I will be in defense of
Model Railroader magazine. I been a reader of the magazine since I was in high school in the early-60's and found the articles in MR to be an inspiration for me. I like reading about large layouts and have enjoyed visiting in person large home and club layouts in the Milwaukee area. There's no question that I would not enjoy a visit to Howard Zane's layout after reading about his large, supersized layout in
Model Railroader.
Today's new products with their seemly sky high prices is true for a lot of hobbies and life in general. But, items at lower prices for hobby items can be found at swap meets, close outs and at sale prices. MR fills a need to keep us informed of the latest and greatest in the hobby. Advertising revenue keeps Model Railroader alive, no matter what the price of the items
Don't forgot about the "Time Value of Money" and how prices for items have changed relatively little over the years when inflation becomes a factor. A $15 Varney Dockside locomotive perhaps amounted to over 12 hours of work for a high school student in 1965 to earn enough money to purchased a Dockside. Now, how about that $100 caboose at today prices verses today's wages?
It also takes money to produce an issue of
Model Railroader. Time is required to capture a layout in photos is taken up with set up time, takes and retakes until the photos are magazine quality. Usually taking days at a time. Most layouts need to be rearranged like movie sets before the filming starts. Read
Playing with Trains by Sam Posey about his adventures in starting and building a model railroad layout that finally made it to the pages of
Model Railroader and how his layout was filmed by Dave Frary. Camera angles are limited on a smaller home layouts making the layouts less attractive to do a feature article for any national magazine so fewer small layouts make into MR. Photos of smaller layouts and dioramas make to MR via the "Sidetrack Photos" section.
Time spent to maintain a large layout varies by layout. I talked to one nationally known railroader who has a basement sized layout and asked how he manages to keep his track clean and his reply was a simple, "I run trains." I can't imagine even with with the least amount of maintenance, how much time an owner of a large layout will spent on maintenance. It must take real dedication to own a large layout.
My modest 12x16 layout with never reach the size of Howard Zane's or even nearby John Tews' Timber River Railway. But, the hobby isn't all about constructing a huge layout. There's kit building, weathering, DCC installations, kit bashing, rail trips, collecting brass locomotives and visiting other layouts that all could be considered as hobbies within our hobby all without the need for a huge layout.
Yesterday, I spent over four hours merely working on re-lettering a SOO caboose with some minor weathering and running two Bachmann 70 tonners in a consist to break in the loco's drive mechanisms. No time was spent working on the layout. I had a very enjoyable day working on projects while listening to a train running on the layout.
Let's talk about John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid that remains an inspiration for many even today almost 50 years after it was destroyed by a fire. This layout appearing in most model railing magazine was the reason for me to get started HO model railroading after losing interest in a Lionel train layout that was setup on the living room carpet. I keep a December 1981 issue of
Model Railroader with John Allen's Squaw Creek High Bridge on the cover near my computer for inspiration when my interest in model railroad wanes. Without MR, I would have not known about John Allen and his G&D railroad empire.
Model Railroader keeps my interest in model railroading fresh and like Chet I get ideas from reading MR and the featured layouts. I learn something new as I read each issue. The photography is above par and MR's product reviews very helpful. MR takes me on visits to these well done empires. Let's forget about the high prices of advertised rolling stock and locomotives and just read the articles and increase our knowledge of model railroading.
Keep my monthly issues coming.
Greg
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The track plan for the Gorre & Daphetid by John Allen.-Greg