Great Model Railroads 2020

[Doug W]

We need more quality layouts and modeling like many in here. We should push each other to do better and publish more, me included.

This is my key point. Publication is good for the scale. The mainstream magazines still have reasonably wide circulation and they are a window into the hobby for outsiders, just as train shows are, so we should be producing more content for them as well as the remaining N scale mag. I'd like to encourage others - particularly from this skilled community - to put forward articles for publication. I accept that challenge myself.

Cheers
Doug

[MichaelWinicki]

@mark dance i whole heartedly agree!
Although n-scale is still looked down on by certain manufacturers and some publications, part of the problem is us modelers. Some might not like what im about to say but it has to be said. We have too many junk, toy train looking layouts. How many times do you open up an issue of NSR or NSM and mutter to yourself about some of the "featured" layouts?
Horrible ballast that should be used to form up a river bank instead of between the ties, toothpick bridges glued together by a kindergarten class, and SD90MACs pulling heavyweight passenger cars through a western scene with horse drawn carriages in the street.

Drasko

Hope mine doesn't come off that way in the Jan/Feb issue of NSR. 

[draskouasshat]

Hope mine doesn't come off that way in the Jan/Feb issue of NSR. 

I guess we will see! Lol
Everybody has to start somewhere but i think the magazine's should really limit what kinds of layouts the put in.
Ntrak is the same way. Its great to show the hobby at shows but 99% of the modules look horrible. Yes, some old dudes going to say, "but its for the kids"........... but we also need to show what can be done to make things look real so that the parents, who ate paying for the trains, might also get interested and expand n-scale past the toy stage.

Thats my rant. 

Drasko

[MichaelWinicki]

I guess we will see! Lol
Everybody has to start somewhere but i think the magazine's should really limit what kinds of layouts the put in.
Ntrak is the same way. Its great to show the hobby at shows but 99% of the modules look horrible. Yes, some old dudes going to say, "but its for the kids"........... but we also need to show what can be done to make things look real so that the parents, who ate paying for the trains, might also get interested and expand n-scale past the toy stage.

Thats my rant. 

Drasko

I get what you're saying.

[Sokramiketes]

There really is no conspiracy here.  If anything, the fact that N scaler's had been sending their stuff to N scale only magazines has hurt the mainstream coverage of N.  We were spoiled with two N scale magazines for a long time, but it served to silo N scale from the rest of the modeling community. 

[jereising]

There are a few other things that might contribute to N scaler's not submitting to MR.

They may accept your article but then it takes forever to get it in the magazine.  Just for S&G take a look at how many times the author has passed...

When they prepare for publication, they chop it to pieces.  I was most unhappy with their treatment of my second (and last) MR article.  In the case of both articles, and IMO, the original was better than what was published.

I don't have that issue with N Scale.  They seem to know acceptable writing and don't feel it necessary to put their personality into the article.

Don't get me wrong - I was honored to be included in the pantheon of MR writers.

But I'll stick with N Scale, thank you very much.

[OldEastRR]

I agree -- my MR articles have been chopped up and condensed with any trace of my writing style obliterated. You send in 4 pages and 3 pix and they use one pic and slice the text down to half a page. The artist likes to show off his style, and you don't get to do that in MR. The writing in MR is blah and tired, you never really get anything enjoyable out of the text.
When I wrote for Model Railroad News my text was almost always left untouched. People who read the mag told me my articles were always the liveliest and most interesting. My cover story review of the KATO COLA got high praise from the mag staff and owner.

[mark dance]

There's always RMC (who is paying again now) or MRH if you're not a fan of MR's editing.  RMC's design work is now much better, they will let you ramble across more pages, and their print quality is significantly improved since White River up'd the paper weight while MR down graded to cheaper stock.

But if you aren't a fan of MR/Kalmbach then there shouldn't be moaning about a lack of N Scale in it I don't think...otherwise it is just more Kalmbach-bashing which isn't going to achieve very much expect spread negativity.

md

[jdcolombo]

ALL model railroading magazines are looking for quality content.  But given the economics of today's publishing business, that means you (the modeler) have to do it all (or 95% of it) yourself.  For my layout in the 2017 MRP mag, I took all the photos, wrote the text and sent in a track plan.  They did re-do the track plan with a more professional one, and there was some light (VERY light) editing of the text, but the print version of the article is 99% my own work.  If you've got a nice-looking layout, can take quality photos, and can produce some readable text, you can get a feature in MR, RMC, etc., etc.

The opportunities are there.  Like everything else in life, taking them requires initiative and work.  Complaining on TRW isn't going to make it happen; if you want to change things, submit your work.

John C.

[mike_lawyer]

My two cents on the focus on layouts is that the size of the layouts shown is far too skewed toward the basement empire layouts.  While I enjoy articles every once in a while on very large layouts, the younger generation (myself included) are tending to live in smaller houses or apartments.  To me, the ideal size for layouts in magazines should be spare bedroom or smaller.

[sirenwerks]

N scale may suffer, too, for one of the reasons it appeals to some - its transportability. I think this bears out on this list, a lot of us in in flux, moving about.I can think of a number of 'layouts' featured on this list that get close to publication-ready status and then get torn down for the next job, the new house, the divorce, etc. I also think N scale is a skunkworks in that respect, where we're starting to see some really cool ideas in modularity being instituted into longer term layouts.

[Roger Holmes]

I will echo what the other published authors have said.  I have had articles printed in MR, old RMC (a bunch) both N scale magazines, Walthers catalogs and Garden Railroads (Kalmach).  I was lucky that my MR article was published quickly but that was rare.  Sadly, I have noticed that some of the bios at the end of MR articles mention that the layout's owner has died....waiting for their article to be published.

Every publication (except, of course, GR) said that they are always looking for N scale articles and not just layout articles.  The old RMC published material quickly but took a long time to pay.  Also the pay rate seemed to decrease after Col. Carstens passed.

I haven't been in the writing mood for a while but I have the photos ready thanks to my professional photographer/ HO modeler friend.  He did the photos for everything that I have had published and from the first one we always split the royalties equally.  I haven't submitted anything to the new RMC but once I get off my duff and write again that's where I will send it.

[Rossford Yard]

I noticed no N scale in GMR 2020.  On the other hand, the new special issue on realistic prototypes you can model has track plans for 6 (of 20) N scale layouts.  Seems like they realized N had some value in trying to cram specific locales in a bedroom, or whatever.  Or, maybe they just got those articles submitted by N scalers, I don't know.

[mmagliaro]

I can't complain about what MR did to the one article I've had published there.  Frankly, I thought the rearranging of some text, moving text out of the column inches into photo captions, and redrawing of some figures made the whole thing better than what I gave them.  Generally, I think the same is true of the pieces I've sent to RMC (both during the Carstens era and in the current White River era).

I have long since given up trying to figure out who is to "blame" for not seeing more N Scale work in the major magazines.  I just try to write and photograph well, send them something good, and hope for the best.  I have yet to really be upset with how my work was edited at any of the magazines.  Editors all have their own styles but I do not think they have ever chopped up or ruined anything, and they usually improve it.

[NtheBasement]

One thing I like about MR articles is the excellent drawings/track plan of each layout from an overhead point of view, including the location and angle of each photo in the article.  No way could anyone contribute one of those drawings, so how do they create them?  Don't they have to send a crew?