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bmwr71

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Been a long time subscriber to Garden Railways. Used to love it and would consume the content in a few sittings. Seems these days I consume the content in less than a sitting. Seems to me that there may be less pages, bigger pictures and titles, and other ploys to fill pages, with little information. And then going from 6 per year to 4 per year. I admit I have not pulled out my old ones to compare to the new ones, but seems the change of ownership has lead to lower value. It is still a source for what is new in the G world, but there isn't all that much out there.

Time for my renewal.Think my last subscription was for like 3 years and only see now for one year. Kind of feeling that I should just every 3 months stop in the book store and leaf through the latest copy of GR and probably read all the valuable content in it and decide if it is a keeper or not.

Wadda you guys think on that?

I know, support the hobby and all of that but i still want value for my money. Seems like Gr needs to put on the cover, 'Some settling may occur during shipping" so people won't be disappointed when they open the box and find it is half empty.

Doug
 
#2 ·
Doug;

With Marc Horovitz gone, I am in a similar dilemma. I get the feeling that Kalmbach Publishing is now BIG Business and has lost touch with its readers. I have until the next winter issue, but am leaning strongly towards not renewing.

Regards, David Meashey
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
TV is a vast wasteland and end up watching things just because nothing else is on. Have watched some of those restaurant rescue shows where the restaurant is doing poorly so instead of improving things to try and get customers in, they try to cut corners to save money and end up making the restaurant worse and maybe that keeps customers from returning. I wonder if that is kind of the situation GR is in. I am sure GR does not have the readership that say Model Railroader has and they have decided to cut back on the quality to save money. I would also assume that the Kalmbach people aren't hardly as much G scale oriented as Horowitz was. G is new to them and I am sure they don't print hardly as many magazines as Model Railroader, so just create a little content every 3 months and add big pictures and titles and such to take up space and reduce the magazine page count and figure nobody will notice and will keep buying the magazine. And I know the G world is not as big as HO and N, but Kalmbach needs to hire some real G writers with a love of the hobby to keep the magazine going. Also saw where they claimed that the use on Internet makes the paper magazine less attractive and that the value is in the website subscriber only content. I hardly have time to get on this group, let alone search through their site. This group does it for me for Internet G stuff.

Doug
 
#5 · (Edited)
And I know the G world is not as big as HO and N, but Kalmbach needs to hire some real G writers with a love of the hobby to keep the magazine going.
Click to expand...
The new editor doesn't seem to be much of an expert. But then one of my complaints was always that they dumbed everything down!

The real issue, which you missed, is that younger folk (a) don't read magazines and (b) don't play trains. So as us old f***s die off, there's no-one to take our place and buy more magazines. Unfortunately I see far too many estate sales on the various buy/sell/swap sites.

Haven't you noticed that every website is now "mobile friendly"? The menu is just 3 little bars on one side. THis site has a version that works well on tablets, etc. I use it when traveling.

And you don't have to watch TV. You could work on your trains, or even read a magazine.
 
#7 ·
I see your points, specially for an already very knowledgeable reader. But from my new to the hobby perspective, I've found Garden Railway be be a great resource.It's a good source of curated, quality information on the hobby. The alternative of web searches of forums often results in great information. However, it can more often results in dated and incorrect information from years ago ... IMHO. Of course, that's not particularly a good reason for you to renew. It's just a good reason for me to renew and hope others do as well to keep it going. Perhaps if they could find a way to increase content that more seasoned hobbyists would find use. Seems like letters to the Garden Railway editor might be useful.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
When I got into G many years ago, it wasn't to relive my childhood with trains, but it was to have yard decoration that wasn't woman oriented like a goose in an apron or kissing Dutch boy and girl. The fairy garden thing seems popular these days and a Birdwater and Raspberry approach to garden railroading would fit right in with that. I have seen in Garden Railroading where they used some fairy garden stuff, but no article on say some real whimsical railroading. If they could get some of those buyers on board, maybe they would think it was worth doing more with the magazine instead of letting it deteriorate.

Seems to me, instead of getting writers that are real G people, they are just using their regular HO and N people. Kind of like having outsiders write.

Doug
 
#9 ·
bmwr71 said:
Seems to me, instead of getting writers that are real G people, they are just using their regular HO and N people. Kind of like having outsiders write.

Doug
Click to expand...
This is a point I was going to raise...
Having contributed to the mag myself a while back (article and online vids), I feel its up to us as a G community to keep it alive and write for GR. Its only going to get thinner, like our hair, if we dont help it out.

The knowledge of members in this forum is worthy of print.

Cheers
Rob


Youtube: Addleoo Bush Tramway
 
#11 ·
Years ago I stopped subscribing for economic reasons and it no longer taught me much and when Aristo went under so did my purchases of new equipment ...

I know a fellow who wrote an article, rewrote it to satisfy the editor and it was never published.

Clam-bake is a funny company, they are driving me away from Classic Trains with crappy short features and a blurb advertising a Special Edition mag with everything I expected in CT!
Such a deal.
 
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Discussion starter · #12 ·
I could imagine that if GR went under that some industrious person would decide to make their own magazine, just like Marc did years ago and perhaps it would grow,

I do think that model railroading isn't very appealing to younger people. With computers, game consoles, and phones, people can be transported to imaginary worlds without any effort. And those wolds can be fantastic and fit right into someone's pocket. But I think of model railroading as a sort of folk art and an outlet for creativity.mind expansion, tension relief skill building and the like.

Doug
 
#13 ·
I echo what John said, it irks me when instead of making the magazine better and then perhaps charging more, they want to effectively charge more (fewer issues, special editions) and then if we give them money, they may improve...


Any product must be worth the asking price for now, this is not speculation unless they want to issue stock in the company in exchange for investing in the future.


Greg
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
Just read an email that said Garden Railways was coming to an end with the fall issue. Claimed that Model Railroader would have the content on garden railroading (probably very little) and would be online stuff. They killed it. They did a poor job and killed the magazine that lasted for years.

Doug
 
#15 ·
RIP GR, I cancelled my subscription some time before 2000, after about one decade of subscription. These were the exciting days, when there was not much available in hardware, but there was a lot of excitement arount it. Later years, after 2000 brought more hardware but the spirit was not there anymore. I moved to live steam and never regretted it. Best wishes from Indors, Zubi
 
#18 ·
After some while - I gave up trying to Log In here - I have managed to get in. This site was using an older mail address etc.
Regarding GR, well, I lost interest when the type of product (Aristo) that I used to buy ceased to be made and consequently stopped buying it.

I have never bought Model Railroader but I have found the MR Forum interesting especially the thread about prototype information of railroads.
 
#19 ·
Important to note that the recent MR issues were already set in terms of content before the announcement of GR's closure. I wouldn't expect to see any garden railroad related content working its way into the magazine until probably the next issue or the one following that, given production lead time. When I talked to Hal (GR's editor), he said the plan for garden railroad content in MR was still up in the air. He indicated he had plenty of material to supply to them, but didn't know how often it would appear.

Having said that, I'm not optimistic about garden railroad related articles being a regular enough feature in the magazine to attract subscribers. I suspect most will flip through MR at the magazine rack, and if they see something garden-related, may pick up that issue. I would highly doubt MR would run anything specifically related to plants like Nancy's columns. Railroad features and projects, yes, but the gardening side of things? Definitely not in MR's wheelhouse.

Later,

K
 
#20 · (Edited)
Local Clubs "Step Up" to the Plate

It may be of interest....

With the demise of Garden Railways Magazine, a "task force" of 27 members from 13 of the garden railroading clubs in five states have banded together to create a new on-line publication. Marc has also been involved, but is stepping aside due to health reasons.

This publication is aimed toward the garden railroading/large scale clubs (IIRC, 112 clubs now identified), but I put forth that many people on the forums have contributed to the magazine, were sad to see it go, and may not have any club affiliation. Therefore, there will also be the allowance for "Members at Large" with no club affiliation. There is no charge for the download.

The magazine will include vendor support, so all of those "Mom and Pop Shops" will have someplace to advertise their wares at very reasonable cost (and initially free).

To wit, it will be noted here as to where people will be able to download the magazine. The first issue is now complete and will be available by the end of the month.
 
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