Mon 7 Aug 2006

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 1

Posted by Daniel Swearingen under Books & Mags , Model Railroader , Model Railroading
[4] comments / Leave a comment 

What has changed in Model Railroader over the last 40 years? I know that Model Railroader is just not as inspiring as it used to be. Is it me or them? In many email groups  many other people also complaining about the quality of Model Railroader (MR). But is this a real issue, factually true or just a feeling?

I decided to collect the August issue of each year I have and compare them. My collection of MR goes back to 1966 so I looked at 1966 to 2006 (ok, so it’s really 41 years of August!).

I’ll start with easy things to measure like cost and page count and go on to harder measures that are increasingly (and unavoidably) my opinion.
 

MR 1966 MR 1967 MR 1968

MR 1969 MR 1970 MR 1971

 

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 1

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 2

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 3

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 4

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 5

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 5½

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 6

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 7

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 8

40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 9

 

4 Responses to “40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 1”

  1. Dave Nelson Says:
    January 30th, 2007 at 3:29 pm

    Three observations

    When comparing page counts how do you factor in Great Model Railroads, Model Railroad Planning, and other “special” issues that didn’t exist at one time? Arguably MR is now a 14 or is it 15 issue a year magazine now.

    I would also point out that using the August issue as comparison is a bit odd — I bet that has the lowest news stand sale of any issue (since I suspect less model railroading is done that month) and thus they probably tend not to put their best articles in that issue.

    Third observation is that had I ranked issues years ago, before beginning my layout, I would have placed far less value on articles about benchwork, tracklaying, wiring, yard design etc than I would now. Soon I will be deeply involved in structures and I imagine my ranking of articles will change once again. Just a point
    Dave Nelson

  2. Daniel Swearingen Says:
    February 1st, 2007 at 7:23 am

    Hi Dave, please see post based on these great points you’ve brought up.

    40 Years of August in Model Railroader – Part 9

  3. Dave Says:
    April 9th, 2008 at 7:40 am

    It’s Russ Larson’s legacy: he transformed MR from a hobbyist’s mag to a glossy coffeetable trinket.

  4. Jim Lowe Says:
    April 1st, 2009 at 4:12 am

    Hi Dan,

    Interesting series of posts. It was the August ’73 issue of MR that got me hooked on model building and model railroads as kid. Specifically, it was E.L. Moore’s Bunn’s Feed & Seed Plant construction article. Most of that project was too difficult for me at the time, but recently I went back to the article to try and build it. When I was going through the magazine again – and other issues from that era – it seemed that many of the articles were more technical and detailed than they are today, but I wasn’t sure if that was just bias on my part. As well, most of the articles seem to have more text to them than they do today.

    Anyway, I enjoy reading your posts.

    Cheers,
    Jim Lowe,
    Ottawa, Canada.