Epublishing is gaining - while traditional publishing gets another nail in the coffin

Here are some further thoughts on this thread. One very big reason that I keep all those old magazines is that the content and approach were much different in the old days. Instead of the best scene that money can buy on the covers, you had a model railroader posing with his trains. One of my favorite MR covers had an S scaler contentedly working on his Hudson with a big stogie in his mouth. HO has always dominated the hobby, but the contents of the old magazines were more generic in nature and concentrated on projects that that could improve a layout. In those days, projects were aimed at keeping down costs. So much has changed in the magazines that many have discontinued getting them. I'm an S scaler and can't cost justify getting the main stream magazines any more. I take the cheaper, no- Scale Rails option when I renew my NMRA membership. I do support the S scale publications, paper-wise. Niche publications are still around, but they too are succombing to the huge costs of publishing a paper magazine.

There's isn't much for me to get out of the on-line MRH, but that is due to my choice of scales, not it's quality. Since it's free, there is no problem with my reading it for whatever I can get from it. The HO or N scalers have it good. They can judge what they want to read from a wide range of choices and my hats off to them. So my opinions are clouded by scale and probably aren't shared by the majority, but that's life with modeling in a minority scale. I wish continued success to MRH as it seeks to ride the wave of an obvious paradigm shift in the publication industry.
 

The problem with Model Railroader or several magazines for that matter was the issue of good articles versus the filler.

While the wife grocery shops I could scan and sometimes even READ an entire magazine and be done with it. Maybe one article would grab my attention, but that doesn't justify the cover price.

Besides, I know I can look up similar info of that article somewhere on the internet and it will most likely be explained better and done cheaper than what the MR article did.

Josh

"No, MRH is great.  It's Model Railroader that I can no longer justify paying money for."

I have to agree. MR is not what it used to be. I enjoy MRH a lot. But I also like to read in bed and so I also like paper magazine. But what I read is the "Gazette" and the On30 Annuals.

This brings us back to the age old question: Is model railroading only for the rich?

So who do the print model railroading magazines cater to?

IWhen I started in ths hobby back in 1977 one of the big model railroads that were featured at the time was Allen McClellan's V & O. Obviously what he accomplished required a sizeable income that few who didn't have access to that kind of income could accomlish even if they had the talent. Magazines are still showing off the accomplishments of those kinds of people. Things haven't changed much as far as that is concerned.

What has changed is the fact that model railroaders have become more self-centered in both their economic and hobby lives. Many of us no longer approach the hobby frm the point of seeing what others can accomplish but from what can I get out of this or how much of this can I use. Well, the fact is therer is lots than can be learned even from an article on building  some obscure item in an aven more obscure scale. But it takes time and that is the one thing that most people today don't think they have.

Sure, we all want make the most of our free time. But one has to realize that even if your off-the-job time is limited, making the most of it doesn't require doing things quickly or even getting it done instantly. The big layouts without excepton weren't built in a New York Minute (which s about 14 seconds these days). They all ttok months and years to build and most even today aren't 100% finished and probably will never be finished. But each still has good information that cam be had in many different ways.

Technology is another area where we all feel the pressure of keeping up to date. It really has become more of a race for gadgets than it is to get the most information at the least cost. I often wonder how people in te 19th Century managed to survive in aworld that didn't have flush toilets among the other conveniences we all take for granted. Sure we may model a 19th Century railroad but do we really appreciate all of the back-breaking labor that went into keeping those trains running and keeping them in running condition? For us model railroaders its a snap to keep our locomotives running and in repair. But how many of us realize that diesels took over because they didn't require anywhere near the amount of maintenance and tender loving care that had to be given to what was virtually a boiling kettle of water attached to clumsy machnery that tended to be as fragile as the rest of rig.

Sure we like to save time, but what do w do with that time we save? We try to save even more time! So instead of saving some time to enjoy our lives and spend time with family and friends we end up without even the time to appreciate our wives, our children and even our parents.

So what are we left with and do the new rechnologies and gadgets get us anything worthwhile? Readers, only you can answer that question because I already have my answer. Do you?

Irv

Would you still read MRH if it wasn't free?

Bob

Bob,

As a business owner, I would be very upset if someone came into my building and had this negative attitude that you have displayed.  You've come into "Joe's house" and are basically saying that his product is not worth it.  How would you like someone downplaying your company which ultimately resulted in you being laid off?

My advice, go and read MR, RMC and the other print media and enjoy the hobby and leave the negative attitude.

As I subscribe to many of the railroad and model Railroad magazines I have noticed one thing since MRH has hit the net and that is the quality as well as the article content in all the pay magazines has improved almost 60%.

In the past 4 months all the print  issues have taken a leap forward in the number of articles as well as almost copying articles from MRH but still with less depth and almost no way to respond or question most subjects.

As far a being rich in order to enjoy the hobby I would have to say you don't need to be rich but you do need a good job or a good pension from many good years of work if your looking for the abilities to use top of the line technologies. That's just the way the human race is structured. If you want the best its not going to drop in your lap you have to work for it. When I was younger I couldn't afford to build a super large railroad with all the bells and whistles so to speak so I saved and bought what I could when I could.

Now after years of saving and working my tail off I can afford to build the kind of Railroad I've always wanted and even now with the economy the way it is I'm taking my sweet time assembling my Railroad and collecting and learning about the newest technologies and buying them when I can afford them.

I could build my railroad without all the newest DCC and sound and I wouldn't need to spend another dime as I've collected most everything needed but with the newer Technologies Its going to take me a few years longer than I had planed but thats just the way of life nothing is free or comes easy unless you work for it.

Sometimes you come across a place like MRH and it helps take the bite out of the cost of living and it helps you to see others with the same problems and the same wants as you.

Model Railroading isn't a race to see who can build the best or the fastest. It's a hobby that allows us to explore and use our artistic, mechanical, electrical abilities and our interest in Trains and the eras of past and present to build a small reprsentation of what we thought is should be So, it doesn't matter if your running top of the line DCC with Proto 87 equipment and the best decoders on the market or your using wooden hand carved trains and track or thomas the tank engine no mater how you look at it we call it model railroading and we don't look down on anyone that has steam or diesel for blood. so No you don't have to be rich to be a model railroader you just need to be a dreamer.

Rio Grande Dan

Feldman for you flush Toillet technologes in the 19th century : not sure which world you come from acording to Wiki

• circa 26th century BC: Flush toilets were first used in the Indus Valley Civilisation. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had a flush toilet in almost every house, attached to a sophisticated sewage system. ^[2]
• circa 18th century BC: Flush toilet constructed at Knossos on Minoan Crete^[3]
• circa 15th century BC: Flush toilets used in the Minoan city of Akrotiri.^{[citation needed]}
• 9th century BC: Flush toilets in Bahrain Island.^[4]
• 1st to 5th centuries AD: Flush toilets were used throughout the Roman Empire. Some examples include those at Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall in Britain. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the technology was lost in the West.^{[citation needed]}
• 1596: Sir John Harington published A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax, describing a forerunner to the modern flush toilet. The design had a flush valve to let water out of the tank, and a wash-down design to empty the bowl. He installed one for his godmother Elizabeth I of England at Richmond Palace, although she refused to use it because it made too much noise.^{[citation needed]} The Ajax was not taken up on a wide scale in England, but was adopted in France under the name Angrez.
• 1738: A valve-type flush toilet was invented by J. F. Brondel.
• 1775: Alexander Cummings invented the S-trap (British patent no. 814?), still in use today, which uses standing water to seal the outlet of the bowl, preventing the escape of foul air from the sewer. His design had a sliding valve in the bowl outlet above the trap.
• 1777: Samuel Prosser invented and patented the 'plunger closet'.
• 1778: Joseph Bramah invented a hinged valve or 'crank valve' that sealed the bottom of the bowl, and a float valve system for the flush tank. His design was used mainly on boats.

so we all live with technologies and have since before the birth of christ TOOT TOOT WOOSH

Dan

In the past 4 months all the print  issues have taken a leap forward in the number of articles as well as almost copying articles from MRH but still with less depth and almost no way to respond or question most subjects.

OK, at least it's not just me who thinks some print publications are copying articles from MRH but only offering a portion of the depth of coverage.

I'm not sure I agree that ALL of the print issues have taken a leap forward though...

Would you still read MRH if it wasn't free?

Bob

Bob,

As a business owner, I would be very upset if someone came into my building and had this negative attitude that you have displayed.  You've come into "Joe's house" and are basically saying that his product is not worth it.  How would you like someone downplaying your company which ultimately resulted in you being laid off?

My advice, go and read MR, RMC and the other print media and enjoy the hobby and leave the negative attitude.

Actually a really good point.  Try doing the same thing at the Model Railroader forum and see how long your post is up before it is locked or deleted completely...probably the latter as the powers that be at MR see anything even remotely criticizing, as bashing MR!