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What scale will the magazine focus on?
What scale will the magazine focus on?
Short answer: The hobby doesn't need another HO-centric model railroading magazine - our intent is to give all the scales some coverage. To make sure we do this, our table of contents will list what scales each article applies to. At a glance you'll be able to tell how well we're doing!
Long answer: We want to make sure we're not an HO only magazine, so to that end we're listing the scales that our articles apply to in the table of contents. For example, from issue 1:
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Of the 5 feature articles, 2 are scale specific (only one is HO), while 3 apply to all scales.
We're also looking for contributing editors to be columnists for scales other than HO, so if you know of anyone who might be interested, send them our way!
Keep in mind that publishing articles for the other scales is a supply and demand problem. While our heart may be in the right place - we can only publish articles we're getting!
I wasn't aware there are any HO-centric model railroad magazines. The only one I remember was Kalmbach's HO Monthly (or a title something like that) published in the 1950s. Currently, I see ones on magazine racks for minority scales like N and O, but not HO. Would someone direct me toward a magazine devoted to HO? I'd like to check it out.
Mark Pierce
Mark Pierce
Mark:
I'm not aware of any in print HO-specific magazines who state as their charter they're HO-only.
However, Model Railroader focuses so much on HO content that many I've spoken with in the other scales don't feel MR does more than toss the non-HO scales a bone now and then. MR probably doesn't have an explict editorial policy of doing mostly HO content, but that's how many modelers see MR. In some cases, perception is 90% of the battle - and I think that's very true in this case.
RMC seems to be less of an HO-centric magazine as to content.
Beyond that, you have the Narrow Gauge Gazette, which has a lot of HOn3, Sn3, and On30 in it. And then there's the S scale, N scale, and Z scale magazines. And Kalmbach's Garden Railways is largely a G scale magazine.
While MRH is endeavoring to cover more than just HO modeling, we can only print the articles we get. Since the population modeling the other scales will be smaller, we will get fewer submissions - that's just the way it works. If you model in something other than HO, then you need to give sersious consideration to doing an article for us - or go beat the bushes with all your online buddies who also model in that scale and put the word out they need to submit articles to us if they want us to have more articles on their scale.
To somewhat counter what I expect to be a dearth of articles in the non-HO scales, we're instituting columns to cover the more minority scale subjects. For example:
Bernie Kempinski has agreed to do a regular N-scale column in each issue.
Marty McGuirk is doing a column on Prototype modeling, which obviously can include more than just HO.
Lewis Matt is doing a column on Narrow Guage and Light Iron railroading (older branchline stuff, which will include the increasingly popular On30 modeling)
We'll also be running a lot of articles that can apply to all scales, so HO is not going to get overlooked by a long shot.
So there are no HO-only magazines out there, although by default MR's feature articles do come close many months.
Joe Fugate
Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine
im not really sure about HO specific, but I would like something more prototype based
I work for Norfolk Southern, but model Penn Central
Articles on the prototype are very useful. They apply to every scale.
One thing that really gets to me is when minority-scale modelers complain about supposed HO-centric magazines when the only model railroading magazines devoted to a specific scale cover S, O, O-toy, G/outdoor (not a scale) and N scales, but not HO. Gimme a break, there are at least TWO magazines exclusively devoted to N scale! I conclude that scale-centric magazines only cover minority scales.
Complaints of Model Railroader magazine's lack of minority scale coverage are totally distorted by "minority scalers" because not all articles focus on their scales. Check out the September Model Railroader magazine. Don't tell me that minority scales are ignored there. The only HO-centric articles discussed in September are a couple of HO track plans and installing decoders in HO models. Much space was spent on N- and O-centric articles. (I would appreciate if Kalmbach's coverage of outdoor layouts was excluded from Model Railroader magazine in favor of another of its magazines devoted to that purpose.)
If an N-scale-specific column is planned, why not have columns for every popular scale? If not, you have proved my point that minority scales will continue to be over-represented.
Similarly, my "real world" experience is that minorities are more influencal relative to their number ............Regardless, let us enjoy trains.
Mark Pierce