Model RR 1000th issue

[BobLI]

Just received the 1000th issue and its OK but not really impressed. Thought it would be a bigger issue. Comments?

[glennk419]

I too expected much more content and a "fatter" issue, especially for the $10 "collector's edition" newsstand price.

[Bigt]

Yes, I too was disappointed. For a milestone like that I thought we were going to see
something special. In my opinion, the magazine in general has gone downhill over the
past few years. Their sister publication, Trains, is the same way. David P. Morgan would
be turning over in his grave if he saw today's magazine. Actually, my subscription ended
with the 1000th issue and I will not be renewing.

[granton junction]

MR was a major disappointment for me also especially after the hype that there was in the preceding issues. I expected a much 'meatier' issue and was hoping for stuff about the history of model railroading and the milestones in model railroading. The $10 cover price was not worth it. It will be going into my recycling bin soon. Hardly 'collectible'.

[Aa3rt]

I'm glad to read that I'm not the only one that was disappointed with the 1000th issue effort. I grew up reading (and re-reading) my father's collection of Trains, Railroad and Model Railroader magazines that dated back to the mid-1940's, when he returned from service in WWII. I was really expecting to see a lot more history and possibly some progression of how models and modeling techniques have improved since MR's first offering. For the almost $10 cover price I expected a LOT more.

[Roger Hensley]

Well, I thought their effort was actually pretty good. Yes, the magazine has gone downhill over the past few years, but lets look at some of the reasons. They don't have the major advertisers that they once had. This alone would be reason enough for MR to get smaller. And then, there is the fact that we as modelers aren't writing articles for them. They can only print what they get OR what they have to create to fill the space.

OK, I may be looking at the short end of the stick, but I though they did a pretty good job.

[Aa3rt]

I wasn't faulting the magazine as a whole, however with 999 previous issues to draw from, I thought that more effort could have been put into the history and progression of the hobby for the milestone issue.

[CNJ999]

Indeed, I must agree with the bulk of those responding that the 1000th issue of MR proved to be a considerable disappointment and very sub par relative to past anniversary issues.

If one wants to see the sort of content one came to expect from Model Railroader in its hey day, when it truly was the hobby's flagship publication, get your hands on any number of the magazine's anniversary issues beginning with probably the 25th anniversary issue up through the 50th, or so. These were truly great publications with not only "where have we come from" and "greatest layouts", but important articles like major hobby figures visions of what the hobby might be like in 25 or 50 years hence. Very interesting reading.

Personally, I found the multi-page spread in the 50th one of the most clever MR ever put together. It was a fictional account of the rediscovery of a ram shackle Hiawatha steam engine discovered in an old train shed and restored to operation. It was then sent on a national tour of the great layouts that had more or less recently appeared in MR, with the theme that each layout's builder create and photograph an appropriate crowd scene supposedly hailing the locomotive's arrival in one of their layout's city or towns, just as if it were a real event! There were some great photos in that thick issue. Incidentally, to make the story viable in several scales, MR had prepared versions of the engine so that they could appear on HO and O scale layouts!

CNJ999