It’s just been monetized and buried in the digital archive subscription service.

I signed up for it this year and it is (almost) awesome. Since it includes every issue ever published, including the current issue, I wish I could just buy the digital archive without the regular paper/digital subscription, which always arrives in the mail well after it has shown up on the digital and digital archive and on the physical shelves at the LTS or Walmart.  I.,e a completely backwards business model where the loyal subscribers come last.
 

There are some bugs in the 3rd party search engine they’re using (partica). A logical AND for example is supposed to be entered as [term 1] +[term 2] but that seems to miss results.

Here’s some examples based on looking for John Allen’s most endeared motive power ...

stegosaurus + emma yields 30 hits, but not the one I want. 
stegosaurus emma yields 100 hits , including the one I want. Impressively, it even crawls the text-based ads in each issue.

Unfortunately, digital archive appears to me to only be available as an add-on to the regular paper + digital subscription, not the other way around, from what I could see when I subscribed.  Collectively, paper + digital + digital archive was about $145 Cdn. annually if I recall.  It’s likely a lot cheaper in the U.S. though.

My bet is that’s why the pure index is “gone”.  It’s been monetized so we have to pay for it, annually, forever!  
Probably worth it for ease of finding things, the space it saves if you’re downsizing, etc.  I’m gradually going to distribute my paper collection to doctors offices, boys and girls clubs, Guides and Scouts, Sunday Schools  ...

I prefer Joe’s approach.  Full digital and much better content, including this forum.  The Model Railroader forum is a DISTANT “also ran” in comparison.  MR is 1/3 as thick as it was when I was a kid, and way less advertising.

I want the MR digital archive badly but what keeps me from subbing MR again, is the way the print, digital,and archive are packaged. It's a shame about the index, it's a useful resource for the modeling community.

A couple years ago, when my eyesight was getting worse, I asked MR if I could get the digital ONLY. With digital, one can zoom in. That is what I did. The cost was the same as paper and that disappointed me, but figured. So what? These last few years, without paper, I started a spreadsheet. Similar to what MRH had done. But this spreadsheet is my own, with data the way I liked it. Not perfect, but useable. And I went further and created spreadsheets for all my magazines. RMC, MR, MRH-RE, O Gauger, S Gauger, The Marker Lamp and so on. So each month or two, when I get a new magazine via the Internet. I enter as much data as I feel I need on the spreadsheets. Takes about a half an hour to do one, but is time well spent. What I like the most is that since I'm a PRR modeler, I can enter "PRR" anywhere I want and with the search function, can locate any article or such referring to the PRR. And from there, can go to the individual digital magazine. FYI My spreadsheets are all now on ".ods". I use LibreOffice. With LO, I can open and edit any spreadsheet format. .xls, .xlsx, ods, and a ton of others. Very flexible and simple enough for me. Microsoft Office got way too complicated for me. A year after I started with digital, I got the cataract operation, but I still like zoom. Some paper with small print can be read, but on the monitor and zoom, simply removes any doubt of what I'm reading. So, yes, you can get digital only. And for me, it's worth it. I'll readily admit that MR (and RMC) aren't what they used to be. But I just consider it part of the model railroad budget and do get "some" enjoyment out of what they publish. Of course, JoeF and MRH are the King and MRH-RE is well worth the cost. I could share my spreadsheet, but it changes each month and I keep it as far back as I could. How could I share it? Unless you contact me off line and request one or more!

On March 10, 2021 I made a post with screen shots from the MR digital archive two  posts above this one (for anyone wanting to see what it looked like and how it worked). 

Tonight I went there to look for something and it’s gone. It’s all I can do to get anywhere on their site including the current issue due to their non-stop advertising of their new "trains.com".

Worse, the digital archive is now nothing more than a digital box of covers with no more search capability. Without search, IMHO, it’s useless, to me at least.

I paid them $145 Cdn in December for print + digital + archive just to get the archive and now they’ve ruined it.  I wrote them and said if they can’t restore what I had earlier this month, just cancel me and refund whatever is left.

I’ve no idea if signing up for their new thing restores my old thing, but after about 50 years of buying their things, I fear I am done. 

As a professional digital strategist, I have to say that Kalmbach are completely clueless. I am logged in, in my account, and it offers me a link there for a 30 day trial for their new thing, which I want to look at to see if that’s where they’ve moved the archive search.  Stupid thing goes to an empty page wanting me to create a new account ???   Imbeciles, I’m already a customer.  I'd hate to think what their abondonment rate must be on that link, but I'd bet it's huge.

I’m not alone either, the MR forum is already full of comments from subscribers wondering how they could be so clueless as to get rid of the search capability on an 86 year x 12 issues archive.

I noticed the other day when reading a review of a locomotive (featured in a recent copy of the magazine) a banner at the top of the page warning me that I had five views left. After signing in and going to another page, it changed to 4 views left.

Not sure, but it appears they are attempting to put the subscriber extras behind the paywall too. 

Seriously considering cancelling my subscription, which was auto-renewed... without any choice of number of issues/costs.

The problem with online subscription services is the cost: The minute you stop paying your investment disappears. What happens if they move away from Zinio?

Joe said: "Think more like a modeling community and less like a big corporation ... ah for the days of Al Kalmbach again."

There was competition but professional camaraderie between MR and RMC back in the day when Al Kalmbach and Hal Carstens were still with us. Both publications knew the good of the hobby was in their mutual best interest.

Now, for corporate KMC it's "Show me the money." MR used to be the flagship. Now it's just another oar in the water.

Unless you look very closely, you won't find where the "6.99 a month" is actually charged annually in one chunk of about 80 some odd bucks. May not be a big deal to some people but I'd rather pay on an actual monthly basis.

It's a psychological marketing ploy to word it that way. 6.99 a month sounds cheaper compared to the actual yearly charge even though it's the exact same amount of money.

@Michael I saw that as well.  It is misleading at best.  Many publishers will bill monthly, but offer a break in price if you subscribe annually.  Obviously, not Kalmbach.

I’ve already seen enough on the MR Forum from people who have gotten answers about the archive index indeed having been removed.  If that’s the case I’m done with MR.  I thought I had a solution to piles of paper issues, but I guess not.  Their communication on this entire transformation has been non-existent.  

I would expect since I paid them $145 just in December that they would have just rolled me in to their new offering and not yanked a clearly valuable feature (digital archive index).  Honestly on what planet could that be conceived as a useful idea?   

I’m afraid they’ll be broke and gone soon enough. 
 

I'd also prefer to pay a fee just for archive access and have a choice of which magazine archives to get. I'm much more interested in the MR archive than anything else and I'm sure the Trains magazines archive can be of of great use but I have absolutely no interest in the other two.

Hang on, we’re looking into building a replacement for this wonderful index using modern technology. I can’t say much right now, but if this bears fruit, I’ll fill you in on the details.

Needless to say, such an index would include all the back issues of MRH and Running Extra as well — which is something the big K was never willing to do.