Model Railroading in the 50s and 60s.


Thank you, Y3a! I saw a few issues of Mainline Modeler and liked what I saw; however, I think it ceased being published some time in the mid 2000.
 
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In September of 1975, Russ Larson took over the helm at Model Railroader Magazine. Linn Wstcott is still Editor; but Russ is now the Managing Editor.
 
Just completed 1975. This year was a very productive year for articles I want to go back to and read. In the February issue, there is a description of John Allen's Tab on Car system for routing freight cars. The November issue has and article on developing time tables by Jim Hediger. The December issue talks about modeling Waterfalls. In my perusal of a typical years worth of Model Railroaders, i might find 1-2 articles I feel I want to read over. 1975 had 5 articles i have recorded as needing reading.

I see that COX, the Model Airplane people are now into Model Trains. I don't think this endeavor on there part was very long lived. There are a few new additions to the Brass suppliers, such as Nickle Plate Products, Sunset and N.J. International. Heathkit makes a huge Power Pack, send them your address and they will send you a Catalog! Model Railroader has continued with their project railroads. It seems that once a year they present one; or, upgrade an older project railroad.

I would say that up until the mid 1970s, most modelers where still steam addicts. Now, slowly but surely, diesels are starting to come into there own. Also, N scale seems to be gaining in popularity!

On to 1976!
 
NP2626 said:
Just completed 1975. This year was a very productive year for articles I want to go back to and read. In the February issue, there is a description of John Allen's Tab on Car system for routing freight cars. The November issue has and article on developing time tables by Jim Hediger. The December issue talks about modeling Waterfalls. In my perusal of a typical years worth of Model Railroaders, i might find 1-2 articles I feel I want to read over. 1975 had 5 articles i have recorded as needing reading.

I see that COX, the Model Airplane people are now into Model Trains. I don't think this endeavor on there part was very long lived. There are a few new additions to the Brass suppliers, such as Nickle Plate Products, Sunset and N.J. International. Heathkit makes a huge Power Pack, send them your address and they will send you a Catalog! Model Railroader has continued with their project railroads. It seems that once a year they present one; or, upgrade an older project railroad.

I would say that up until the mid 1970s, most modelers where still steam addicts. Now, slowly but surely, diesels are starting to come into there own. Also, N scale seems to be gaining in popularity!

On to 1976!
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Wow, I dont think COX may have lasted very long in trains. IMHO. They did some model rocketry back in the day and I dont remember them lasting very long with that either.
 
I'm looking over the July 1976 issue, there are so many Red, White and Blue advertisements from the advertisers in the magazine after all it is the Bicentennial. Russ Larson has written Editor's editorial that has been done by Linn Westcott for forever and a day. Linn is still described as the Editor and Russ is the Managing Editor. Russ' editorial is a discussion on the Declaration of Independence and the differences between what Jefferson's life was like back in 1776 and what life was like in 1976. Russ had an interesting thought on how future life was perceived to be. He thought that our work-a-day life was going to decline, as back in 1976, we where convinced that eventually we might not work at all! That the work day was getting shorter and shorter back then may have been true. However, in the 41 years since the BiCentennial, I think the amount of hours worked by the average person has increased. My last job had many people working 50-60 and 70 hour weeks! The fact that the company could afford all that overtime was due to the fact that the company did not pay all that much to start with! This might be the overall direction this country is headed as fewer and few people struggle to make ends meet!

There is a very interesting look back at our interest in miniature trains.

There is also a biography of J Harold Geissel who had provided Model Railroader with over 300 prototype drawings over the previous 40 years. If you'd looked at Model Railroader during this time, it's likely a drawing of a building, Locomotive or piece of rolling stock had been drawn my Mr. Geissel.

There is a look back at America's First Common Carrier, the Baltimore & Ohio with drawings and painting of the DeWitt Clinton train. Much history is given and finally there is an 1840s layout of the B&O that is a point to point layout from Baltimore to Harper's Ferry.

The model contest is for BiCentenniel paint jobs on locomotives.

There is a very long article on Frank Ellison's Delta Lines entitled "The Art of Model Railroading", written by Russ Larson wherein Russ discusses what Frank did for the hobby of Model Railroading.

All in all, this would be a very neat issue of the magazine to have, it is chock full of interesting information!
 
Y3a, After doing some digging, I found an advertisement for Arbour, and did see them advertising their C&O H-8 in the July 1976 issue of Model Railroader.

The one thing I try not to do when I am looking through back issues is look at the prices that where being charged for items. This keeps the drool off of my key board! However, I have noticed, here in the mid 1970s, that prices seem to be climbing at an increasing rate. Locomotive models that cost $8.95 back in the 1960s, are now costing $25.00 to $30.00. This is a healthy jump in price and indicative of the inflation we saw back in the 1970s.

There were many products available back then that were for modifying one product, into another, such as replacement boilers that allowed a person to convert one model into another. I think this was a neat idea! Cary was an example of this.

Also, if you look at the "List of Advertisers" towards the back of the December 1976 Model Railroader, you will see that the list contains more than 240 advertisers! Looking at the January 2017 issue, the "List of Advertisers", has shrunk considerably to less than 70 advertisers. Many of the producers back in 1976 are no longer in business and they have not been replaced by newer companies producing model railroad products! Yes, some of the products produced by these companies where bought up by other companies; however, for the most part, the majority of this stuff is simply gone!!!

I think the above is a telling bit of information on the health of this hobby. It's also a telling bit of information on the health of the U.S. Economy.
 
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I have been thinking about the "List of Advertisers" comparison talked about in my last post. I can't help but feel this is important information. What is your spin on this?

It certainly might be that Model Railroader Magazine has become too expensive to advertise in and some companies have chosen another magazine; or, options to do business with. It could also be that many companies have chosen to advertise online. Although these two methods of getting a company's name out to the public are viable alternatives, I still don't think it explains the decline in the "List of Advertisers" in Model Railroader Magazine. Simply going on my "GUT" feelings about this hobby, I think the total amount of Model Railroaders is less than it was 30-40 years ago. However, I have no way to quantify my feelings.
 
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At this point, I have looked over 309 issues of Model Railroader Magazine getting me to January of 1977. I have paged through almost every page (I don't look at every page of the Classified Advertising; or, the List of Model Retailers). In those 309 issues, I have yet to see one Northern Pacific Layout. There are all kinds of B&O, Pennsylvania, NYC and Santa Fe layouts and a whole host of Free Lanced layouts. With Narrow Gauge the: D&RGW, DSP&P, Colorado Southern and Rio Grande Southern have been represented. Being a member of the NPRHA, I know that there are plenty of Northern Pacific Modelers and N.P. Equipment has been made available in both plastic, wood and brass. When the "Great Model Railroads" annual magazines came out, several Northern Pacific Layouts were featured.

I'm not really complaining, simply commenting on what I see as to be a lack of coverage. Now that Chet has switched to the CMSt.P &P, I'm feeling slightly lonely out here in N.P. land!
 
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In the October of 1977 issue, Linn Westcott has finally officially retired, he is now titled "Editor Emeritus", what ever that means. He started in the magazine in 1934, I believe, a long career at the magazine! I'm seeing advertisements for Charles Ro Supply Company. MDC Roundhouse has announced their second in a series of Theme Kits, The "Battle Mountain" Nevada Mining series. Hobbies for Men has a four full page add in the November 1977 issue and I have seen my first ad for Woodland Scenics. The Walthers Catalog is advertised for $2.00 for 128 Illustrated Pages with 117 Lines represented and a total of 114 manufacturers represented. The magazine is now 160 pages plus.
 
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I just looked at my copy of the April issue #1000...It's only 118 pages. Although that's quite an expansion over the March issue #999 of 86 pages!

Willie
 
Willie, are you feeling your not getting enough "Bang for the Buck"! The page content of the magazine has risen and fallen over the years. I'm now looking over the late 1970s and every issue was over 100 pages then. Why the page content would change over time is anyone's guess; but, might have something to do with competition. For me, the magazine has always been relevant and there seems to be more than enough content to keep my subscribing. I would say I feel the amount of pages supplied in the magazine, is adequate.
 
Mark - Slowly but steadily I don't feel that I am getting enough "Bang for the Buck", but not necessarily because of the size. That contributes partly, but there are just not enough articles that I have an interest in anymore. I really enjoy seeing other folks layouts no matter what scale they are in, it gives me ideas and inspiration. I don't do DCC so I could care less about installing decoders in various products. There's only so many articles that I can read about weathering before they become quite repetitious. I don't do steam or passenger service, so those articles are filler to me; but I still like looking at steam era layouts. Some of the scratch-build articles still hold my interest, even though I don't need to make a passenger depot. I am too far along for the "beginner 4'x8' layouts" to interest me, except for the finished scenery. I think that Tony Koester is an overrated self promoter. I miss Andy Sperandeo.
All that being said, I still subscribe and I still think that it is still a very relevant publication for newer modelers and many others. I have been a faithful subscriber since 1990, but I also have over a hundred "newsstand purchases" from the 70's and 80's.

Willie
 
I hear you Willie, as we become more experienced in a hobby, we tend to notice how much time and information, magazines devoted to the hobby, tend to give to beginners. Or, that they tend to pick a type of control system and leave the rest of the types of systems, alone. Your ideas on the hobby are only slightly more focused than mine. I do both diesels and steam and am DCC controlled. I always read Koester; but, agree with you he seems to loose sight of most of us with a more general interest in the hobby! I found the 1,000 issue to be excellent. I liked Lance Mindhiem's article on the future of the hobby and found he wondered about some of the new products the same way I do! Especially using a cell phone as a throttle, Why? I also liked Tony Koester's end page article on building models as opposed to buying RTR. I am first and foremost a builder of models, have been my whole life, if I could no longer put RR models together, I would drop this hobby in a New York minute, in favor of a hobby where models are built!

I am also a subscriber to "MR Video Plus" and the "All Time Digital Archive" This costs me considerably more money; however, I have found that for me, it is well worth it! The bases for this thread is the "All Time Digital Archive". I also enjoy going over all of the videos available at "MR Video Plus". As long as I stay in this hobby, I will likely be umbilically attached to Model Railroader. I just started re-subscribing to Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette. I find that this magazine has more of the articles I am interested in, written by other Model Builders and therefore is centered right in my wheel house.

Good luck, Willie!
 
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I have just started 1979 and I am noticing that most of the model railroad designs are what I would state as more sincere. They are not Spaghetti Bowls of track, like they where in the 50s and 60s. Many of the designs are open in the middle, with a pit; or, control center located there. This means it is necessary to have a Duck-Under to gain access to the pit. This is how I designed my layout in 1988 and I added another Duck-Under just a couple weeks ago and the new one has maybe 8 inches more clearance. I can't tell you how much easier the new Duck-Under is to negotiate! There are many many brass locomotive importers now in 1979. Brass prices are climbing but, still look good in today's dollars. Most of the Hobby Suppliers I knew when I started building my layout are up and running.
 
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santafewillie said:
I just looked at my copy of the April issue #1000... Willie
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I received my issue #1000 yesterday. I'm unimpressed. Lots of back patting and very little "real" content. I, too, find the value decreasing. Maybe one article of interest per issue. I mostly continue to subscribe to see what's new. But with most everything from rolling stock to structures now coming out as ready to run or already assembled, even that aspect is falling in value. Like Mark, building kits is one area of model railroading I enjoy. That and running trains (not true operations). And no article in a magazine is going to help me "run" trains. I will most likely not renew when my MR subscription expires.
 
I also got my Issue #1000 yesterday. I did enjoy finally seeing the track plan for the MR layout.

I am a bit like Willie not being interested in a lot of the content. I do enjoy their articles on layouts when the do post track plans and how the layout is operated along with the photos. I am also a DC operator and have no interest at all in the articles about DCC. Being that my interest in in the transition era, articles on modern locomotives and equipment also aren't of much interest either. I may keep my subscription, but I am finding that less and less of the articles are very interesting to me.

There are also a lot of articles that seem to be aimed at people who are new to the hobby.

I also subscribe to Railroad Model Craftsman. I was glad to see it come back into publication. They seem to be a bit more focused of building projects which I enjoy a lot. I also subscribe to Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine.
 
I got tired of the How to stuff that I knew was wrong.
Mostly the stuff on weathering.
NONE of those articles showed color photos of the real appliance with how they really weathered, leaked, and such.
They missed out on the color of coal soot from various kinds of coal.
They never researched the color of the sand in the sand domes, that would put that dusty look on the sides of the engine and tender.
I get tired of seeing 1920-1940 era layouts with old wooden pallets. They were an invention of WWII.
 
I still Like MR, after 29 years of being a subscriber. Not going to defend it to those of you who disagree, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. If you know of better sources for information, please speak up! Y3a, When I retired in 2012, the company I was working for was using wood pallets and I think they are still very prevalent in manufacturing, I guess I'm uncertain of what you are saying here?
 
I find the most useful model railroad publication to be Model Railroad Hobbyist. As to Y3a's pallet comment, he was referring to anachronisms; that is seeing wood pallets in 1920's layouts, though his WWII date is wrong. The patent application for the "modern" pallet was made in 1937 (https://www.google.com/patents/US21...iALnqsmgCg#v=onepage&q=george raymond&f=false), based on an earlier pallet patent with metal legs rather than wood sides. I tend to ignore such small anachronisms, putting them in the "rivet counter" category.
 
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