What Magazine?

Depends entirely upon tor interests and skill level.

Assuming you are in the US or Canada, for 3 months, go to your Local Hobby Shop (LHS) and buy each of Model Railroader; Railroad Model Craftsman, and Narrow Gauge as Shortline Gazette.

Read each in detail every month.

After three months you decide which you prefer. In the long run, it has to be your preferene that contols what you buy. My preference - or tha of anyone other than you - is irrelevant.

Also, do not turn your nodse up at an article in any mag just because its not HO scale. Almost any article can giveyou ideas, regardless of the scale of the subject of the article.

"Rip"

While I commend you on editing your reply, something many, many more people could learn, there's just one question as you edited out too much.

What magazine are you talking about?

-- Cheers

Roger T. Home of the Great Eastern Railway at:-

48° 25' North Longitude: 123° 21' West

On 1/17/2008 12:03 PM Rip spake thus:

I'd say /Mainline Modeler/, but then that wouldn't be a useful answer to you as they're out of business. But it was by far the best model RR magazine overall when it was published. (You can, however, buy back issues from their website,

These are still useful and chock-full of construction articles, prototype photos and plans, and lots of other good stuff.)

Apart from that, the advice to buy issues of the "big 2" (/Model Railroader/ and /Railroad Model Craftsman/), plus any other special-interest mags they migh have, and decide which one you like best. (Or don't even buy them: go to your local library, which may at least have MR and RMC.)

On 1/17/2008 12:35 PM Roger T. spake thus:

I believe that's the question the OP wants *you* to answer.

I believe Roger T. was being naughty. He thinks there is no such magazine. ;-)

Anyhow, what's good for an skilled hand in the hobby isn't necessarily good for a beginner, or even the moderately skilled. That's why Mainline Modeler folded - too small a market. That, and its often weird editing.

FWIW, there are only two magazines I would recommend to RIP, if he's in the USA or Canada: Model Railroader, and Railroad Model Craftsman. I'd also recommend what another poster said (was it you?): try each for several issues, and then decide.

And a word to Rip: please, get yourself to a real hobby shop ASAP. You will enjoy it. Really!

HTH

"Wolf K." wrote

Maybe it's just me, but I wonder why you have to choose? I get subscriptions to both of the above magazines for Christmas every year, and get ideas and etcetera from both publications.

As the old song goes: "There's more pretty girls than one".

Pete

On 1/17/2008 12:35 PM Roger T. spake thus:

Oh, I get it. This is fun.

He's talking about What Magazine. You know the one.

(The one that had the Who's on First dialogue in the first issue.)

"David Nebenzahl" wrote

Enjoy.

Pete

As others have said, Model Railroader and Model Railroad Craftsman probably best fit your request, that Mainline Modeler, no longer being published, was better than either MR or RMC for the quality construction articles about the class 1 RRs, and that Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette is of similar quality focused on smaller (gauge or length) RRs. What none have mentioned is the periodicals by the several prototype railroad historical societies. The models that show up at these society conventions are as good as anything being done today. While much of their content is about the real RR, many devote space to modeling. For example, the Pennsy group does a separate e-zine which I find to be of similar quality to Mainline Modeler. The last

6 issues of the "Keystone Modeler" can be browsed or downloaded in .pdf format at:

Even if you find that this level of superdetailing or scratch building is more than you want to do right now, I would still recommend you join the historical society for your favorite RR and start building a reference library of their periodicals so you don't have to hunt out back issues in the future. Geezer