Note: This review is my own opinion, unsolicited, and based purely on my experience as a customer.

I’m generally sad about the state of model railroading magazines. In August of 2006 I started a series of blog posts analyzing what has happened to Model Railroader to make it the raging wad of mediocrity it is today. I grew up loving MR. I have 46 years of MR back-issues in the loft bookcases of my office.

I have 32 years of Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazettes and a few decades of Railroad Model Craftsman. They have ebbed and flowed as well but overall are reading now much as they did many years ago.

I’ve been open to the idea of other model railroading magazines and have subscribed to several. None stood any test of time.

I have something to be happier about.

Joe Fugate and friends started Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine in January of 2009. Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine (hereafter MRH) is published quarterly (bi-monthly in 2010) as a free download in PDF format using many of the rich media extensions available in that format.

I really liked the first issue and I wished them well in the tough world of model railroad publishing but I must admit I said to myself “I bet they threw everything into that first issue and the content will dwindle over the next few issues.”

I got busy with life, work, and other non-modeling pursuits and while I downloaded the 2nd and 3rd issues I did not read them.

This week the 4th quarter issue came out and I started to read it. And read it. And look at it again. It is great. I learned something new, several times. It was fun to read. It is what I think a great model railroading magazine should be.

I double checked by sitting down this morning and reading through all four issues back-to-back. I’m really impressed. I’m really happy I have these issues on my hard drive. It’s exciting to have a new magazine where I’m actually curious what the next issue will bring.

I carefully read Joe’s editorials and articles to see if he actually delineates the secret sauce. In issue #1 he says that it’s the rich media. In another issue he says it’s because he advocates “layout modeling.” I think he’s missed on both. It’s the content. Not only are the articles excellent quality but they have room to breathe. In a medium where megabytes are cheap MRH can allow an article to go long, go deep, have more pictures. Print can’t compete.

I highly recommend Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine.

Go look. It’s free and I feel really confident that you will find it time well spent.

Have you gone yet?

I found an ad somewhere for this magazine Model Railroad News (MRN) and went to their website where I signed up for their “3 free issues” offer. MRN has been published since 1995 so while it was new to me it’s not really a new magazine. 

For this review I looked over their “About MRN” page and decided that this part of their description most accurately describes what Model Railroad News does:

“Model Railroad News provides timely, in-depth coverage of new products, model railroading news, and includes highly regarded product reviews.”

MRN has chosen a pretty tight focus and within this focus I think they do a good job. They do not do “how to build my first 4×8 layout” or “buying my first air brush.” What you find here is lots of news about what manufacturers are doing and the product reviews are detailed and very well photographed.

After reading my three free issues I must agree that MRN’s explicit focus on product reviews and industry news works much better than Model Railroader’s implicit semi-random move in the same direction.

If this sounds interesting to you I recommend you try out the three free issues. I know from corresponding with some people around my “What’s messed up with Model Railroader” series that this magazine could be exactly what they are looking for.

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

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

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

Size in a magazine can be complicated since it is a combination of content plus advertising. However, when times are good there is lots of advertising so the page count should go up. This was certainly true for technology magazines in the 1990′s. I remember when it was starting to look like WIRED magazine was going to challenge the phone book in size.

Then came the Internet/Tech crash and WIRED got very very skinny. MR got a bit slimmer too.

Since 1966 Model Railroader shows 30 years of growth followed by 10 years of shrinking size.

So the size plateaus in the early 1990’s and noses downwards around 1996. Now the size of MR is like it was in the late 1970′s. But in the 70′s the magazine was growing. Now the magazine is on a decline. 

I’m sure this tracks to circulation data for MR but does this track to the quality of the issues? Did the quality and excitement inside the magazine stop in the 90s or were external forces to blame?

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

The cover price has gone from 50 cents to $5.50. Accounting for inflation the price has gone from $3.00 to $5.28 in constant 2005 dollars. Per page it has been 3-5 cents per page throughout.

Overall, the cost of Model Railroader has been pretty steady over the years.

The bigger question is how’s the value of the magazine held up?

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

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.
 

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

I collect a big stack until it becomes structurally unstable (i.e. I trip over it getting up in the morning) and then put away books that I’m not actually reading. Books here have a half life of about one month – after three months there’s really 100% turnover.

Make it Work: Earth and Make it Work: Maps – Really cool books that have scenery, terrain and map projects for children that are good experience for young model railroaders-to-be.

Small World, Dioramas in Contemporary Art - this is a book about dioramas as pieces of art. Gets me thinking about the reasoning and messages I want my work to convey.

The Callboard of the Redwood Empire Division of the NMRA – (site) yep, I’m a card carrying member of the NMRA and this is my regional newsletter.

Modeler’s Resource – (site) I subscribed to this for a year recently. More oriented to the sci-fi and comic book figure modelers but strays into lots of other areas too.

Model Railroad Planning 1998 – I’ve bought several of the MR Planning “special” issues. I recommend buying them from a newsstand so you can look it over first. Some issues have lots of things I’m interested in while others may have very little.

Scenic Express Catalog – (site) Great company that specializes in scenery materials.

Redwood Railways by Gilbert H. Kneiss – My favorite history of the Northwestern Pacific and the many predecessor railroads that grew and merged into the NWP. Compared to other sources it gives a broader background of the people and history around the railroads in northern California.

The Art of the Miniature – my favorite “dioramas as art” book. Lots of insight on, and examples of composition and lighting ideas.

Make Magazine – wild and inspiring gadget building projects.

The Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette – (site) I own every issue. Over the years has consistently maintained excellent quality. Ok, maybe a couple years in the 80’s were a bit weak but still worth every penny.

PC Gamer – notice what you are reading this post on? A computer. Computers and software are my day job and are also a fantastic modeling and research tool. As computer games increasingly become immersive sensory experiences I see model building design converging with game design (and movies, for that matter).

Model Railroader – Sigh. I have a strong emotional attachment to MR because of its place in my personal model railroading history but MR is getting increasingly dotty with age. I have issues back to the late sixties and will cherish them always but my model magazine subscription dollars may soon go elsewhere.

Railroad Model Craftsman – (site) The quality of this magazine is steadily increasing.

Scale Rails – “free” with your membership in the NMRA. Good thing. Ok, I’m being harsh, the particular issue shown had a couple really good articles in it (even if the engine in cover photo has a big old feather duster feather draped over the cab). And hey! They STILL haven’t paid me for the guest editorial I did for Tom Troughton back in 2004!

Walthers catalog – still the “Sears Catalog” of model railroading. Like MR, Walthers has a powerful emotional tie to my model railroading history. Walthers’ catalog combined with their website and on-line ordering are a huge aid in any large modeling effort.

Books of Clark Kinsey photos – Wow. I just got these a couple months ago and they are simply gorgeous books. A great online source for Kinsey photos is here at the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections.