The Incredible Shrinking Model Railroader Magazine ?!

Mike, I agree with what you say on the product end of the scale, but I'm not sure about the magazines. I don't see the number of drawings in MR that I used to. Maybe it's because the drawings are no longer stand-alone, but part of a construction article, so maybe I ignore them.

I was looking through one 1970s issue last night. In that one issue were 4 (!) prototype drawings, I think 2 or 3 cars and 1 or 2 buildings. And that was in a mag that was less than 120, maybe 100, pages.

I suppose the reason we see fewer rolling stock drawings is that there are more and more prototypes out there that can be bought off the shelf, so the need for drawings just isn't there. I notice that the drawings I do see tend to be almost all buildings, at least in MR. I think Mainline Modeler still has a fair number of car drawings. Maybe the other mags have become the venue for car drawings and I'm just not looking in the right place.

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

Yes, the page count. Now compare the number of ads in MR of 1974 vs. MR of

2004. A substantial amount of the increase in page numbers arises because ads are plastered everywhere in 2004. My 1974 mag, for example, has almost no ads in the middle of the mag. They're all in the end, or at the beginning. Maybe there's an occassional full-page ad in the middle. It's not like these page now that have a column of ads plastered down column 1 of the left-hand page and column 3 or 4 of the right-hand page. That cuts your available column-inches on a page, and turns a 2-page article into a 3-page article. And larger photos do even more. By the time you're done, that old 2-page spread might need 4 or 5 in the 2004 MR. That's why I said column-inches.

In modern days, I think the height of the mag for content was the late 80s. Some of the mags ran 170 pages, and there wasn't quite the proliferation of ads that we have today, by my memory (I was thumbing through my 1959-1978 mags last night; I'll hit the '80-'87 mags tonight).

If you're gonna weigh the meat (articles), trim the fat (ads). Maybe not all agree with my analogy (ads are "fat"), but I think you get my point, that the old 80 page/almost-no-ads magazine has as much or nearly as much meat as the modern 120-180 page/ads-are-everywhere magazine.

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

I know what you mean Mike. I have been out of the hobby for about 30 years. Left it when I went off to Unniversity.

When I get back, I find more magazines available, more product available. The Walthers catalog seems to be much thicker. More variety.

There does seem to be more available and much higher quality.

On 12 Feb 2004 04:40:50 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Hzakas) purred:

The way I beat that was to scan all the back issue content (including informative ads) and store them digitally. This can save lots of space, however I can't comment on that, I never got rid of my mags, so they are still stacked in the closet.

cat

People still buy these advert mags?

Sod all worth reading in them anymore.. havent bothered to pick one up in 5 years happy to say... No use... If I want ads, I got the Internet to look for shit

I think MRR and other mags are simply reflecting the state of the hobby. There is such a diversity of rolling stock, engines, buildings, etc that there is far less need for modelers to roll their own, especially engines.

Lately MRR seems to be emphasizing smaller articles that show how to go beyond stock kits - adding scenery details, etc. This month's has a good article on kitbashing a standard house into several variations. Maybe there aren't a lot of drawings, but it has lots of full color pictures.

Another column shows how to add the small trackside details that really make a difference in a scene.

The past few months have shown how to detail specific engines, rather than how to scratchbuild one.

I really wonder if some of the critics here are actually looking at the magazine before posting. The last 3-4 months in particular, have all had some very good, detailed, useful articles in them.

MRR certainly isn't above criticism. The current article on using a proprietary computer system for signaling is nothing more than an infomercial. You HAVE to buy a critical chip from the company in order for it to work. That's ridiculous.

But overall, MRR's presentation, content, format, photos, etc are still far and away the leader of the pack.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

Not a flamer, just a lurker that grew weary of your unfounded diatribes. Who's the flamer, the one who throws out the inflammatory "MR is finished" with unsubtantiated claims or the one who responds?

I am in total agreement with you biggus. I bought two issues of each magazine (RM, RMC, CRM and NGSLG). The only one I found worth subscribing to was the Gazette.

True, but I could also make the case that even a well-stocked layout (in loco terms) would probably have no more than 25% of the rolling stock as locomotives. If you throw in a few oddball cars, there's plenty of room for new drawings. For instance, to my knowledge no one has yet published drawings of Allis-Chalmers's well cars built by Thrall in 1957. I saw an article in one of my old MRs (maybe RMC) of a 3-truck box car (one in the middle) built as a Racine Coach & Carriage Works (or something like that) car, based on an actual prototype. Oddball cars abound.

That's useful for the newbie market, which MR seems to be aiming at in the past few years. It's old hat for some of us, who may move on to other mags or none.

It's true that subdivisions of today are not the only cookie-cutter houses around. Look at older houses. Once you get past dormers added, etc., most houses in neighborhoods that grew rapidly were built on 2 to 4 basic plans.

It seems that city fathers used to enforce straight through-streets more so than they do now, rather than the winding cul-de-sac subdivision off the main road, linked to no other neighborhood around.

As an aside, perhaps someone should do a study of "community spirit" in these separated subdivisions. I think you would find few interactions between people in other subdivisions, especially kids, simply because of lack of access from one to the other without main roads. (I'm wandering, I know. Just had a brain fart)

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

The answer is that you are. You are somebody else posing as a new poster. Sad..........

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 22:54:51 +1100, Biggus purred:

How do you know a product exists so you can search for it? Most magazine articles are little more than glorified ads for a product or service. Does that mean they are all worthless? I buy MR despite the fact they run only a few articles on anything which interests me and their fixation on huge layouts is frustrating to apartment dwellers. Why do I get it? Some articles and the occasional inspirational pic, but mostly for the ads. I don't have hours to waste looking for products so the cost of MR is a lot better investment. I also get several other mags, but MR is the only one I keep. Shrinking? Not really. Look at the early issues, those are tiny. The huge issues had a lot of ads, too, so things are about the same today. Ads are less and so are articles (which pay for the articles) so it balances out. As for price, i used to have a book shop and carried the entire Kalmbach line. I got 40% of cover price per issue. my distributor got 38%. Right there was 78% of cover. Add in shipping from Kalmbach to the distributor and that would be over 80% of cover Kalmbach never sees. Add it up and that is a pretty small price for the even occasional piece of information or useful article.

cat

On 13 Feb 2004 16:45:09 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.comjkelm (JCunington) purred:

Strange. I still pick up the occasional tip and building high professional models (I own a motion picture special effects house) is my business. I guess finding those articles makes me a newbie.

cat

OK, but you're only getting "tips". Those can be handy, but you're not really getting "meat", are you?

I'm more and more finding MR no longer cuts it for me. I asked my mother-in-law to get me RMJ, but she'd already re-upped me for MR for another year.

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

When the digital version of MR is bigger than the printed magazine, then we have a real problem. * wink *

I've got to agree with Will. Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette has great articles, great photography, great paper, and great packaging (a plastic bag that keeps the mail rats away). Even some of the ads are interesting.

Now, Okie, don't try to rationalize Mr Rat's responses. Paranoid Persecution and Delusions of Grandeur are all he has left in his life. He has pissed off all his real friends and now all he has left are virtual ones.

Why is it totally outside of your ability to reason that someone other than this John fella may be tired of your empty, inflammatory drivel?

Geez ! To think that i started this thread....

I should have known that it would quickly turn into a major rant and finger pointing OT thread !

Are we all adults here ?! What is wrong with you people ? Don't you have enough friends and spouses you can taunt at home ?

The "rec" in "rec.models.railroad" doesn't stand for "rectum".

Can't we all just get along kids ?

Oy !

Peteski

Sadly, this once interesting newsgroup has degenerated into a name calling, political ranting group of "rectums".

Look how the number of rail related posts on the group has shrunk over the past few months.

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway