Great Model Railroads 2020

[wm3798]

I was on a trajectory to have my layout for a GMR spread within about 6 months when life sent me in another direction and the layout came tumbling down.  It would have been a nice feather in my cap to have it accepted, but we'll never know now.  I could probably cobble something together from the wide pool of photos I have, just to see if it gets any attention, but there's the downside of not being able to go back and take a new shot if it's not as perfect as they want it...  I've gotten plenty of ink from Pam, so I don't really lose sleep over it.

I agree that the biggest obstacle is the back log and the delay in ever seeing your work in print.  That in itself speaks to the ham handed way N scale is dealt with.  You'd think if they had a good N scale article, and really wanted to represent the scale, they would move it ahead of the dead HO guys that seem to pile up year after year.
Lee

[mark dance]

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?

They are impressive aren't they?!

If I recall correctly Kalmbach uses Photoshop (or Illustrator?) for the track plans and have developed some proprietary tools for both ingesting files from a variety of digital drawing/drafting programs as well as to layout smooth track elements and scenic items quickly.  They also spend a lot of time getting the drawings right, checking against photos and conferring with the author - at least they have done with my stuff. Their level of effort on drawings and photos is far higher than the text...which is illuminating in itself and speaks to their priorities!

One example of the efffort they go to is a map of the CPR's Division point yard at Nelson BC from an up coming MRP article.  Although I am admittedly biased, I think the illustrator did an amazing job on redrawing it from a proto blue print...it is a work of art!

md

[Ed Kapuscinski]

@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

Ouch. But yet, 100% correct.

I hate to say it, but I've seen a bunch of this in one of the N Scale mags. I know the reasons for it, and on one hand I like the fact that they're NOT being exclusionary toward people who's view of the hobby is very different than mine, but... that doesn't mean I'm gonna pickup the magazine from the shelf. It just doesn't have anything to interest me.

[OldEastRR]

.... they would move it ahead of the dead HO guys that seem to pile up year after year.
Lee

Good one! 

[peteski]

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?

I don't know about others, but I can tell you that in one example, my friend sent them a drawing of the layout (done by hand), and a series of overhead photos which could be stitched to get a full overhead picture of the layout. They re-draw it of course, using Adobe Illustrator (or whatever graphic app they use, to create a pretty drawing), but they still didn't get it all quite right.  But it was close.

I suspect that most layout owners who sent in articles are quite capable of drawing a plan of their layout (either by hand, or in a CAD program).

[robert3985]

Welllll...I buy GMR because I enjoy looking at good model railroading no matter what scale...even though I'm a rabid N-scaler and always will be.  I have not had bad experiences with Kalmbach and the guys and gals running MR in the past.  When I won the MR photo contest way back in the 90's, they were all most accommodating and wanted mo' material from me and my camera.  Payment came very quickly too for the photos they used.

ON THE OTHER HAND, when taking photos and writing articles for Rail Model Journal, the owner/editor Robert Schleicher decided he knew more about color balance than I did, or what color my scenery should be rather than the actual sacred dirt I used to color it, so the cover photos I took for his magazine were inevitably grossly over-corrected from a color-balance standpoint.  He also published notes I sent to him without my permission, which caused a few waves in the Ntrak community and got me excommunicated.

MR contacted the Utah N Scale Modelers after we broke away from Ntrak and developed our own finer standards for our modular layout, and wanted us to be featured in GMR.  However, several club members, for whatever reason, decided they didn't want to be in GMR, and dissented...so, we missed our opportunity.  The club disbanded about a year later because of "dissenting" members who refused to work on their sections to meet club deadlines.

So, this year GMR doesn't have any N-scale.  Nate Goodman and I have decided that starting this year, we are going to get off our asses and submit photos of both of our layouts to MR to publish in their "Trackside Photos" section, which will get us noticed.  I might even take some photos of other really nice N-scale layouts in Northern Utah with their owners' permission for added N-scale presence at Kalmbach.  In all my dealings with them, I have never felt any bias against N-scale, but overall I see a growing trend to feature N-scale's small size as its most important feature rather than its excellent scenery-to-track-ratio. 

Although I've seen plenty of nice hollow-core door N-scale layouts, and N-scale layouts built inside coffee table sized enclosures, or really nicely detailed micro layouts built by some of our top-notch modelers here at TRW...the "small-size" aspect of N-scale has a tendency to emphasize the pieces/parts that make it look toy-like...small radius curves, Kato Unitrack and/or Code 80 sectional track, slick plastic RTR structures, spaghetti-bowl track plans, overly bright off-the-shelf scenery products...all contributing to making little 1/160th trains and their surroundings look "cute" (I hate that word!).

Perhaps, with more effort to get the word out there, those N-scalers who are interested in, and are building layouts that feature more prototypical features, more highly detailed engines and rolling stock, prototypical signaling and operation, historical accuracy, extra-large superelevated curves and well-detailed trackwork, nicely decorated and comfortable train rooms and which utilize N-scale's great scenery-to-track-ratio (big scenes dominating the trains) would be able to make N-scale "model" trains more dominant...rather than "cute" trainsets and small layouts' present domination of what's written and photographed.

Up and coming at MR is the annual model train photography contest, with entries needing to be in MR's possession by January 31, 2002.  When I won the contest back in the 90's, I got offers from all of the model train magazines for more photos and to write about my modeling philosophy and the models that were featured in the winning photo.  Unfortunately, I didn't take advantage of the opportunities as much as I should have because I'm a rather private person with an abrasive writing style.  However, I would encourage those of you who have layouts, or portions of layouts, finished to an excellent "model" standard, to attempt to take some really nice photos of your work, or find somebody who will do it for you.  Winning the photo contest brings a lot of recognition to both photographer and modeler.  If you're both, then that's even better.  Nonetheless, I know of several modelers here who model well enough in N-scale to win this contest with the "right" photo of your excellent work.

I know I'm going to start taking photos using some new tools I've discovered and written about here to attempt to win this contest again.

Maybe with more excellent N-scale modelers making their work known, next year we'll see some N-scale layouts in GMR, and more N-scale articles featuring relevant "modeling" subjects which illustrate that N-scale can be done at a higher level, and that it has many more advantages than merely being able to crowd more track into a smaller area.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore



 

[Doug W]

Great post Bob. I totally agree! 

[Chris333]

I was reading the newest MR with the article on the NKP layout in O scale and was thinking how easy it would be to make the same thing in Z scale.
http://www.zscalemonster.com/azl/gp7/azl-6203.jpg

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I gotta tell ya I feel personally guilty about there being no N in GMR this year.

I had talked with their editors about and planned on writing up Windsor St but we found a new house too soon.

[Sokramiketes]

Oh man, Schleicher was interesting.  When he photographed our layout for RMJ I remember him setting an exposure, then waiving a flashlight around wildly to light the scene while the shutter was open.  He didn't do any better with color correction on his own photos...

I also loved when something was mentioned on the cover, and didn't actually match to an article in the issue.

Still, the magazine had good nuggets.

MR has always been receptive to N scale articles, like Ed says, we just haven't submitted anything.  They would love to feature some Modutrak stuff but I haven't gotten off my dead a$$.  So I'll take blame too.

[TLOC]

I must be in the minority here. I don’t care what scale the articles are being written about. I enjoy model railroading and while I am in HO I have loved many layouts I have seen O, 027, Z and N especially one, the Galesburg City Job. When I hit Trainfest his layout as small and tall as it is, to me is railroading. Bill and his former colleague Jim created authentic scenes and not a mishmash of scenes cobbled together. I walk around even checking out the huge LEGO and Lionel stuff as you never know what you may find.

In my mind Harry Wong, JoeF and Kalmbach missed the boat by not asking or maybe they did to have Bill and Jim show the layout and explain the building and research process for the Galesburg City job and all three were right down the aisle. They all say they want more N, well there was something perfect within a couple hundred feet. That was a fully complete operating L shaped layout that could have fitted almost anywhere. He has been at Trainfest 3 straight years, won best in show in 2018 and yet he is not published.

TomO

[mmagliaro]

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.

Exactly the reason I generally try to send my stuff to RMC.   They are not scale-specific and they reach a much wider audience.  A big part of why I write is to show "the world", not just N Scalers, what is possible in N.

[sirenwerks]

@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.
That's the major problem with N in my opinion. That's why we don't get alot of coverage. We need more quality layouts and modeling like many in here. We should push each other to do better and publish more, me included. We need to turn back into the old Railwire and be less forgiving and accepting of things. Constructive criticism isn't mean. Hell, otto @Cajonpassfan has given me plenty over the years lol.

Drasko

Agreed. Despite Tom Knapp, what I see in N-Scale Magazine these days is mostly son of Ntrak material. NSR is pushing those boundaries, of layout, rolling stock detail, etc. The only thing I wish NSR would do differently is a series of N scale proportioned (read - non-compressed), realistic industries. I'm not talking steel mills or the like, just larger structures more appropriate to N scale's real estate largess. Articles with meat that includes structure drawings, traffic descriptions, etc. And yes, I know... if I want it I should write it. But if I did it myself, it would be all industries local to Oregon and Washington. It needs to be more of a group effort organized by the editor.

[learmoia]

Agree 100%... The latest cover at the hobby shop was a Santa Fe SD45 in Bicentenial pulling 2 tone gray passenger cars on a multi level shear cliff mountain spagetti bowl... (Ohh are those Santa Fe cars?? [picks up magazine..] .. Nope! New York Central ... Then I think I spent the next five minutes wondering why 1 person would own BOTH of those things.. let alone have them on the same train..

~Ian

[draskouasshat]

Lets just talk Kirk into doing a new digital magazine. FiNe-scale modeling can be the name.
Only the best looking layouts and articles allowed.

Drasko