So How About That Model Railroader???

Well, being that Model Railroader Redesign thread was a hot topic, I figure I would throw some gasoline on the hot cinders and see if we can't get that fire going again.

Enjoy the following poll below..

you know, I had a fifth option.

"Not good enough to wipe my rear end with" but apparently you only have 4 poll options.

What a bummer.

One can only vote if #1-they are a member and #2-they are logged in. I'll wager that most of the views are "guest" traffic, or are members who were not logged in at the time.

I think the old comment about the UK's erstwhile Punch magazine fits:

"Not as good as it used to be"

(said every year about Punch, whether it was better or not)

I'll have to agree with Sir Ray-as one who mis-spent his youth voraciously reading my father's old Trains and Model Railroaders dating back to the 1940's, MR just doesn't hold the appeal that it once did. Possibly it's just the fact that I'm getting older but even with all the advances that have been made in the hobby (and the multitude of products that weren't available in years past) MR just doesn't captivate my interest.

To be fair, some of the layouts pictured are BEAUTIFUL, of a much higher caliber than what was seen in years past, and I still appreciate seeing other's modeling efforts.

On occasion I will pick MR up at the local newsstand but there has to be a feature article that interests me. I miss the old in-depth construction articles.

Too much seems to be just "fluff" without a lot of substance. And as was mentioned in the thread before the previous site went down, the new products reviews don't seem to be as objective as they once were.

I voted for 4, though maybe it is worthy of a 3. It's kind of boarderline. IMO, it was much better when Andy was still editor, and there were still the people at the magazine that many people got to know and really respect over the years.

Art,

Its not that your getting older. I myself am only 28, and I can say that up to the mid 90's life was good with MR, and after that, it started downhill, slowly at first, but now at a faster rate.

I am bothered by the fact that the number 1 model railroad magazine is run by people who lack character, leadership, and guts to tell the readers how it really is.

It actually makes me embarrased to think that these guys are the images of what model railroaders are, and honestly, I am far from wimpy, whiney, ugly, and deffinatley not swooned by special interest.

Its like the Movie "Revenge of the Nerds" only they're older now, and run a magazine.

Talk about having a bad trip, uuugggghhhh...

Why should I pay for MR? They are so in bed with thier advertisers! They never met a new product they didn't like, as the cosumer I feel betrayed! MR is getting $5 out of me, and thier advertisers are getting access to me with not having to worry about negative reviews. Who is on the short end here?

Joe,

Yeah, I'm 27 and I pine for the Model Railroaders from the 90's. Good Construction articles. Kitbash this, scratchbuild that, really got me into the hobby. I was out of the loop for about five years (1998-2003) while I studied abroad in Japan and finished college in Milwaukee (limited space in the Jeep, and home was about 200 miles away).

I picked up my first issue on my return to the hobby about a year-and-a-half ago and found that one of my favorite items was gone... Model of the Month. I didn't really notice much of a change at first, since I was more concerned with getting my homework completed, but now that I've been out of school for about a year and had more time for recreational reading (and working on the layout), I've noticed much of what others have said here (and especially what was said on the old site).

Maybe it's just a reflection of how the hobby has changed, more RTR people, fewer kit builders, better quality of stuff out there. Two examples off hand are two articles on how to (practically) scratchbuild an EMD SW-1 and superdetail a SP SW-1500. The SW-1 project started with a Model Power unit (only a few bits were used) while the 1500 started with a Cary cast metal body. I thoroughly enjoyed both articles (one reason why they stick out in my mind), but even as the articles were published (and was aknowledged in both articles), Walther's came out with their SW-1 and Athearn released a version of the 1500 that had most of the details the author described already in place. From what's been tossed around out there (again on the old forum threads) it seems most people would rather get the trains and run 'em. Maybe that's who MR is trying to cater to today.

But I can only speculate.

The problem people have with MR isn't that the magazine is total crap. The photography is first rate and they manage to feature some great layouts with a variety of design philosophies. The problem is that as the flagship publication of our hobby we feel the magazine ought to be much better than it is. Other publications have their strengths. RMC has its share of outstanding issues with articles that I save for various modeling techniques. But RMC can be hit or miss. I have bought entire issues where there wasn't a single article I was interested in. I like MRing, but they are more like a glossy fanzine and you never know how many months you will wait until the next issue.

MR's biggest problem is the amount of fluff articles. Stuff that is on the level of "how to build a coffee cup holder onto your benchwork" and 10 great websites is a waste of my time. This space can be filled with articles on modeling techniques or, at the very least, another layout tour.

Model Railroader used to be full of people who really cared about the hobby, who were great writers and photographers, and who really enjoyed being critics and promoters of model railroading. At one time, they openly criticised WALTHERS for releasing a line of "steam era" Penn Central decals (this was at the height of Walther's tounge-in-cheek days in the late 1960s an early 1970s). Back in the 1950s, Floquil pulled their advertising because they felt slighted by editor John Page. Did Kalmbach flip his lid? Nope, we have a responsibility to our readers first, we can always replace an advertiser later, he said.

There is a different generation of people there now- this is not a comment on their character or their work (they have families and bills to pay, just like us). No reason that Kalmbach should not be making money hand over fist- but what kind of product are they putting out? Certainly not the same that was envisioned by Al Kalmbach in 1934.

People will argue that today's generation does not have the patience or the interest in the types of articles and content that ran in MR in the past. Bull. My collection of MR goes back to 1941- and they get better as they get older. the only thing that has changed in our hobby is the available materials (plastics, foams, and the like) and the style of modeling (prototype modeling and free-lancing as opposed to just building and running trains for the fun of it). Tone down the design and the cheap Photoshop effects (btw, Rick Johnson is my hero- he knows how to create beautiful illustrations in Illustrator and Photoshop without resorting to cheap trickery) and bring us the content. And no more of this "10 Secrets to Model Railroading Inside!" or "50 Brass Engines You Can't Live Without!" or advertorial stuff like that.

Hey trust me, I've been in the magazine business for a few years.

-otto-
Production Manager, Hudson Valley Magazine

You knew something was up when they removed "MODEL RAILROADING IS FUN" from the top of the logo (same thing when they removed "THE MAGAZINE OF RAILROADING" from the top of Trains).

Model Railroader has set and raised the bar in many fields:

1. Photography- no one has better photography than Model Railroader. They have simply set the bar and rasied the bar for excellent, realist, model photography. In turn, this has caused the quality of modeling to go up as well.

2. Illustrations- no one has better illustrations and track plans than Model Railroader. Period.

3. Technology- Thanks mostly to Linn Westcott, MR has always been one to show us exactly what technology can do on our model railroads. From early 1950s ABS signal circuits, to the C/MRI series, to DCC, MR has always been out in front.

You can never take that way from MR. You could say that MR is getting by right now on its charm and good looks. Where does MR fall short?

1. Fell Prey to the "Barnes & Noble" Market- MR is no longer competing for your business or even the hobby market, but competing on the same rack as all the other magazines at Barnes & Noble. I have had past art directors at MR tell me so much as that. The look and feel of the magazine is now in sync with the mass market periodicals.

2. Dumbed-down content - Seems every concept article is written so that even the beginner can follow along and scratchbuild a brass loco. This means no more in-depth stuff from the writers. I read MR for YEARS before I understood some of the methods they were talking about- that is the learning process. Yes, you need to explain things once in a while, but there is too much of a "dumb" slant to the magazine. Give the reader (new and old) some credit.

3. Graphic Design - it's a good look... it just needs to come down a notch. Every how-to article looks like those Quick Start Guides you get when you buy a new computer. Enough with the cute typography and funny Photoshop filters. Good graphic design doesn not have to be boring, it aids effective communication. The reason MR has always been such a well-produced magazine is because Al Kalmbach was an experienced press operator (he owned his own small print shop- in those days, you had to be knowledgable in many different fields in order to have a successful print shop). That means he was a typographer and was skilled in the make-up and layout of pages for printing. As the magazine grew, he knew to hire art directors with actual design training. That tradition continues at Kalmbach, there are many skilled designers and illustrators working there today- just the final product needs to be tweaked some. I dont know of any other railroad publishers right now that have a dedicated art department (no, just because the Editor of whatevermagazine learned how to use Quark XPress does not make him a designer).

Just my two cents.

-otto-

I see the quality stuff migrating eventually to the web, and in many ways it already has, as well as to the only MR product I'll go out of my way to buy, Model Railroad Design.

One indication of what part of the problem is is old age, its only in the past few years that MR has started running an Obituary line in the mag regularly, because many of the greats are after all starting to die off (which is only to be expected after all).

The older ones are better, I assume that many of you have noticed they have redone the format again.

/rant