Well, color me puzzled, as people said in the '60s.

Did we (MRH) miss the mark with this layout feature? Not one comment or question in four weeks.

Wish we could have taken all the MRHers along with us to Dave's basement. He's done a great job achieving his vision, and shows off the advantages of O scale narrow gauge.

I think the main reason nobody commented was because:

#1. Even though Dave has a wonderful layout it was stuck in the bonus section with no click here to comment button anywhere to be found.

#2. of the 7 min of video less than a minute was of the railroad most of the interview was Dave describing how a Mill works and how rock go's through the mill not much of a show of the RR and if your not into precious metal refining it was boring

#3. when this page came up on the forums most people hadn't even read every thing or got to this video and there was a glitch in the download that was sending everybody to the Jim Dias download when you clicked the Dave Clune's download and when it got fixed a couple days later this page was gone from the recent posts page and because of the glitch many people just didn't bother taking the time to reload The interview with Dave.

#4 with most of the staff at a model RR convention the trouble shooting of the magazine was a little slow and as fast as the new posts were hitting the forum  Dave's Video was just lost in the shuffle. I know this because on about the forth day after the magazine came out I reported the glitch and about 24Hrs later it was fixed but the new highlighted in red was also on page two so nobody could see it.

The Video quality was great the little bit of the railroad we saw was super good, there just wasn't enough viewing of the Trains and the scenery and too much focus on a very fine and detailed Mine with too much information about how these mine work. I can say if there had been another 3-5 min on the entire layout you would of had more interest.

Dan

I enjoyed the article very much and the photos were beautiful Joe. A very high level of craftsmenship went into this layout. While the video was a little heavy on the mining side rather than the train side, I learned some stuff watching it, so it was worthwhile in my opinion.

In some lines of business no comments are the signs of happy customers...How do you top a good article? 

It's a very good layout!

Maybe so, but not here. If no one comments our staff takes that as a sign no one cares and so we're much less likely to do a repeat performance.

So if you want more, tell us so. It's not like it's hard to do!

I feel an editorial coming on ...

Hi there. Sorry, I should have commented - maybe I was too shy. Much of what Rio Grande Dan said would have been my comment; however, I did enjoy it quite a bit. I was hoping, as Dan mentioned, that we would have seen more of the layout and operation and less of the mining technology, as interesting as it was. What really struck me was the question about sound on the layout - I don't think there was an answer.

I'm guilty of not posting a comment. I did read the article and did view the video and enjoyed both very much. It did take me over two weeks to read this issue. Normally I have an issue devoured in a couple of days, but life got in the way this past month and I just never got around to posting comments.

There was a tremendous amount of very interesting content in this last issue and I can only congratulate all of the MRH staff for an outstanding edition. For me the Cascade County Narrow Guage article was the highlight.

Roy

yes he said he had sound in only one Structure. That structure was the mill which he never said what kind of sound he had in the mill & he never demonstrated it he just gave the mechanical report on how a mill works. That's when I got board as I kept waiting to hear the sound which never came just Dave and his little stick pointer and then after the 5 minutes of discription there was 40 seconds of trains and then credits but he never answered the sound question. I felt the man was an excelent modeler but he was so proud of what he had build he never really answered anything Charlie asked.

Dan

The font for the title was a really good fit - it seemed to echo the character of the layout and the era. Good choice (Joe Brugger's or Charlie Comstock's choice ?).

go in a video, and what should go in a side bar.  The description of the mining and stamp mill operation would be better in a side bar.  The video should focus on the sights and sounds of the layout.

With the statement of A video about a Narrow Gauge railroad in the Cascades. That's what it should have been centered on. then a part II a second video on Scratch building on the Cascade Narrow Gauge may have been taken more in step and received the comments the staff was looking for

The constructive feedback is helpful. Each model railroad has its own secrets and it's up to us to reveal them. It helps a great deal to know what people look for in an article.

Dan (et al), I'm sorry about the video not meeting expectations. We (I actually) had some technical problems that made showing all the trains runing around through Dave's superb scenery non-feasible.  The sidebar for the mining stuff would have required an absolutely monstrous sidebar. Please don't lay the blame for the video in this article at Dave's feet - the problems are mine.

Best regards,

Charlie Comstock

stamp mill on the Cascade Northern, it might make for a construction article in another issue. 

As someone who has had the opportunity to operate this layout I want to say thanks to MRH for such great coverage of this railroad. I think my faavorite thing about this layout is the level of detail every scene has. It is so well done you don't really notice itas it fits so well together you minds eye just thinks it should be there. Once you stop yourself and attempt to absorb the details of the layout you are blown away. Almost every building has a fully detailed interior, the scenery blends so well its hard to remeber its a model, the transistions between scenes are very fluid making tha layout seem a lot larger then is it. As you stare at the layout the you keep finding more and more detail; the rail sitting in the storage area has holes drilled in it, their are bullet holes in the switchstands and the amout of NBW on this layour boggles the mind. Thank you again to the MRH staff for producing an article on this outstanding railroad.

Dan, there's no way I'm gona slap the nose of the guy who paints my locos... Besides, as Horace Fithers sez, "Those who go slapping noses get their hands covered with boogers."

Charlie

It's Just Snot a problem 

Dan

As a narrow gauger I thought the Cascade County article was the best I've seen so far in MRH. Beautiful pictures of a fantastic layout. I enjoyed the video too but now understand why more of the layout wasn't shown due to video recording problems.I enjoy the layout articles (of all scales and gauges) the most and happy to see unfinished layouts "in-progress" to see what others are doing in the "real" world.

I would very much like to see the video but I can't play it from the embedded version of the magazine. The link to blip.tv doesn't work either. Is there a way to view the video?

A few years back I bought Dave Clune's DVD which is great! It contains an interview with the builder, an overview of the layout and a real operating session with crew. I keep watching it over and over! It is however a bit sparse on information about the mining. Judging by the other comments the MRH video might fill in that void... 

Let's see if we can get it up on YouTube ...

I just discovered this! I'd love to see it!

Probably a dumb idea... but... a "flash back" segment? Where an article from a past issue is reprinted, maybe as an extra? Or maybe even just something highlighted in the forum once a month?

We've posted this video updated to 720p HD on the MRH YouTube site. Enjoy!

Probably a dumb idea... but... a "flash back" segment? Where an article from a past issue is reprinted, maybe as an extra? Or maybe even just something highlighted in the forum once a month?

No, this is not a dumb idea. In fact, we're planning a variation of it with a new hardcopy book series we're calling The Best of MRH Magazine where we will reprint the best back issue articles in hardcopy form -- and along the way we will update the media and provide links to it like this.

These Best of MRH paperback books will be on sale at shows, on the MRH Store, and on Amazon. We're not going to label them with any dates, just volume 1, volume 2, etc. The articles we pick will be the timeless ones, which is why no date, just a volume number. Some articles in the back issues, especially the DCC ones from our older back issues, are getting pretty dated.

By just using volume numbers, we can harvest as many back issue articles as we want and not feel constrained by back issue dates.

I am a book fan, of course, and would LOVE a hard cover copy of each and every volume! (hell, whenever I see them, I always grab the hard cover copies of that other model train magazine at the local hobby store... at $5 each for those, I've managed to get most of the 1960s!)

Just let us know when, where to buy (that benefits MRH the most) and how much!

That is an awesome video! Sure, it could have had a bit more, and been a bit better, but, it's still far better than a lot of the Youtube videos I've been watching lately, and come on! It was 2010! We all thought we were cool back then!

We ALL thought we were cool!

I like it, is what I'm saying!

Thank you Joe & team MRH for making all that wonderful stuff available tot us!

" If no one comments our staff takes that as a sign no one cares and so we're much less likely to do a repeat performance."

    I don't comment on most articles because I like having a variety to read. I always assumed the number of hits was recorded so you guys know what we like by the amount of times we watch it?  If I did rate articles my ratings would be constantly changing depending on what I was working on and interested at the time so I don't see my ratings as being that useful.....DaveB 

I don't comment on most articles because I like having a variety to read. I always assumed the number of hits was recorded so you guys know what we like by the amount of times we watch it?

You can't easily track offline PDF views, unfortunately ... and we can't read your mind. Postings to comment threads and rating articles are crucial to us gauging interest level. If we get few posts and few ratings we have to assume we wasted our effort on that topic so we won't repeat that very soon again.

I'm guilty of not commenting... however, when I like an article, I tend to rate it (but usually five stars, because if I liked it enough to rate it, it's because I want to see more like it) If I didn't care for an article, or it didn't apply to me (there are a LOT of articles that are great articles, but, just don't really apply to what I'm doing, or what I want to do... many are DCC related, not because DCC doesn't interest me, but more because of budget, and skill set, my DCC is limited to the few brands I have... not to say that some articles not related to me haven't been helpful, which I've rated those five stars as well)

Now, when it comes to an article that REALLY sticks out... an article I REALLY loved, I tend to comment, even if I have nothing to say, or add to the conversation. This has bitten me in the keister in the past, but, I know feedback is important. (that, plus there is this sort of self serving thrill of rating an article, and then the following month, seeing the ratings and seeing I wasn't alone in ratiung it... when an article hits that top five that I gave five stars to, my ego says "Yeah! I rated that! I helped do that! I'm awesome!"

is that logical? Of course not. But welcome to the Internet!