Dan’s Train Blog

Dave Nelson made a good comment on Part 1 of this series:

he wrote

Three observations

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

These are good points and bear expanding on:

Page counts and special issues: No, I did not include the new special issues in the page/cost comparisons but these special issues are not part of the 12-issue annual subscription. Even subscribers must pay extra for them. I might feel better about my subscription dollars if MR spread the content in these issue into the 12 issues through the year. No doubt Kalmbach would need to charge more but at the same time the quality of the magazine would be improved.

Why look at only August? I agree it is probably the low mark of the year. People tend to be on vacation in July and August. However, this should be true over all 40 years I looked at. If I compared December issues to August issues that would obviously be a problem. Despite all that, there were some really good August issues! Really it was random timing that led me to choose August — I had just recieved my August 2006 issue when I started the series.

Why look at only one month of the year? This review ended up being a LOT of work just looking at 40 issues. There’s no way I could have done a resonable job including more months and I was interested in including as many years as possible.

Dave’s last point: that what constitutes a “good” article is changable and prejudiced by what you are interested in TODAY. I absolutely agree. That’s why I gave up on ever reducing my MR collection to a file collection of “just articles I like.” I tried that once and almost immediately regretted it and had to spend a lot of time and $$ on eBay getting the whole issues back. As far as affecting how I reviewed the issues? Obviously the reviews of the issues are my personal opinions.

I have been feeling for many years that the quality of the magazine has declined. I was interested in whether I would find that old issues were bad too, in which case MY standards had changed, or whether I really liked those issues better. For my part, I found a real trend downward in quality in MR.

However, one thing that Dave wrote REALLY got me thinking:  those “special” issues. I have bought several of them over the years and they have good material. If MR included all that great content — and yes, charged more – I would very likely feel better about the magazine.

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

Okay, I admit it; I paid in when Model Railroader sent me an unsolicited copy of the first issue of their “Dream Plan Build” video series. Hey they included “collectible” coins too!

I saw this series as Model Railroader (MR) working really hard to remain relevant in a web age and changing modeler demographics that they do not seem to have a clue how to handle. I liked the first one enough to cough up the $24.90 and see how they go.

What I liked:

There is a fair amount of content on each disk, something like an hour and a half to an hour and forty-five minutes each sectioned into 12-16 articles.

I liked the modeling clinics. However, like the magazine, the emphasis remains on the beginner.

I liked the layout tours. I always like to see what other people have built. As long as it’s scale.

What I did not like:

Uck. The modeling clinics where the work ended up looking bad. Come on guys, do it over until it looks good! Video is really kind to most model work so it has to be really shoddy to look bad on video.

Argh. The layout tours of Lionel sets with scenery. I dare you: find one where they do not say “reliving a childhood dream…”  Scale railroading is a rejection of the “let’s see how fast the train can go” world of Lionel based layouts.

Snooze. The prototype tours. I model the 1920’s. I am not really interested diesel engines trundling around.

Recycled. The production values, style, and the sections look a WHOLE LOT like the “Tracks Ahead” series seen occasionally on PBS stations. Can you say “leftovers”?

Conclusion:

I wish Model Railroader luck but after a bit over a year and seven DVDs I’m not going to buy any more.

Yes, I did wait until I filled the little coin holder before I quit.

Yes, I’m weak.

What make a great issue of a magazine? In this web age magazines are having a tough time. It’s easy to gripe so now I’ll do the hard part. What works? What makes a great magazine issue that I’ll put post-its into the pages and come back to 30 years later?

Here are some examples I find flipping through all the marked articles I tagged for this series of blog postings.

Great layout building series. I’ve mentioned the bad ones. Here are the good ones I remember from the last 40 years.

• Brandywine Transit series by Walter R Olsen — a traction / trolley layout from the mid 70’s. I’m sure some of the techniques are a bit dated but I think this would still be a reference point for starting an HO traction layout.

• Jerome & Southwestern by John Olson – I still look at the book collection of these articles.

• San Juan Central by Malcolm Fulrow – obviously I liked this since I based my layout on this one.

What was good about these was that they were visually inspiring (or at least technically inspiring in the case of Brandywine) and you really got the idea you could do it yourself.

Great model building techniques. These could be in the form of how-to articles, cover photos (discussed in this post), or simply drawings.

Here are some examples:

August 1966: From Timber to Tidewater by James Sabol. A great article describing operations on logging railroads.

August 1976: The transofrmation of a caboose by Merk Hobson. How to scratchbuild in wood. Timeless good techniques.

August 1982: Building your first wood structure kit by Bob Hayden. I read over this article every time I start a wood craftsman kit.

August 1998: The HO scale Lilliput Logger by Iain Rice. I don’t hate ALL 4×8 articles. I love Iain’s work and his track plans are inspiring. I have all his track plan books too.

August 2005: Painting and weathering plaster by Bob Mitchell. This is a simple article but I know I’ll want to review it before working on my next plaster kit.

Other good articles:
An article series from another magazine is currently saving by butt as I’m building my turnouts are Didrik Voss’s articles on measuring and adjusting turnouts in the September and October Scale Rails.

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

What were the worst issues in the last 40 years?

Instead of listing specific issues I tried to get an idea specifically what it was that would make me think an issue was just not interesting.

1. A worthless 4 x 8 track plan inserted just to pad out the issue.

In several issues (at least three issues) that had NO interesting articles you could find a 4 x 8 track plan. Is it written somewhere that MR needs to publish a 4 x 8 foot track plan every year?

2. A (Stupid) Railroad You Can Model article.

The typical example is the Yancy RR described in the August 1974 issue. “You can model every track switch (both of them) on the prototype” And this is GOOD because …????

WHO wants to model a railroad that has virtually no traffic, no scenery and no significant history?

What I want are ideas on how to convey that I’m running the Santa Fe on 10 feet of bookshelf space. I want railroads pulling ore out of the mountains, lumber from the hills, or moving tonnage over the Rockies – NOT shipments of dog food.

In fact, the August 1979 issue is choice for WORST August issue. It has EIGHT articles about the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad, a stupid railroad nobody would want to model.

I’ll pay $1 to anyone who can prove to me they actually devoted an entire layout to the pathetic FJ&G RR.

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

What were the best August cover pictures from the last 40 years?

My top five:

Number 5, August 1969. A cover by the late Ben King. Ben’s little layout, precise models and beautiful photos were years ahead of their time.

Number 4, August 1973. Another cover by Ben King. Not happy with available cameras, Ben is showing the beautiful photos his scratch built pin hole camera could take.

Number 3, August 1976. Irv Schultz and his St. Clair Northern.

Number 2, August 1967. An engine servicing area on John Allen’s Gorre & Daphetid RR. John’s work always had a spark that was missing from most of his contemporaries’.

My number 1 favorite issue of August in the last 40 years 1980: Malcolm Furlow’s Denver & Rio Chama Western. Malcolm’s model building was not as good as John Allen’s but the composition of his scenes was always powerful and inspiring.

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

So Model Railroader (MR), my NMRA membership, and Railroad Model Craftsman (RMC) subscriptions all came up at about the same time.

I usually subscribe to Model Railroader two or three years at a time. Sorry MR, not this year: I signed up for one year. RMC gets a two year subscription and the NMRA one more year.

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

How do you judge whether an issue is good or bad? I do it by how many good articles are in the issue. A “good” article is one that I will still refer to years later – either for content or visuals.

In looking at this stack of magazines I see that I also weigh in some other factors – in this order:

The cover image. Sad but true. A good cover image really pulls me in and makes me want to look inside. If the picture on the cover is good I’m more than half way to feeling the whole issue is going to be good.

The articles. Next clearly are the articles in the magazine. A good series like Olson or Furlow’s layout series almost make it a slam dunk.

Lastly: editorials and regular columns. If the first two things are good; the cover art and the articles, I am much more likely to settle down and read all the editorial and regular column content.

These are what I found when I would go through all these issues trying to get a handle on what made an issue “good” versus “bad.”

As I looked at each issue I would give it a score of one for each item that I liked about the issue. I found that editorials and regular columns did not really count in my overall scoring: if there was a lousy cover and no good articles, it simply did not matter that Wescott’s editorial was brilliant.

Scores ranged from 0 = bad issue to 3 = great issue.

Just looking at my color coding things seem to go to crap around 1987. After that there are occaional good or great issues (2′s or 3′s)  but lots of loser issues. Mostly loser issues. Although the magazine grew in size under Larson, the quality of his last six years looks much lower than his first 10 years.

Sperandeo batted about 375 (3 issues out of the dirt) but only two great issues over 8 years. Admittedly, I’m only looking at August but frankly, this does fit pretty closely what I’ve felt about Model Railraoder for a long time.

On this survey it’s hard to tell how Thompson is doing. That one 2005 issue was really good. I hope he can keep it up.

I’ll be continuing with some concrete examples of what I think are good articles and covers — as well as some exmples of bad stuff.

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

Sean asked how or if the page count correlates with the editor at the time. Good question. Did the editor do it? Looking at August issues Model Railroader since 1966, it has had four editors.

Linn Wescott from 1966 to 1977

Russ Larson from 1978 to 1993

Andy Sperandeo from 1994 to 2001

Terry Thompson from 2002 to 2006

Linn Wescott and Russ Larson were the editors while the Model Railroader was growing.

Things went poorly during Andy Sperandeo and Terry Thompson’s leadership. I do not know enough to say they caused the decline seen in MR but it’s clear they were unable to prevent the decline in Model Railroader.

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