Model railroad magazines........


Old 97

Old 97

Hogger
Do you folks save them, toss them, give them away when your done?
What type of collection do you have and what's your oldest model railroad magazine? As for me, I buy them, read them and stack them to forget about them so they become new again later on. :p :D Oh yeah, oldest one is a model railroader from the 1950's. :eek:
 
Old 97 said:
Do you folks save them, toss them, give them away when your done?
What type of collection do you have and what's your oldest model railroad magazine? As for me, I buy them, read them and stack them to forget about them so they become new again later on. :p :D Oh yeah, oldest one is a model railroader from the 1950's. :eek:
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Over the past 50 years I have gave away 3 complete collections of Model railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman & about 5 others of which have gone out of business. I keep my Model railroader mags for 1 year & then donate them to my doctors office. He usually takes them home for his kids & then by the time I go in again for my quarterly appt. they are laying on the table. I leave my name & address on them & people that are interested in MRR'ing call me.
The oldest mags I have had over the years were from the early 1930's.
Recently I gave away a bunch of Special Editions of these mags from the 30's to the 90's to Forum Members.
 
I have a bound collection of MR from 1940 through 1990 (plus a copy of the 1934 volume) in a bookcase, plus loose copies from the latter date up to the present. Likewise, RMC complete from the mid 1980's to date, along with various other magazines, stored in my layout room. I find the MR's up through the 80's quite valuable as reference and a source of scratchbuilding/construction ideas and periodically go to them. My loose post-1995 MR's, with their increasingly dumbed-down content at least until very recently, I regard as pretty much worthless beyond their pretty pictures and probably will dump them at some point.

NYW&B
 
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I will give away an issue that has little value to me to possibly pique someones interest in the hobby. Got one seriously interested and another dabbling in the last year or so. Not to bad of a way to "recycle" if you ask me!
 
I collect and keep anything regarding Steam locomotive mods, N&W prototype modeling, as well as WM, SRR, C&O, and T&P. Scenery ideas are always kept. I mostly have Mainline Modeler back issues, with a few others thrown in for good info.

My mom bought my dad n me a subscription of Model Railroader. that was 10 years ago. She had renewed it every 3 years or so. She apparently did this as one of her final gifts before ending up in the hospital, and dying shortly after from cancer. Each December I am amazed that the issues keep arriving. I look at them and then take 'em to dads. He gets to store them or pitch them as needed.
 
Funny this should come up now. I've been trying to go through my old magazines this last week and seeing what to keep. I haven't got to Model Railroader (but intend to keep) I was amazed at the number of ship modeling magazines I have from the 1980s I have (going) I also have several years of Toy Train that someone gave to me (again, going) Just time to clean house a little before the wife does it for me.
 
my oldest MR is from 1949 and has an article in it on powering locomotives with dry ice. Really.

I get a D minus in throwing out anything. I even bought a few years back issues in mid winter and find some really good articles on aspects of scenery that are worth keeping. MR certainly has some periodic total dog issues but as a resource, I like to have it around. I won't spring for the DVD though. Kalmbach is really relentless like RONCO when it comes to pushing product.

I sure like Model Railroad Hobbyist on line though. What a great publication!
 
Old 97 said:
Do you folks save them, toss them, give them away when your done?
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Done? When is one ever done with a railroad magazine?

If I threw them away after I had read them once I would have missed out on wonderful things. Case in point the 1973 February issue of Model Railroader. I remember when I first read through it I thought what a junky issue. However, two years later I found the article on transistor throttles probably one of the most valuable EVER to me for helping me design my own. Then the articles on turntable indexing, the K27 plans & article, Lights and markers for cars. Wow had I chucked that issue I would have made a whole lot of research for myself.

What type of collection do you have and what's your oldest model railroad magazine?
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Massive, however I have not yet collected a whole set of ANYTHING except for maybe Railroad Modeler that was based here in down. And I don't know the oldest thing I have. I think I have the original "Model Railroader" not "The Model Railroader" from 1941. Of course that doesn't count the DVD.
 
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I am new to the hobby.

I subscribe to Model Railroader and Model Railroad Hobbiest via the internet so my magazines are digital which I really like.
 
My uncle recently gave me a bunch of full ear volumes of Model Railroader, including the 1965 set.

I like Model Railroader and Classic Toy Trains.
 
I had a Model Railroader collection going back to 1937. I have one 1934 edition. I lost about 20 years of them when my basement flooded several years ago, and have been able to pretty much restore the collection.

I also have a large collection of RMC too.

Given that many techniques do not change over the years, I do use mine for building models etc.
 
Up until recently I had a large collection of both Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman. 30 years or more worth, plus a bunch of earlier issues I'd bought here and there.

About three years ago I got rid of them all. I gave them to a local depot musuem. Not only could I not sell them, I literally had trouble giving them away!

Several factors influenced my decision.

1) Model Railroad Technology has evolved and changed a in recent years. DCC matured, and rendered years worth of wiring ideas and technologies obsolete. Scenery has also evolved, though not as drastically.

2) I've come to realize that I'm most likely never going to build a big layout. I have layout in my garage, it's an 8 foot module connected to some additional sections and track running on shelves (which stored the above magazines amongst other stuff). I haven't run trains on it in a couple years. Currently the spiders are apparently working on installing catenary for my GG1, though they're not very good at it.

3) I used to refer to the magazines frequently, recalling articles and searching through back issues to find the info. I've essentially stopped doing that, there's this thing called Google...

4) The collection just kept growing. 12 issues a year doesn't sound like much, but if you collect 2 or 3 magazines, and multiply by a few years, they just keep piling up.

So far, I've kept my prototype magazines, since they have a lot of historical information. Whether or not I'll continue I can't say for certain. While I like the hard copies, it's tempting to buy the Trains DVD and dump a couple bins of books.
 
I have about 600 MRR and MRC magazines from the early 1940's and up. Now that I have the MRR DVDs I have all the older issues which I find very interesting even if they are out of date. There are still some good ideas in the old issues.
 
I rely on you guys keeping them in good condition if I ever need to reflect back on something. I just scan through them for something interesting then give them to my grandsons to read. Never keep them for more than a week.
 
I used to collect old rail-related magazines quite a bit. I've got lots of Model Railroader and Rail Model Craftsman (including three bound volumes), along with a few issues of Railroad Modeler, not to mention my collections of prototype magazines and other periodicals.

I love the older issues of Model Railroader (back when you built and didn't just buy stuff). My two oldest issues date from 1948. However, I've found that, regrettably, I don't find the time to read anymore. I hardly even pick up a non-school book these days. It's not that I don't enjoy reading. It's just that between school, sleep, work, and volunteering at four museums, I don't have a lot of time (or energy) for reading.

One day I'll have the time to read them all AND build that dream layout. :D
 
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