One less magazine

With the advent of the internet, nitch hobby magazines are going to fall like dominos. For all the complaints about them, we're lucky Kalmbach still exists.

At the same time, with the internet at our fingertips, there's less of a need.

It's the same in other leisure activity Realms. Ziff-Davis publishes just about every enthusiast magazine out there.

 

Yes very sad. Same thing is happening to catalogs. I remember getting all the print catalogs from MDC, Tyco, Bachmann, and remember the small Atlas catalogs there were a different color every year? Man I miss those. I like the internet and all. But I don't like how it has changed the way we would sit down and look at a catalog. And with the internet, there is less throne reading material .
Thom

 

Wouldn't a small Z-Scale layout be more relaxing.......:angel:
:teeth:

 

It probably is not so much the lack of subscriptions that killed them as much as advertising dollars moving to the web. So, yes, the web is probably responsible for the demise.

 

With internet discounters running out "brick and Mortar" hobby shops, and more and more people spending discretionary income on other things than Hobbies, the advertising dollars are drying up.

Say what you want about subscriptions, and in store sales, ADVERTISING is what pays the bills in publishing.

 

Scale specific always seemed a little problematic to me.

Essentially, Scale specific can do some stuff on new products and certain detailing and building articles that show quirks of the scale, but the most visible aspect of the layout, scenery, trackwork, wiring, etc is all scale non-specific.

even on this board, I see threads (in particular in Nscale it seems) that really don't need to be scale specific.

It's like a cult.

 

Not to be a stick in the mud. But I learn more and get to see more by going to Train Shows and going on layout tours talking to fellow N-scalers (NETWORKING) than I get out of any of any one magazine. And further more being in N-Scale, I feel that N-Scalers get left out of alot of things. Kirk Reddies (N-Railroading) is about the best I have seen for the N-Scale crowd. What about the Z-Scalers, I can think of only 1 magazine for those guys. Most of the magazines want to cover the larger scales. I would like to see more of the smaller scales covered. Cover more of what is going in the smaller Scales of the MODEL RAILROADING WORLD, than just the larger scales. How about a kitbashed SD 40 CAT in N-Scale or a SDP 45 in N-Scale or a Rotary Snow Plow in Z-Scale, or a Nn3 branch line that will be SPECTACULAR when fininshed. I am repainting my BRAND NEW KATO Empire Builder passenger train into Big Sky Blue Empire Builder.(learning how to use my new Double action Airbrush at the same time) So I know there is more going on than I see in the magazines. I am fairly new to the hobby, I want to be doing some of my own kitbashing. I want to see how a mitter box looking thing is used, or different types of sandpaper do what. I know it seems kind of basic but I am semi NEW to the hobby and want to know how it works? Like myself, there are quite a few newer and new people in the hobby and do not know how things work or what is available to them. That is why I don't subscribe to many of the magazines out there, basicaly nothing in it for my scale. I go (NETWORKING). Anyway that is my 1.6 cents worth...

 

See, I think that's much ado about Nothing. N-scalers have been complaining for years about how dominant HO is in the press, but what the really mean is how dominant it is in MR and RMC. N-scalers have their own magazines, they have a huge cultlike online community and lets face it, around here the N-scale forum is the most jumping modeling forum around.

The principles of painting have little to do with scale, so why does that matter?
An article about painting a Gauge 1 boxcar will have relevent info to you.

I feel like N-scalers have an institutionalized persecution complex.

 

I remember also and agree with you Boxcab, I remember getting my first set of n scale,the only set of N scale in the hobby store and in the whole state!!!!! you wanted more track,more rolling stock? Happy hunting!!! Now the Z scalers are "the Lost Boys" I call myself a model Railroader but more importantly I am an N scaler
This forum covers every scale but I only bookmarked the N scale forum since that is my only interest.

 

It was a rough start for most of us back in the early 1970's. I remember going to Sycamore Hollow Hobby Shop in Fort Wayne Indiana with my dad - it was all HO. Then when Dick Yeager moved his shop to a bigger building, he began to stock N scale - I like to think I helped with that decision. My dad was dedicated to HO, but helped me with my N scale stuff - when I would let him. I really was frustrated at times at the lack of engines, rolling stock, buildings,and especially track that looked half-way decent. So I had to learn to improvise, scratch build, etc. - and looking back on it, that really was model railroading! Since there were only 4 channels on TV and no internet, there was more "free" time actually. It used to be so exciting when dad's Model Railroader magazine would arrive and there would actually be an article about something - anything - in N scale. The articles were few and far between. Train shows were not much better - some of the dealers would try to convince me that N was just a toy fad and wouldn't last - but I stuck with it.

 

And HO went through similar growing pains vis a vis O. (though probably not quite as bad).

The point is that it's all history, yet even young N-scalers are being, in my mind, poisoned to think of it as a war. I get the impression that Z-scalers are a little more mellow about it. Never hear S-Scalers complain. 25 years ago when I started getting interested in Trains, you didn't have as much N-scale stuff, it's true, so what, that's the way new scales work.


For those of you computer savvy, N-Scale:HO :: MacC.


And I'm just stirring the pot to get some discussion. The idea that someone would stick exclusivly to the N-scale forum and not look for the great comments from those in all scales kinda bothers me. Do we really want to foster that kind of us vs. them exclusion?

I know I never did when I was in N-scale.

 

I think the reason it failed was that the magazine was not that good. It was basically the same thing, issue after issue. They had multipart articles on everythinkg .. Even getting one of the contributors layout wired for DCC was like 15 parts .. and the neverending GP40 series, while informative, took up too much space and time.

 

"About the only scale, not represented by a specialty magazine, is HO."
Bobcat, haven't you heard of Model Railroader? It's about as near to HO specific as you can get.
Seriously, I agree that model RR mags all help in our hobby regardless of the scale which dominates. I can learn from HO scale articles or S. I do have some trouble fitting G into the N empire. I subscribe to MR and N Scale Railroading and have been getting Model Railroading for years. It wasn't one of my favorites but I stuck with it. Will I miss it? Not really. Besides, with the changes at that will hopefully come at N Scale it may be time to give it a try? I quit subscribing a long time ago.
By the way, my real favorite model railroading publication? Model Railroad News. If I had to give all but one, I would keep MRN.
Doc

 

I agree with this statement. Ever since the free three month subscription, I'm a Model Railroad News junkie. I love when that comes in the mailbox. It's only rivalled by the times (every OTHER month) when Ztrack Magazine arrives.

Go get MRN.

 

Too bad for the folks involved with the company, but to me, not an "issue" at all. (no pun intended)

It's been at least 7-8 years since i've purchased any mrr mag. I get my info from the net, and forums like this one. On occasion, I'll be given some "old" issues of various mags, and I'll read through them.

When I do, it's seems to be pretty much the same old stuff, and the reason I quit buying any mags. All adds, and long drawn out "how to's"...........to keep the reader coming back.

Maybe I'm to the phase a model railroading that most of these "tips" I either know about, or don't care about. This would not be true for a newbie to the hobby.

The only mag that I have a subscription to is Trains, and even it isn't the same as it used to be. I like looking at prototype shots and surroundings to get modeling ideas.

Just my feelings on mags and stuff. The web, for me, has changed how I look, buy, and "search", for my modeling needs today.

 

This is no shock. Seems like they were behind on getting new issues out. Last year I think they were sometimes 2 months late. Sad news though. I liked the series they articles they ran..