I will be canceling my trains.com free trial before it charges. It's obviously not ready for prime time with no better search capability than it has, and the lack of choice in billing options. I would keep it even now if it had a monthly billing cycle option but I'm not ready to have a lump charge of 83.99 in no better shape than it is right now.

l'll keep checking back to see if they address the issues but I'm not hopeful judging by the decisions they've made over the past several years.

Thanks Michael. I did apply for the free trial. And know it's for 30 days. But I didn't know they were going to automatically charge me. Is that true? I didn't see where they would charge without my input of ? credit card, etc. I was always under the understanding that they didn't actually charge/bill you without you inputting a credit card number, etc. Is this something new that MR is doing? They are the most frustrating company I know of. They hook us into using "Zinio" for the digital magazine and now they are ? trying to hook us into something else. $90 is way too much, and totally out of my budget. And I now have found out RMC/White River is almost as bad. I think RMC is going the same route. Don't these publishing companies realize the digital age is here? - to stay!

I don't know who Kalmbach is hiring to do their on-line presence, but I've had students go through my tech college IT courses that would do a better job.

That said, I am currently able to access both the MR and Trains archives, at least as of today, 25 March. Since they moved to the new, supposedly better setup, I haven't experienced as many outages as with the previous site, but that's not any prediction of the future.

I just have a normal on-line only subscription to both magazines and haven't bit for  the all-inclusive deal. For a few months last year, they were even sending me MR hard copy until I called customer service and had them stop that.

Probably the thing that bugs me the most is that even though I'm signed in and able to access the magazines and the archives, their web site still fills the screen with ads saying that I need to subscribe to their sooper-dooper deal.

Bozos...

As far as I know it works like any trial sub. I had to give them a CC # and if I didn't cancel before the trial, they would have charged me. You can cancel at any time and still get your free month but you have to check a box for it. Mine's cancelled now but I have access till April 12th.

I took out a three year subscription.  Between my dad and I, we had purchased every issue since at least 1954 (when my dad started the hobby), either through our local hobby shop, or thru subscription.  I've been the one laying out the funds since 1974. I also purchased the complete "Model Railroader" and "Trains" digital archive when those were available on CD.  Threw most of my past issues out once I had the digital copies (could not find anybody that wanted them).  Purchasing those digital copies was one of the smartest things I've done.  

I was happy subscribing for a print version of the magazine.  I liked the layout, the photo quality, and I do enjoy seeing the work of Messrs. Grivno and Popp.  I also like supporting the column "On Operation" written by Jerry Dziedzic, since he has a strong link with our round robin group being a close friend of a few of the members. 

I am especially fond of "Model Railroad Planning", and "Great Model Railroads", and have purchased every issue since those magazine supplements started coming out on an annual basis.   My print subscription got me access to the track planning database (which I enjoy using on occasion when looking for thought starters), as well as the magazine index, which I used extensively when looking for freight car plans, kit bash articles, and industry articles.  It gave me an easy way to find what issues of RMC I need to look for, and find articles in all of the magazine repositories found at trainlife.com.  

What chaps my arse thought is my subscription does not end until September, 2021, and I have now lost access to two areas of information that I did use.   That means that I am not able to realize the full value of my current subscription.  They are forcing me to purchase a $6.99 / month subscription, which is about double what I pay for a hard copy subscription today, just so I can get access to information that I neither want nor need, with the exception of the two items that I USED TO get as part of my hard copy subscription.

So, if this is the direction Kalmbach wants to go, they will have lost a loyal customer.  Since I will be retiring about the time that my subscription expires, I'll either see if my local library carries the magazine, or I will check to see what articles are in the current issue, and make a decision whether or not I want to purchase a hard copy through my local hobby shop.  I'll pay for the annual supplements, since I feel I get good value out of those items. 

$84 per year isn't going to have a material affect on my retirement one way or another, but I refuse to support a company that no longer appears to have the model railroad community close to their heart.  I guess that is what happens when you transition from having an owner / founder that shared a passion for the hobby, as compared to the corporate mindset currently making the decisions.

Regards,

Jerry

A post arrived on the MR Forum today that you might find useful.  One of the users there has sleuthed out ongoing access to the search for the digital archive: http://mrarchive.mrr.trains.com

The little magnifying glass at the top provides access to a decent search engine.  Not perfect, but decent, and much better than the annual box of issues offered on the new service which has no search capability beyond reading the covers and opening each issue.

My sentiments as well.  

By the way, the link to the "real" archive search is in the post above this one.

Kalmbach Customer Management 101: F-

It sure looks like an Improvement. But how long will it be available until we have to pay just to see the magazines again? i.e. I already have a paid subscription for the digital magazine. Zinio will go away. And we will be forced to read our magazine ONLY on the MR/Kalmbach web site? So trying to get them all together on our PC will be a nightmare. And if we unsubscribe, how will we be able to read those we have already purchased? Because it seems like the future viewing will only be when subscribed. And that after we cancel our subscription, the magazines will no longer be available. (Except the ones on Zinio). This whole shenanigan by Kalmbach just sounds phony to me.

only sends me to the current issue of MR. 

Ken L. 

Click the magnifying glass at the top of the page Ken.