MR subscription at an end

[Dave V]

Well, I have but one last chance to re-up my Model Railroader subscription before I become a non-subscriber.  Honestly I'm torn.

Pros:

MR has been on the upswing lately...  More plans, more projects, more N scale.  Terry Thompson's damage wake has been contained.

MR is nostalgic.  My dad has every MR since Colonial Times and for most of my young life it, with RMC, were my only windows into other people's modeling.  One of the first things I did as a newly-commissioned Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force was to sign up for my very own subscription to MR, and I've gotten one each month since, no matter where in the world I was.

It's a nice surprise each month.

Subscriber content on their website.

Cons:

Cost.  MR isn't crushingly expensive, but it's still an outlay of cash that could be spent elsewhere.

Mass.  My shed has boxes of MR that I haven't had need to reference in 5 years.  Volume is a storage issue, and the weight is something that I have to deal with every time I move with the military (i.e., I have a maximum weight allowance).

Content.  Although MR is better today than, say 3-4 years ago, gone are the days when I was captivated by every photo and every ad.  My modeling is so much more focused now that much of MR's content is of marginal to no relevance.  Add to that the fact that I am no longer a novice, so much of the beginner-focused material is also not of interest.  Usually I've gotten the "meat" out of an issue the same evening I find it on the kitchen counter.

The internet has infinitely more material focused on my interests, allows for instant searching and sharing of information, and is, for the most part, FREE.

I'm sorry to say but I think it may be time to say goodbye to my lifelong friend Model Railroader.  I understand the risk that at some point MR may no longer be there, a Fallen Flag alongside Railmodel Journal or Model Railroading, and that I would be an accomplice in hastening that fate by pulling back my dollars.  However, MR has a strong internet presence and may someday find itself morphing into what Model Railroad Hobbyist is today.

[Brakie]

Dave,Do what you believe is best for your interest..I agree some issues are better suited for new modelers.

I'm glad to see more  N Scale in MR but,I still prefer N Scale Railroading and  N Scale Magazine since these are geared for us N scalers and both have feature modeling articles and nice layouts.

I will more then likely to renew my subscription to MR when its comes time.

Why?

I still enjoy reading MR as well as I do NSR and NSM.

As for me the internet will never replace the joy I get out of reading magazines..

[wm3798]

I've been an on again/off again MR subscriber for decades.  I guess I've been off the stuff for about a year and a half now.  I do miss the access to the web-based programming, and I think it's a tad ham handed of them to put up such a rigid fence. 

I did enjoy getting it in the mail, especially since the only place where I can pick it up locally is the Walmart, and they don't always have it.  But yeah, my hobby time is spent on-line or in the train room, and the N scale press is far more relevant to me at this point, since I'm well beyond the "this is how you build benchwork" phase...

I'd suggest humbly that you go through the last few years of dreck and thin the herd, let it ride for one more year to see where Neil takes it, then make a more permanent decision.  I wish I could justify the budget for it, I'd take it on for a year just do see the progress.

Lee

[Wlal13again]

Dave,

What I did was let mine lapse years ago, upside is I buy it the LHS only when  it has something that interests me, and secondly, it gives me a reason to go to my LHS to check things out..

[PGE_Modeller]

I have continued my MR subscription but I understand the bit about boxes of old magazines when it comes to storage or the time to move.  To deal with that problem, I have (much to my wife's joy) ordered the 75-year collection on DVD.  Yes, it is expensive, but when I commented that it would allow me to get rid of 72 years (I have every issue since 1937) worth of paper copies of MR and free up over 40 linear feet of shelf space under the layout her immediate response was "go for it!".  Similarly, I have also ordered the four CDs comprising the first 20 years of N-Scale.  I haven't decided how I am going to deal with my RMC collection, which goes back to the days when it was just "The Model Craftsman" and wasn't a strictly model railroading magazine.  I hope Carstens' will follow Kalmbach's lead and make the complete collection available digitally.  I have never been tempted to subscribe to either "N-Scale" or "N Scale Railroading" because I can buy both at my LHS for less than the cost of "best value" 3-year subscription mailed to Canada.

Cheers,
Greg Kennelly
Burnaby, BC

[davefoxx]

Dave,

I let all of my Kalmbach subscriptions (MR, Trains, and Classic Trains) lapse about one year ago, because at the time, I couldn't justify the cost for the return.  I had gotten to the point where I was able to read each magazine in under an hour, where in the past I would pick up the magazines many times for perusal until next month's issues arrived.  I had been watching the page count (especially in MR and Trains) dwindle for years, and it was becoming a joke.  Do you remember the page count of MR in the early to mid-1980s?  Those issues were huge compared to today.  Like you, I had been a long-time subscriber (e.g., MR since 1981), and the decision to let it lapse wasn't easy.  What pushed my decision along was that all of my favorite sections of the magazine had been slowly stripped from the magazine, like Paint Shop, for example.  I also didn't like that MR articles were becoming mostly photos only with captions (even in the multiple installment project articles!), rather than real articles that required some actual reading.

I have flirted with the idea of resubscribing to at least Classic Trains, which seems to provide me with the most enjoyment and educational value.  We'll see.  I really do miss that excitement that arises when a new magazine arrives in the mail each month.

DFF

[Bsklarski]

Well Dave, you have aired an internal battle I have been fighting for about 5 years. The past 5 years or so, I have not been impressed by MR to the point to where I HAVE TO HAVE IT, other than the N scale Salt Lake Route. Storing them is always an issue, I have then in plastic containers in the basement. Honestly when I do move someday, I will most likely toss them, or as I did with my Fine Scale Modelers, donate them to the local library. As a previous poster mentioned, you can buy them now on CD. One thing I may do before I toss them is scan into a PDF the stuff that interests me. I already gone through the website and downloaded all the trackplans that I think I would ever want to reference. I did get a subscription to N Scale Magazine, as N scale is the direction that I am going in. My father always had a subscription and when he passed, I took it over. He has years of MR and RMC in the basement at my mothers house, along with Toy Trains I believe it is. Thing is you can always find a friend or somebody here that has the issue you need and would be willing to scan it. I have also seen full issues on the net as torrents IIRC, so you can find them there too.

[nscalemike]

Glad to hear that I am not the only one who is thinking about this.  I haven't subscribed nearly as long as some, I have about 4 years worth in the mid 90's and then every issue since about 2002.  But I also remember reading the years and years of magazines my grandfather had collected.  It was those magazines that really pushed me into the hobby so much (and the fact that my I was my grandfathers 'train kid', he took me to every show, every operating night, and every excursion that he could!)  I find it almost as exciting getting the new magazine out of the mailbox each month now as I did taking one off his shelf years ago.  However, I was reminded about the downsides to MR the other day when I finally unpacked the boxes of my old issues.  The first clue was the fact that I could grasp the entire 2010 year in one hand.  When I went to grasp the entire 1994 year I dropped them all.  Foolish me tried it again with the same results.  Then I noticed that over the last 15 years or so, the magazine has gone from 200+ pages to maybe 100 on a heavy month, while the price has gone up.  Lots of old items are missing, and when they try something new, its every other month now (the new N-scale Insight . . . are we that far behind they can only come up with six topics a year??).

Bottom line I still like it and agree with Lee to see if it changes course for the better over the next year or so.  Already a few signs that it may.  For now I'm keeping my subscription because it has become the annual V-day gift from my wife and I really do enjoy the hour of reading it provides me.  But if she decides not to get it anymore then we will see as well.  I also wish MR all the best and hope it really starts to work on increasing its value.  Adding another 100 pages each issue with more advanced topics while leaving the first 100 for beginners could be very beneficial. 

Good luck in your decision making!

Mike

[unittrain]

I used to get MR on a regular basis back in the late 80's early 90's but have purchased maybe 5 issues in the last decade. Why? because it is so focused on the beginner there is hardly any advanced modeling like Mike Tylick and Dave Burrow Robert Smaus ect also its HO bias I began modeling in HO back in 89 but the scale didn't allow for the modeling of scale distance so I chose N after many years of consideration and found that N allows a good amount of detail balanced with scale scenery but MR fails miserably at promoting the high points of N.

[chuck geiger]

It sits in a rack in my bathroom...It has gotten some what better lately. MRH is
cool, but still too cluttered for me on-line. Way too many ads and pages on pages
of "how to hang HO scale wall paper in a small town depot". This is still the best
site. Wish it was more than a forum...This could transform into a digital media
platform with a main site and social media connections. I've learned more here
in the past 4 years than anywhere else.

[JoeD]

A friend of mine commented on one of the scale specific magazines that it's gotten to the point where it's only good for one trip to the bathroom    I think at that point it's time to evaluate the value of the subscription.  We have all the issues back to vol 1 number 1 and I gotta say in my book the hay day of MR was in the 1980's if not for content, then sheer girth.  Those were the days before the cottage industry provided everything you need to do a world class layout and you learned how to do things old school, with a bit of new technology thrown in.  Bruce Chubb...gosh I wonder what went through his head when the first DCC systems hit the market and made those miles and miles of wiring on his layout obsolete?   Being a Disney ExPat, John Olson and Malcolm Furlow really focused my interest and were always fun articles to read.

Right now MRC is my favorite.  I think it's kept it's focus on the more experienced modeler and less on the "lets learn how to use an airbrush" again kinda stuff in MR.   Both MR and Fine Scale Modeler seem to use the same template of a few core concepts as anchors each issue.  Both are great gateway magazines, but for those of us with more exotic tastes, they just aren't hitting the spot these days.

Joe

[havingfuntoo]

I let my subscription to MR die several years ago, I was a junkie for the prototype data and the foldout drawings, For several years I  kept up with MRC because they seemed to still have the prototype line drawings but I have also finished with them as they have gone the way of MR. I still get Classic Trains but Trains has become too thin to justify the cost. I check out the magazines on the stand to see if the are worth buying, if I feel they are or I need some entertainment on a long flight I pay the stand price.  Mainline Modeler is the magazine I miss the most ........ to me that was good value ...... I would enjoy collecting that from my mail box, in fact I used to look out for it with keen anticipation, I lost 3 and half years international subscription when they stopped. Now in the digital age with high quality printers at home and a disc that will hold years of issues it is hard to justify keeping up a subscription to buy pulped trees, ask the USPS they have just declared they are out of money ....... letters in the mail are a dying breed. 

[rswinnerton]

I dropped my subscription and havent felt the loss. Occasionally though, As I wonder through the local Giant Foods, I wander by the magazine rack and see it sitting there. I say "Ohhh..  The new edition of MR!" and I, like an Alzheimer's patient buy it, run home, lock myself in the bathroom, and open it.....Sonnnuvabitch! Why did I do that? Just more of the following:

-How to model the entire Midwest on a 4x8 sheet of plywood
-Things Pelle Soeborg can do that you never will
-Walthers!!!!!!!
-Tony Koester yammers for two pages and says nothing
-Walthers!!!!!!!
-New product announcements that are now sold out because the Internet crowed get em first.
-How to make a massive deciduous forest using over $1,000 of Woodland Scenecs stuff
-Did we mention WALTHERS!!!!!!!!
-Cody G teaches the ancient art of Atlas Snap-Track (Now with 40% more Woodland Scenics Ballast!)

So.... Is there any question?

Russ

Btw- If you laughed at my topics, it's because it's true.

[conrail98]

I've really enjoyed the past year's worth of MR. There's been an article or two in each magazine that I've tabbed as "come back to this when you get to ...". I can't say the same for other mags I either subscribe to or read regularly. I let mine lapse for a year or so a couple of years ago and the one thing I realized was I use their online subscriber benefits more than I thought, from the videos to the track plan database and my thinking going forward is those items are just as valuable if not more sometimes than the actual magazine itself,

Phil

[Brakie]

"Tony Koester yammers for two pages and says nothing"
----------------------------
Agreed..

I remember when he had tons to say now he does have a tency to prattle on while saying nothing..