RailModel Journal

[Dr EMD]

Robert Schleicher, editor of Railmodel Journal Magazine, has announced that his RMJ magazine has ceased publication. The June 2008 issue is their final issue.

[Yampa Bob]

I didn't subscribe to the magazine, but my son gave me a bunch of back issues. Does this leave only Kalmbach and Carsten publications?

[fieromike]

Add the upcoming  e-zine:
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/

Now if you were in n-scale...

[Woody Elmore]

Yampa - for years there was only MR and RMC and I would think they are fighting for subscribers. Print media is expensive and people just aren't reading as much any more.

I have subscribed to both RMC and MR since 1964. Before that I used to get MR in the library. I also used to subscribe to Trains and Railroad and Railfan but I often didn't have the time to read them.

One big problem for publishers is getting articles. I know that MR is very fussy about the way things are submitted. For example at Kalmbach they do all measurements in decimal fraction form. You won't find a common fraction like 1/2 in MR.

[Yampa Bob]

I read one article that had the measurements in full scale.."Add a 4 foot piece"..

Mags won't accept an article unless you're a subscriber, and they want 10 MPX images or slides.  I had an article rejected by a model airplane mag because I showed how to make snow skis from pieces of milk jugs.  The mag's largest sponsor makes skis.   

They could sell more magazines if they had more how-tos and fewer articles on $50,000 layouts.  I already have my layout, why would I want to even look at an award winning monster?

Printed media will give way completely to online "ebooks", already has to some extent. I subscribe to an online Spanish course, the "Flash" plays it out with sound, and I can set the text for my poor vision. The reality is, magazines and books are obsolete.  Wait..oh no, a flash commercial break. LOL

Students no longer have to lug books home, just hook up to the school server, even submit their essays online. There is also "subliminal" teaching, learn while you sleep. 

Sad to say, but someday teachers will also be obsolete, just "HAL" and headphones. Scary!

[pdlethbridge]

And don't forgot people who write the articles. I worked at a large book bindery here in Rochester until I had my stroke. Since my leaving, they have gone from 3 to 2 shifts, cut staff, and added a department that prints and finishes books up to a few copies.

[Woody Elmore]

Yampa - what happens to the kid who doesn't have a home computer? Or what do the students do when the server is down?

I have heard that the folks at Kalmbach are really, really picky when it comes to articles and pictures. As for the big layouts - doesn't everyone have the time and money to build a train room onto their house?

How to articles - somebody has to write them. The publisher's staff is way too busy converting the measurements into decimals.

[Yampa Bob]

Yes, online learning has its drawbacks for some. I agree with the theory: "Leave no one behind".

I could never be a teacher in today's society.  When I went to school, the teachers carried a stick, you learned or else.  If you got a whooping at school, you could expect another one when you got home. My mother, a former teacher, told me early on that I would rue the day I ever got a failing grade.  She was, of course, referring to my life after school.

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Books and teachers may indeed be or becomming obsolete, but someone still has to write the article or prepare the teaching material.   So we will still need teachers, with the smarts to teach using accurate materials.   The big problems I see are authentication of accuracy, and insuring the poor are not left behind.  

There is so much garbage online, often put out as the truth when in fact it is all wrong.  The latest bigfoot fiasco comes to mind,  there are probably hundreds of thousands who believe it to be true!!!    

As for the poor, my neighbor is a single mom with two kids and a deadbeat ex.  She works full time at just above minimum wage.  By the time she pays rent and buys food and gas and child care and the electric bill, there is no money left for the slightest luxury such as health insurance, car repair, life insurance, or anything most of us consider a necessity such as internet service and a computer.   We will have to make sure she doesn't get left behind.   We gave her our old computer and a bunch of software, but there is no way she can afford internet service, much less the high speed needed for the bandwith heavy media a lot of us use these days.  

My grandkids are amazed when I remind them that when I was a kid TV wasn't even invented.  Shucks even I am amazed when I think about it.

It will be very interesting to see what the next 10 to 20 years look like, if I kive that long.   We may even be making our trains at home, my daughter is an engineer, not the train type,  and she has a device that can make parts directly from the CAD program on her computer.   I heep telling her to make me a Weyerhauser 2-6-6-2 logging mallet, but I guess I'll have to buy the latest and greatest from Bachmann

[epeorus]

Colleagues,

I would argue that there ARE, indeed, other model railroad magazines out there, besides RMC and MR, that provide plenty of inspiration.  MR may be pretty picky in their content and acceptance rate ... if they can afford to be, so be it.

I suggest that you check out issues of magazines that may not particularly have a title that exactly fits your particular scale.  For example, there's lots of good stuff in O Gauge Railroading and O Scale Trains and, if you are really into detail, exquisite modeling, scratchbuilding, etc., no magazine can beat the content of Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette.  So what if it's narrow gauge, the techniques are the same!

Jim