No. 30)?

Page 26 of "How to OPERATE your model railroad" has the track plan. Page 32 has a photo of the bathroom itself...

RH> RH> LB> RH> LB> -- RH> LB> Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs? RH> LB> RH> RH> \/ RH> Robert Heller ||InterNet: snipped-for-privacy@cs.umass.edu RH>

formatting link
|| snipped-for-privacy@deepsoft.com RH>
formatting link
/\FidoNet: 1:321/153 RH> RH> RH> RH> RH> RH> RH> RH>

\/ Robert Heller ||InterNet: snipped-for-privacy@cs.umass.edu

formatting link
|| snipped-for-privacy@deepsoft.com
formatting link
/\FidoNet: 1:321/153

Reply to
Robert Heller

=> As one who enjoys Pre-Conrail =>Eastern roads, I personally can only take so much of BN, ATSF, UP and Wisconsin =>Central, month after month, and layout articles which seem to go out of their =>way, to highlight those roads, and the MR advertisers products.

MR does cover Eastern (and other) roads. They can only print what they are offered. They do solicit material, as RMC and RMJ etc do also, but like all hobyy magazines, they rely on readers to provide material. If you want more eastern RR material, I'm afraid you'll have to research it yourself. Of course, being an all around good guy, you'll be happy to write up your research and share it with the rest of the world in the pages of MR, RMC, RMJ, etc, right?

I operate a small model train shop out here in the wilds of mid-northern Canads - and the scratchbuilders who want prototype fidelity, who will build a car or structure etc from a magazine article, are very thin on the ground. The attitude to the hobby that Mark represents is rare; most model train fans are far more eclectic in their taste, and by and large don't care squat about anything except having fun. (His head-up-his-butt elitism is rarer still, thank goodness.)

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 23:32:06 UTC, "Wolf Kirchmeir" wrote: 2000

I am afraid that I have to agree with Mark and accept being a head-up-his-butt elitist. I have subscribed to MR since 1961 and have bought other of their publications. I vowed earlier this year that I would not renew. I have seen nothing to change that opinion. Kalmbach has seen the last penny from me.

I typically find something of interest in articles about any scale but over the past few years the content in MR has declined steadily. Great Model Railroads is a farce and Model Railroad Planning has also gone downhill. I shall wend my merry but elitist way.

Reply to
Ernie Fisch

Well, at least I see that this is generating some traffic. I suppose that's a good thing.

Now, what I want to know is: Why make all this flap about MR having a garden railroad article inside? Malcomb Furlow's stuff is the same thing in HO scale. And MR has trolleys and rapid transit from time to time, neither of which is a railroad At least not in the sense that the Atlantic Coastline was a railroad. You just have to make room for stuff that you don't have an interest in or understand in a magazine like MR. IMO, it is not nearly as good as it was before Larson and this new guy, but it is the best thing for sparking an interest in someone who picks it up in a book store or supermarket magazine rack. MR is not a specialist magazine. It is a general interest rail-hobby magazine. This means that it cannot always have just those articles that we in the hard-core cadre deem proper model railroad oriented articles. Like the song says: ".....take what you need and leave the rest......."

Captain Handbrake

Reply to
Captain Handbrake

I'm trying to recall any recent tinplate or 3 rail layouts in MR... ?

Reply to
Mark Mathu

This month in "Garden Railways:"

- Building a combination bird feeder / water tank

- Using eminent domain and your neighbor's backyard

- Convert your ant hills into hobo camps

- Prototype operations: delivering coal to your home furnace

Reply to
Mark Mathu

"John Haskey" <

No, I didn't. I'm not sure Kalmbach had a garden railway publication when those articles were printed and they weren't the second "garden" railway to be published in MR with a few months of each other.

-- Cheers Roger T.

formatting link
of the Great Eastern Railway

Reply to
Roger T.

"Mark Mathu"

Now they're funny. :-)

-- Cheers Roger T.

formatting link
of the Great Eastern Railway

Reply to
Roger T.

I noticed that too, I checked my last 6 issues (advertisers index) and found no mention of Riding Railkits. Maybe I could invent some kind of hobby widget, advertise in MR, and get my layout featured?

Reply to
Karl Bond

I have stayed out of this discussion but I have to admit that Larry's message has intrigued me.

I submit that outdoor layouts can and often are more realistic than indoor HO or N scale layouts.

I will use my outdoor garden model railroad as an example. Unlike most outdoor layouts it has little or no scale scenery as it is a railroad in a garden. I have operated at a number of outdoor layouts who scenery blows most small scale stuff away in the detail that can be provided but that is another story.

Scale structures

Well as I have few other than bridges, Larry is correct that if structures are the criteria for having a model railroad then I lose.

Scale Rolling Stock

While I have a few non scale locomotives, all the of newer ones are very scale oriented and will match up to most any of the smaller scales in appearance and fidelity to scale. So in this category we are about equal.

Scale turnouts, grades, radius

Lets see. Its real realistic to have a Big Boy go around an 18 inch curve (or even a 30 inch curve) I model in 1:20.3 narrow gauge and a scale 130' radius is not bad for a small narrow gauge railroad and #6 turnouts again for Narrow gauge while tight but for 3 foot narrow gauge not bad. Grades are not artificial outdoors as the 12 feet I have to climb requires distances and a few loop backs. The point here is that indoors the grades are artificial, outdoors its real railroading to get from point A to point B.

Operation

Lets see now, operating a steam locomotive with a rotary DC knob is very prototypical. Operating real steam is perhaps more prototypical and the distances involved can keep many crews operating without bumping into each other. And the sound, well I have the room for a tad bigger speaker which sounds much like the real thing. Outdoors we have real climate to contend with, not that artificial Air Conditioning.

I guess my point is this. We each choose various aspects of model railroading to concentrate in. To contend that one form of model railroading is pure and that all others are not is simply silly.

I model a point to multipoint railroad. I have perhaps chosen different aspects of the hobby to concentrate on. Indoors I model the BR&P in the late summer of 1950. Outdoors I have a real road road with real destinations and a real purpose. Is one more pure than the other. No they are each different aspects of the same hobby.

Stan Ames CEO SJR&P

formatting link

Reply to
Stan Ames

Thank heavens I haven't seen any.

Reply to
E Litella

A lot of folks considered the Furlow article a waste of space. Sort of the MR version of the Society Pages.

Maybe it's preparation for the merger with People?

Reply to
E Litella

Doesn't warrant one, or you simply aren't capable of making one?

And do tell, why is it arrogant bullshit?

Mark.

Reply to
Mark Newton

Well, I didn't expect unanimous agreement :-). But yes, the scenery and the structures (or lack thereof) are what bothers me.

BTW, I didn't mean to imply total rejection of MR over this. See my post under "October MR" .

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

Did you really mean to write that? Where I come from, eclectic is usually defined as "selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles". So, contrary to your assertion, I AM eclectic. If what you meant was catholic, then again, I am very catholic in my modelling tastes. You would only need to glance at my library or see my workbench to realise that.

An interesting notion this. What makes you think that I'm not having fun? Or indeed, that I don't care about having fun? Are having fun and being discriminating in my choices mutually exclusive?

Is that what you regard as being elitist - having an opinion and expressing a preference?

And BTW, Wolf - if you intend to insult an Australian, telling him he has his "head-up-his-butt" is meaningless.

All the best,

Mark.

Reply to
Mark Newton

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.