June 2013 Model Railroader

[Barry Ten]

I hesitate to jump in, but I got my June MR in the mail Saturday, and I've got to say that the UK B&O-PRR layout is among the best they've published. I simply didn't see any reference to a product other than the Bollinger Edgerly lighthouse, which is a detailed craftsman kit that readers might well want to know about, since it's a very distinctive feature of the layout.

 

That lighthouse is a fantastic looking model, isn't it? I must admit I'd looked at that photo several times before I realised that the lighthouse was not actually part of the bridge that the train was going over.

 

[Sir Ray]

Looking at my old issues from the 70's and  80's much of the bulk appears to be advertising, with a lot of product listing style ad's (think Hattons, Gaugemaster et al style ads in the UK) for model stores offering a postal service. These seem to have gradually disappeared during the 90's probably due to greater use of the inter-web thingy and more recently active links in the electronic version. Also with the greater use of colour in the magazine and video on the Kalmbach website the content often appears to be better.

There are religious-level flame wars on the MR forums from time to time concerning this, the general consensus is that yes the average MR magazine has less pages than its equivalent in the glory days of the 1980s, and yes some of that is due to less advertising nowadays in the Magazine, especially those multipage spreads like everyone's favorite from the 1980s "America's Hobby Center" (which may or may not still exist out in N. Bergen NJ, but back in the day was in a non-descript building in the middle of 23rd St. (IIRC) in Manhattan, NYC (the customer "Showroom" was on the second floor), but also it is felt there is less content.

Speaking of the 1980s, I have been a subscriber since then and so I did recall that 1990s article about modeling an Asphalt terminal that Pelle Søeborg - not sure about that concept; OK, Pelle did put a bit of twist from the original article, but still - it's basically an article about someone building a model from an decades-old article about someone building a model - kind of too-meta for me...

[CVSNE]

RE: The June issue. Thought the layout was excellent - not only for it's scenic execution but also the multi-level in a (relatively) small room.

As far as the Peco track - after some very positive experience with some Peco Code 83 turnouts I have to say I wish I'd used this track from the start for my entire layout.

Glad to see they finally published the drawings of the Waterbury station - they've been in the files for years. Neat old building.