MR track plans
Larry Blanchard
with a vent.
Some of you may already know that the only way I read MR since about '85
or so is via the public library. That way I pay what it's worth. But I
will concede, in all fairness, that I do find 2-4 interesting articles
per year so it's not a total loss.
The other day the library was displaying "101 More Track plans ..." so I
took it home. It's a compilation of MR plans put together by Jeff
Wilson. Linn Westcott can rest easy - his crown has not been
pilfered :-).
The 2nd plan in the book was for a layout called the "Vancouver Power &
Transportation Company" complete with sharp curves and 2 car barns.
Obviously a traction layout. Mr Wilson suggests running "short switching
locomotives(steam or diesel)". I would have concluded that he's never
seen a streetcar but plan 32 is defined as "Streetcar modeling".
Plan 3 has a piece of the track plan chopped off. Luckily it can be seen
in the rendering although not clearly.
Plan 28, also chosen for the cover illustration, has all of the
structures neatly numbered - but no legend explaining said numbers. The
same is true of plan 63.
Plan 31 is defined as "point-to-loop" when it clearly has a continuous
run.
And plan 74 is squeezed into such a small portion of a page that most of
us will need a magnifying glass to read it. Of course it's one of the
better medium size plans in the book, the "Moth Lake & Mount Ahab".
And for this tome they want $17.95. I have to wonder who buys it.
Probably the same sort of folks who think a Harbor Fright chop saw is all
one needs to build fine furniture :-).
MR and Mr Wilson should be ashamed of themselves.
Remember when publications had proofreaders?
OK, I've had my rant. Have a great Memorial Day.
--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw
None
> And for this tome they want $17.95. I have to wonder who buys it.
Newbies. People like me who a year ago decided it would be fun to
build a model RR.
Over the past year I've come to see how they remarket their articles
as books. And why not? There is virtually no competition. In fairness
I've learned a lot from these books even with all their flaws. Yet, I
wouldn;t be surprised to see them offer a book on a rat's rump if they
thought they could get a return on their meager investment.
Twibil
All print media are currently struggling to survive in a world where
publishing/delivery costs have gone through the proverbial roof and
readership has severely dropped off. Some of this is due to the amount
of stuff becoming available on line, but there's also the fact that
more and more people -particularly younger people- are simply
getting out of the habit of reading hard-copy books and magazines.
Rising production costs coupled with lower readership numbers mean
higher prices for those of us who still like the old-fashioned paper
copies, and there's simply no way around it; rants notwithstanding.
Were the publishers getting rich as a result of these high prices the
rants would have some justification, but the fact is that they're just
holding on by their fingernails, and many small publishing houses such
as Carstens and Kalmbach have already gone under.
Welcome to the future.
Larry Blanchard
> Rising production costs coupled with lower readership numbers mean
> higher prices for those of us who still like the old-fashioned paper
> copies, and there's simply no way around it; rants notwithstanding.
I think you missed my point. I considered the price "high" only because
of the quantity of errors I found. If those had been found and fixed
(i.e. by proofreaders) the book would have been useful to inexperienced
modelers. Also to others who haven't saved track plans for decades :-).
None
>
> Welcome to the future.
As George Allen used to say- The future is now.
Twibil
>
>
> > Rising production costs coupled with lower readership numbers mean
> > higher prices for those of us who still like the old-fashioned paper
> > copies, and there's simply no way around it; rants notwithstanding.
>
> I think you missed my point. I considered the price "high" only because
> of the quantity of errors I found. If those had been found and fixed
> (i.e. by proofreaders) the book would have been useful to inexperienced
> modelers. Also to others who haven't saved track plans for decades :-).
I think you missed my point. It costs money to employ quality proof
readers.
Money that the small publishers no longer have to spare.
Roger Traviss
readers.
Money that the small publishers no longer have to spare.
--------------------------------------------
Do you read any none American hobby magazines? You should.
MR claims it is the world's largest model railroad magazine yet the UK
"Railway Modeller" has, on average, twice or more pages of articles, has
more in-depth articles, doesn't try and force you into becoming a subscriber
by limiting additional article content to subscriber only web pages and
doesn't issue "special editions" in order to maximise profit as MR does
with "Great Model Railroads" and it's other annuals. Railway Modeller is
also book bound and not stapled like MR, has all advertising in the front
and rear with none in the middle of articles making it easier and cheaper to
have bound as you can remove the advertising pages. And costs slightly
less.
I've also seen Japanese model railroad magazines that are similar in size
and content to "Railway Modeller", that have more article pages than MR and
more in depth articles.
--
Cheers
Roger Traviss
Photos of the late GER: -
http://www.highspeedplus.com/~rogertra/
For more photos not in the above album and kitbashes etc..:-
http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/
Lobby Dosser
news:irojl3$agj$1...@speranza.aioe.org...
I don't have the book but have perused it at the LHS. The plan with the
missing legend was, IIRC, an urban layout with a continuous run under one
end. The original article had all the HO kits for the buildings listed. They
grabbed the plan and threw out the article. A lot of their 'books' do this
and in some cases the 'chapters' refer you to pages which make no sense
contextually.
Thinking back to '101 Track Plans', I believe Westcott was doing the same
thing way back then.
--
"I'm the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo ..."
Lobby Dosser
news:13f32916-5b32-4603...@r27g2000prr.googlegroups.com...
On May 26, 7:52 pm, None <joeschm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> > And for this tome they want $17.95. I have to wonder who buys it.
>
> Newbies. People like me who a year ago decided it would be fun to
> build a model RR.
>
> Over the past year I've come to see how they remarket their articles
> as books. And why not? There is virtually no competition. In fairness
> I've learned a lot from these books even with all their flaws. Yet, I
> wouldn;t be surprised to see them offer a book on a rat's rump if they
> thought they could get a return on their meager investment.
All print media are currently struggling to survive in a world where
publishing/delivery costs have gone through the proverbial roof and
readership has severely dropped off. Some of this is due to the amount
of stuff becoming available on line, but there's also the fact that
more and more people -particularly younger people- are simply
getting out of the habit of reading hard-copy books and magazines.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I read a lot of stuff online. I think Model Railroad Hobbyist, which is only
available online and is Free, is one of the best model railroad magazines
published, http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/ . I read it regularly. I also
Subscribe to and read the online edition of 'Coral' magazine. I would like
to see many more magazines offer digital editions at a reduced subscription
rate to account for savings in postage, paper and other cost savings. I also
buy single digital issues of some magazines when I want a specific issue but
do not want to subscribe - 'National Geographic', for example.
What got me going digital was the book 'Swarm'. I was trying to read the
hard bound edition in bed and holding all 1400 or so pages was getting
tiresome. Looked around and bought a Sony reader and the digital edition of
Swarm. I now have more than five dozen or so books plus magazines,
individual articles on PC, the Sony reader and a Barnes & Noble reader I got
dirt cheap and hacked into an Android device that also gives me wi-fi. Then
there are the tens of thousands of FREE books through Google ...
Take a look at Zinio for some examples of online magazines.
http://www.zinio.com/
Larry Blanchard
> Thinking back to '101 Track Plans', I believe Westcott was doing the
> same thing way back then.
I think your memory is like mine - elusive :-).
I just went through Linn's book and did not find any plan with structures
labeled or numbered. So of course I found no legends :-).
What I did see was a lot more text and sepia backgrounds suggesting
possible scenery and structures which I think Lynn added to the bare
track plans. All good. I did see quite a few "bowl of spaghetti" plans,
but those were popular back then.
BTW, I keep swearing I'm going to build plan 47 "Cerro Azul" although
I'll probably bend the "U" the other way and add a backdrop down the
middle. So far I've not gotten a round tuit.
Lobby Dosser
> On Fri, 27 May 2011 12:43:37 -0700, Lobby Dosser wrote:
>
>> Thinking back to '101 Track Plans', I believe Westcott was doing the
>> same thing way back then.
>
> I think your memory is like mine - elusive :-).
>
> I just went through Linn's book and did not find any plan with structures
> labeled or numbered. So of course I found no legends :-).
No, no, I meant he recycled a bunch of stuff from old MRs.
>
> What I did see was a lot more text and sepia backgrounds suggesting
> possible scenery and structures which I think Lynn added to the bare
> track plans. All good. I did see quite a few "bowl of spaghetti" plans,
> but those were popular back then.
One of my favorite all time layouts was in the hobby shop in downtown
Toledo, Ohio around 1953 or so. A regular rabbit warren! You never knew
where a train was going to pop up once it plunged into yet another tunnel.
The 'museum' layout he includes in that book was in the museum building at
the Toledo Zoo. You watched all the action from a balcony.
>
> BTW, I keep swearing I'm going to build plan 47 "Cerro Azul" although
> I'll probably bend the "U" the other way and add a backdrop down the
> middle. So far I've not gotten a round tuit.
I always liked that one. My thought was to jack up the north end a bit so
that I could have a lower level continuous run.
Larry Blanchard
>> BTW, I keep swearing I'm going to build plan 47 "Cerro Azul" although
>> I'll probably bend the "U" the other way and add a backdrop down the
>> middle. So far I've not gotten a round tuit.
>
> I always liked that one. My thought was to jack up the north end a bit
> so that I could have a lower level continuous run.
In "Track Planning for Realistic Operation", Page 81, John Armstrong does
exactly that. He even shows staging tracks.
Lobby Dosser
> On Fri, 27 May 2011 23:37:10 -0700, Lobby Dosser wrote:
>
>>> BTW, I keep swearing I'm going to build plan 47 "Cerro Azul" although
>>> I'll probably bend the "U" the other way and add a backdrop down the
>>> middle. So far I've not gotten a round tuit.
>>
>> I always liked that one. My thought was to jack up the north end a bit
>> so that I could have a lower level continuous run.
>
> In "Track Planning for Realistic Operation", Page 81, John Armstrong does
> exactly that. He even shows staging tracks.
>
Thanks. I'll check the library for that.
ray
Nice resource - thanks for the link.
Wolf K
> Were the publishers getting rich as a result of these high prices the
> rants would have some justification, but the fact is that they're just
> holding on by their fingernails, and many small publishing houses such
> as Carstens and Kalmbach have already gone under.
>
> Welcome to the future.
Huh????? Carstens and Kalmbach are still here, last I looked.
But you're right about commercial printing/publishing. You'll note that
from time to time people come here asking for on-line resources, when a
trip to the local library would have answered their questions before
they even asked them.
Wolf K.
Wolf K
And I think you've forgotten the fact that proofreaders have gone the
way of the dodo, because after all, we have spellcheckers now, right?
Wolf K.
Wolf K
> I think you missed my point. It costs money to employ quality proof
> readers.
>
> Money that the small publishers no longer have to spare.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------
>
> Do you read any none American hobby magazines? You should.
>
> MR claims it is the world's largest model railroad magazine yet the UK
> "Railway Modeller" has, on average, twice or more pages of articles, has
> more in-depth articles, doesn't try and force you into becoming a subscriber
> by limiting additional article content to subscriber only web pages and
> doesn't issue "special editions" in order to maximise profit as MR does
> with "Great Model Railroads" and it's other annuals. Railway Modeller is
> also book bound and not stapled like MR, has all advertising in the front
> and rear with none in the middle of articles making it easier and cheaper to
> have bound as you can remove the advertising pages. And costs slightly
> less.
>
> I've also seen Japanese model railroad magazines that are similar in size
> and content to "Railway Modeller", that have more article pages than MR and
> more in depth articles.
All true, but the economics are different in the UK. For one thing, the
advertisers can afford regular, highly-detailed ads (mini-catalogues
really) which pay for the mag, because the deep discounting that rages
here hasn't quite caught on there. And becsaue the Roytal Mail still
subsidises magazine mail, the subscriptions are enough to cover the
clerical costs of maintenance the list, which is not the case here. (The
costs of maintaining a list are rather more than the uninitiated imagine.)
Also, the articles in Railway Modeller are written almost entirely by
contributors, not staff. They tend to be written to a formula, which
gets pretty boring. I mean, after you've read the 33rd list of
locomotives, you wonder why you bother. I rarely read the articles any
more, the pictures tell the story. I suspect that the contributors don't
get much pay.
Wolf K.
ray
Interesting concept - but, our library has zero resources regarding model
railroading - I've looked.
ray
We also have grammar checkers which, apparently, are seldom used.
Roger Traviss
> But you're right about commercial printing/publishing. You'll note that
> from time to time people come here asking for on-line resources, when a
> trip to the local library would have answered their questions before they
> even asked them.
To those people, who I consider too lazy too do their own research, I'd like
to send these links: -
Or if they are really lazy: -
Wolf K
I've used the ones that came with the word processor. It is a very dim
bulb indeed.
Wolf K.
None
>
> We also have grammar checkers which, apparently, are seldom used.-
That is just the sort of nonsense up with which I shall not put.
Roger Traviss
That is just the sort of nonsense up with which I shall not put.
----------------------------------------
Yes Yoda.
Larry Blanchard
> And I think you've forgotten the fact that proofreaders have gone the
> way of the dodo, because after all, we have spellcheckers now, right?
I didn't forget it, I was lamenting the loss :-).
Larry Blanchard
> Interesting concept - but, our library has zero resources regarding
> model railroading - I've looked.
Must be a pretty small library. Ours, in a medium size county, has about
a dozen books and a subscription to MR. You do know that most libraries
will order stuff that people ask for if the budget allows, don't you?
ray
> On Sun, 29 May 2011 01:18:02 +0000, ray wrote:
>
>> Interesting concept - but, our library has zero resources regarding
>> model railroading - I've looked.
>
> Must be a pretty small library. Ours, in a medium size county, has
> about a dozen books and a subscription to MR. You do know that most
> libraries will order stuff that people ask for if the budget allows,
> don't you?
Yes, I know that. I know ours did - but they seem to be having a rather
rocky time with a new director - I don't know how they are now.
Lobby Dosser
news:4921dbec-a296-4998...@k17g2000vbn.googlegroups.com...
On May 28, 9:19 pm, ray <r...@zianet.com> wrote:
>
> We also have grammar checkers which, apparently, are seldom used.-
That is just the sort of nonsense up with which I shall not put.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Nor sword sleep in my hand ...
Lobby Dosser
news:94dihq...@mid.individual.net...
Click through to their advertisers, it helps keep them alive. Tell your
friends!
Twibil
>
>
> Nor sword sleep in my hand ...
There's naught worse than a literate model railroader, but, on the
whole, I prefer "At last! My arm is whole again!"
-Sweeny Todd
Rich
some of the articles. Google Books searches and regular Google
searches can find all kinds of layout ideas. No need to do useless
Rants unless bored and need attention.
They are looking for articles if bored and need something to do.
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/community
r
2brkt2b
--
For full context, visit https://www.polytechforum.com/trains/mr-track-plans-67165-.htm
Dumas Walker
> t
> 7
> HO Civil War. MR used to be fun to read and I read every scale, now it is a
> wa
prefer Model Railroad Craftsman, but I do still take them both.
* SLMR 2.1a * Pass the tequila, Manuel...