N Scale Insight

[kalbert]

- Layout overviews.  Some of the folks that blog or a dedicated website for their layouts, i.e. Lee and Dave V., can provide for decent layout overview.   But within the context of a forum... Not so much.

- Hypothetical track-plans/railroads you can model.  Dave S. provides some interesting trackplans here at RW, but you typically don't have the nuts & bolts along with like they do with a MR published plan.  I enjoy the trackplans more so than any other part of the magazine.

For me those are the reasons I still subscribe. I think MR (and others) do a very good job in these areas. I'm a little disappointed in MR's two part 4x8 stuff though. Get over the HO 4x8 already, and don't try to sell me on an N 4x8 it's still a 4x8. Other than that I have no complaints in these areas.

How to and product review I defer mostly to forums for for a more lively Q&A. How to tend to spur great discussion and reviews tend to be quite honest (though on some forums followed usually by a flame war!). In a magazine you just don't get that.

I also tend to not read monthly columns, not sure why, I just don't ever seem to get anything out of them.

[Hyperion]

Yeah, we get feedback, but many times within the context of a forum you get opinions that are all-over the map and not often in agreement.  Take the Bachmann GP7's.  I think they're good looking and good running loco's– at a fair price, but it took about five minutes before someone was bashing them for having a 3-pole motor and said they were over-priced.

This is true, but when was the last time there was ever really a critical opinion within the MR Product Reviews?  I won't claim to read them all, but every one I've read in as far as I can remember is little more than 25% prototype history, 50% rehashing the exact same specifications one can get on the manufacturer's site (or the sidebar about 2 inches from the paragraph I'm reading), and 25% talking up every single model identically with something almost verbatimt to  "If you model the [XXXX] during the [YYYY] then [manufacturers] [model] will be a great additional to your roster".

Maybe every model we get today really is perfect.  But it seems to me that everything in MR has "crisp" paint, "closely matches" the drawings, "correctly gauged" wheelsets, and so on and so forth.  If ever there's anything that could be remotely construed as negative, it's quickly followed up with a host of glowing remarks about how great the correctly-gauged wheels are.

And their mini-reviews, which seem to account for about half the stuff, and about 75% of the N-scale stuff, literally are nothing more than the exact same thing that the manufacturer originally put on the Ad.  Not a peep about any opinion on the model at all.

[Rossford Yard]

Many say magazines are relevant until toilets come equipped with computers.  Yeah, I admit to multi tasking with a smart phone in there, but those layout articles are hard to reproduce on an EVO. ;D

It could be that the future niche for magazines is a quarterly, high gloss coffee table format, sans much real info on modeling.

[lashedup]

I was asked to write something for MR on a couple of occasions and in thinking about this n-scale column specifically I think I would have a hard time trying to decide what to write about in the limited amount of space that I'd have (and the space is only part of the problem). How-to's? Interesting n-scale musings? Talking all day long about my Modutrak stuff? Highlighting n-scale work from various people? Trying to encourage more people to try n-scale? It would be tough to try and keep people happy, provide interesting material and keep MR happy at the same time.

Let's face it, Tony Koester writes about his layout because that is what he has his hands on all the time. If you aren't into West Virginia coal country modeling then you're going to be one of those on the side lines complaining about how that's all he wrote about (now it is all about Nickel Plate Road and multi-layer layouts). Same thing with this n-scale column written by Jim Kelly - he's going to write about his layout which in this case is the Tehachapi Pass.

So to get some diversity in the column you'd have to feature stuff from all around the n-scale world which also means seeking out material from other people out there. At that point you're almost like a mini n-scale magazine within MR. Then comes the issue of how much space MR will give me. If it is only one page then it becomes really tough to squeeze good material into something meaningful.

I don't know... I think it would be tough. Jim Kelly will have his work cut out.

- jamie

[Rossford Yard]

I actually do write a monthly column for an industry magazine. I can attest how hard it is to come up with material every stinking month that seems fresh and relevant to my reader(s?) ;D

That is probably the biggest reason they went with a "proven" commodity like Jim Kelly for this.  That Tony K can come up with that many years of even half interesting MR topics is simply astounding to me.

I can also attest that one of the easy ways to come up with "inspriration" is to relay experiences you happen to come across from others.  I think Jim K will have no problem in spreading out the columns between his experiences and visits to other layouts for contrast, if he applies himself.

[wm3798]

Yeah, we get feedback, but many times within the context of a forum you get opinions that are all-over the map and not often in agreement.  Take the Bachmann GP7's.  I think they're good looking and good running loco's– at a fair price, but it took about five minutes before someone was bashing them for having a 3-pole motor and said they were over-priced.

Well, true dat, but I'd rather hear a variety of opinions about aspects of the model I'm concerned about, such as overall quality and reliability, I can tune out the crap that doesn't matter to me.  And when there's conflicting views, it's great to be able to question the poster and get a clearer picture of the situation.  It's also nice to know that none of the opinions are swayed by the presence of advertising dollars...  I mean, has MR ever really told the truth about Bachmann's spotty quality?  And how many products never get reviewed in the magazines?

[csolivais1979]

Has anyone thought of submitting an article for Model Railroad Hobbyist?  They are always asking for submissions and as far as I know, are not limited to page count due to them being an e-magazine. 

[Puddington]

I don't doubt that MR's standards are commensurate with a magazine of their market size and genre.  I'm merely indicating that they're higher than I feel prepared to meet at the current time.

......and that is the point. MR's standards do not make their publication markedly better than N Scale or N Scale Railroading for quality of the visuals. What the standards DO, however, is keep a large number of exceptional modelers from submitting their work. I understand the need for digital image standards, and MR's are not outside the realm of major magazines.... those publications, as a rule however, do not rely heavily on blind submissions from their readership the way a hobby publication does. A set of standards intended to enhance print quality has served to reduce access to the quality modeling they seek to present in the first place.......IMHO.

[wcfn100]

The photo quality is a major reason MR is the only magazine I subscribe to.  If the photos in MR started looking like the photos in NSR or N Scale, I'd let my subscription lapse.

If you don't have the equipment to photograph up to whatever standards MR has, then maybe find someone who does.  It's not at all uncommon for the photographer to be someone other than the author.

Jason

[Ed Kapuscinski]

......and that is the point. MR's standards do not make their publication markedly better than N Scale or N Scale Railroading for quality of the visuals.

Actually, they do. I've seen some pretty poor photography in some of the other mags with lesser standards.

[Brakie]

The photo quality is a major reason MR is the only magazine I subscribe to.  If the photos in MR started looking like the photos in NSR or N Scale, I'd let my subscription lapse.

If you don't have the equipment to photograph up to whatever standards MR has, then maybe find someone who does.  It's not at all uncommon for the photographer to be someone other than the author.

Jason

As long as the photo isn't to nasty I don't mind..To me I like seeing what others have done and maybe find a idea I can steal,ah,borrow.

A study  of those "great" photos in MR will reveal they may not be all that great.I seen engines missing front couplers,cars with missing steps,vehicles and freight cars that is not correct for the era being modeled etc,etc but,I still enjoyed the photos and chuckled to know some of MR's "golden boys" wasn't much better then most of us average Joe's.

[wm3798]

I agree with Pud, but also see Ed's point.  The high bar does limit accessibility to many of us, but at the same time, someone with modest talent and a reasonably good camera can get good results in N Scale...  The technical aspect isn't so much the problem in the N scale press, it's the quality of the work and the "eye" for photography.

Case in point, with a little refinement and a few tricks with the manual settings, Major Dr. Dave's recent posts about adding super trees to his layout would make a great article in N scale.  With a fat check stroked to Paul Dolkos, it might make the pages of MR.  Likewise, a few hours visit by DKS and a little pixel wizardry can at least net you a decent cover.

Which begs the other question...  One of the joys of photographing my layout with nothing more than a plump point n' shoot gives me the opportunity to drop it in the layout and fire away...


A DSLR might be able to catch this with some first surface mirrors and an acrobat, and the cat hair would probably prevent it from being published in N Scale, but you won't likely see this kind of shot ever in MR, with the possible exception of a tiny print in Trackside Photos.  And this only if the scene is close enough to the aisle for the typical camera rig.

The simple answer to improving the look of the N scale press is to take advantage of the technical flexibility they offer us, and bump up our game in terms of lighting, composition, and of course subject matter.

Lee

[Puddington]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; that said I do not think that it serves the hobby of model railroading to have standards that potentially exclude the best modeling in order to maintain an arbitrary level of photographic expertise.

It's easy to say "If you don't have the equipment to photograph up to whatever standards MR has, then maybe find someone who does. " Unless you have a friend who's a photographer then you have to hire a photographer; that isn't cheap and MR's payment program won't cover your costs. Thus the disinsentive.

MR is a modeling magazine; not a high fashion magazine nor a photographics hobby magazine; while the quality of the images should be as high as possible; unless they want to either dispatch the photographers or compensate the author for costs then they are going to be limited to the submissions that come in that meet their technical standards.

It is my opinion that they're features have, for the most part slipped in modeling quality; not substantically or enough to make the vast majority of readers stand up and notice; but it has dropped. Not from a technical standpoint; but from a modeling quality standpoint. Trackside photo's have been , in this modelers opinion, been disappointing for the last few years and I feel it's due to many modelers not believing they qualify for the magazine.

Jason said he'd drop MR if they has the quality of other mags; my question is are we purchasing these publications to enjoy the photographic excellence of their authors or to enjoy and learn from the modeling contained within their pages. For a magazine that has taken a middle of the road position with regard to content; featuring the "what you've done" as opposed to "how you did it", I find their standards of potential exclusion for images an interesting, but limiting restriction on their overal content.

[Puddington]

Actually, they do. I've seen some pretty poor photography in some of the other mags with lesser standards.

....as have I; I have only to point to Kirk's recent NSM article on his uber bridge and I can find some really "average" images. That said; the majority of those were intended to illustrate the building techniques of his bridge rather than show us a finished model. I can accept that in the middle of plastering a bridge one might not have the time not inclination to set up lights, pull out their grey card and take an hour to clean and prime the "set"... it's not really necessary. In other words, they served their purpose within the context of the article.

[Brakie]

Lee,The cat hair didn't get my attention..The door(window?) and the sign did since they kinda call attention to their selves...Other then that its a good picture of a Alco powered freight.