Trains Magazine Sold

I am not sure whether the "Welcome to Firecrown" that appears in the August 2024 Model Railroader is the same that was in Trains (to which I don't subscribe) but I took away that there is a commitment to staying in print. We'll see, but I was encouraged.

eolesen wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 6:48 pm Granted, those of you who are lifers might not be a financial risk, but others who hear that you lost your lifetime subscription might be just as inclined to walk away when renewal comes up.

It would just be "good PR" to honor whatever lifetime subscriptions out there for any Kalmbach publication that offered them.

This reminds me of an incident occurring several years ago involving a car wash chain around here and me. I had bought a coupon book of fifty car washes (tip and tires were extra).

There was absolutely no reference on the coupons of an expiration date. Just like most airline's "miles" good forever.

Well suddenly they decided to discontinue not only selling them, but also to not honor any outstanding. I got the "well we posted this three months ago so you should have used them up".

I could have taken them to Small Claims Court and I think won. But I didn't; however I know people that would.

My revenge is to tell people about this and how capricious they are. From me, they probably have lost maybe $200 year of washes and a $300 annual detailing.

Just my two cents here when it comes to the Trains franchise. I am still a fan of the brand, however having worked with them, there are some house keeping issues which definitely need to be sorted out. First and foremost they need more proof reading of the work they publish online. I am not a English teacher, but there seems to be a lot of write it and get it out as fast as possible, articles out there. They need to screen the sources they have better as well, I think it was a year or two ago they wrote several articles based off of false information made by a satirical railroad social media account, which was mistaken for an actual railroads post.
One of the other issues I have dealt with, is that its an absolute chore to finally get ahold of someone at the magazine. It took months to submit photos a few years ago and when they finally did get them, the photos were already "out of date" when it comes to newsworthy events. I submitted some story proposals to them not too long ago, which was around the time of Jim Wrinn's passing which it could have just been due to those circumstances, but it took forever to get ahold of someone once again.
If they fix the housekeeping issues and cut down on the watered down stories (AKA the famous "Freight locomotives can't pull passenger trains" headline) which get absolutely torn apart by some of the people on social media, I think they will get back on track. The way Railfan and Railroad does things seems to do well. They release a few good news stories per day and having done two articles with them now, the article normally gets proof read by several sets of eyes before it goes to the printer.

TRAINS has had their jinxes over the years. The one I remember the most was in the October '67 issue that had an article about KCS passenger trains with a quote from the CEO "We have no intention of getting out of the passenger business".

Well, that was the era when the Post Office Department was phasing out use of passenger trains, KCS lost their mail contract, and between the article deadline and publication, KCS petitioned to get out.

For me, I was serving in Vietnam. My TRAINS showed up the very day I was reading a two day old WSJ and there was a front page "blurb" KCS was getting out.

TRAINS sheepishly had within their Newswire column "we reported KCS wasn't getting out, but they are doing just that".

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 8:18 am I have now learned from the staffer I've long known (he is now on Firecrown's payroll) that Kalmbach Publishing will be dissolved and will no longer exist as a corporate entity.

That's been confirmed on their website:

Kalmbach to Liquidate

https://www.trains.com/ctr/community/mi ... -kalmbach/

Kalmbach has decided to liquidate over the next couple of months, bringing an end to approximately 90 years of continuous publishing in and around Milwaukee.

That doesn't surprise me. The only thing left was Discover magazine.

Not too many here recall Kalmbach's Milwaukee Street address - 1027 N 7th?

Periodically, TRAINS would publish photos that readers submitted of engines numbered 1027. Recently, we had a topic here addressing how an IC SD-70 "rescued" an Amtrak #58 (CONO in fanese) - and which was numbered 1027.

I made a comment here to the effect of "one more for Kalmbach's collection"; it appeared not too many respondents knew of what I was addressing.

Clever pun at the end there, sir...



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It sure seems like this outfit is expanding at "startup speed". Kalmbach always struck me as "staid and conservative". Let's hope that there are no "culture wars" arising from the acquisition.

There has been a major problem with Trains magazine forums. Only about 10 - 15 persons who used to post there are now able to post. The blocked posters just get a message

"An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again or contact customer service"

Customer service will not acknowledge that there is a problem by passing it back to the complainer's computers. This has been going on since late August or early September. Mr. Smith am hoping you can find out what is going on.

No longer, or for at least for the past four issues, does TRAINS proclaim themselves to be "THE Magazine Of Railroading".

Also of note; to me at least, there appears to be more content relating to the hobby than to industry affairs. Within the February issue, there is a comprehensive article regarding the demise of RoadRailer, as well as a hard hitting Bill Stephens column stating how the industry must grow, or it will die with yards becoming Amazon and Wally World Distribution Centers served wholly by Peterbilts and K-Whompers.

The remainder content of "Where to find Steam..." and a photo essay of the Columbus, Ohio station appears directed towards historians and hobbyists.

I don't know; had I not signed up for life during '58 ($60; new owners still honoring it), not sure if I'd still be subscribing.

I suspect if you do a change of address to someone half your age, they'd never catch on..... I'm up for testing that theory.

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west point wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2024 10:16 pm There has been a major problem with Trains magazine forums. Only about 10 - 15 persons who used to post there are now able to post. The blocked posters just get a message

"An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again or contact customer service"

Customer service will not acknowledge that there is a problem by passing it back to the complainer's computers. This has been going on since late August or early September. Mr. Smith am hoping you can find out what is going on.

The new owner - Firecrown has restarted the Trains Forums with new software. The old Trains Forum will be shut down on Jan. 15, 2025.

Come by and try out the new space

https://forum.trains.com