I Was Just Wondering....

[scubadude]

As I was thumbing through old MRRs last night scouring for ideas, it came to me that many of THE Gaugers' work is certainly more than worthy to grace the covers and pages of not only MRR, but any of the industry magazines. Many names come to mind....Dr. Wayne, CNNutbar, Deano, Brakie, Ralph, Trainnut, EZDays andthe list goes on and on...

My question is, have any of THE Gaugers submitted pics or articles, and if not, why not??? The work on this forum is as good as anywhere...

ps - there are many more others than those I named, please forgive me if you feel slighted, these are just the names I can recall off the top of my head .....

[RonP]

Thing is as you look at those old mags you will see guides and information on contributing. you don't find that anymore. Another thing is some of us wouldn't want our work scrutinized by rivet counters so we stick to people just like us.

[TrainNut]

First off, thank you highly for your compliment. However, I never thought of my work as being worthy enough to appear in any magazine and second, even if it was, I don't feel like jumping through all the hoops to make that happen.
On a seperate but related note, I did however, just notice that one of the members of our local club got two pictures of his home layout published in the 2008 N&Z Walthers catalogue.

[Mountain Man]

I'm a follower of that old adage: "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

[Chaparral]

In my little pea brain, I see all our great modellers and members sniggering at the 'great' articles and layouts in MRR mags. Whut-Ever!

When I open this site, there is no avalanche of advertising blow-ins, special edition stapled page stiffening offers, multiple subscription cards, inane & meaningless 'letters to the editor', and just plain crap falling all over the floor in the den.
The one BIG problem is, I can't read the forums in the loo, so I don't spend much time there anymore.

[Mountain Man]

Originally Posted by Chaparral

In my little pea brain, I see all our great modellers and members sniggering at the 'great' articles and layouts in MRR mags. Whut-Ever!

When I open this site, there is no avalanche of advertising blow-ins, special edition stapled page stiffening offers, multiple subscription cards, inane & meaningless 'letters to the editor', and just plain crap falling all over the floor in the den.
The one BIG problem is, I can't read the forums in the loo, so I don't spend much time there anymore.

Laptop!

I have taken to glancing quickly though the mag to decide if it's worth purchasing. Regretfully, I am purchasing fewer and fewer, which is why I don't subscribe.

I can't fault the magazines too much, though; hobbyists are not coming up with much that's new right now. At best, they are refining the current techniques over and over again.

[TrainNut]

Originally Posted by Chaparral

The one BIG problem is, I can't read the forums in the loo, so I don't spend much time there anymore.

What, no wireless laptop?
EDIT: Mountain Man, you beat me to it by less than a minute!

[Mountain Man]

Originally Posted by TrainNut

What, no wireless laptop?
EDIT: Mountain Man, you beat me to it by less than a minute!

I figured that would be everyone's natural response!

However, for those who really care, they do make geriatric easy chairs with built-in bedpans! You don't have to leave your computer...

[scubadude]

I don't mean to debate the worthiness of the magazines themselves, I just found it odd to see all the talent here, and have never seen anyone from THE Gauge with pictures published.....I think at least one person would want their work showcased in a magazine....

ps - rivet counters are everywhere including one or two on this forum...

[yellowlynn]

Originally Posted by scubadude

I don't mean to debate the worthiness of the magazines themselves, I just found it odd to see all the talent here, and have never seen anyone from THE Gauge with pictures published.....I think at least one person would want their work showcased in a magazine....

ps - rivet counters are everywhere including one or two on this forum...

There you go, Scubadude. That PS is talking about me again

However, back at least 6-8 years ago, I was reading a MR mag, and they were telling about taking photos of a layout. It appeared to be a great layout, until............ . Seems they took some photos and decided pictures showed a lot of flaws that weren't seen before. So, PROFESSIONAL modelers build a bunch more trees, did a lot of touchups, and PROFESSIONAL photographers did lighting, and all the garbage that goes with it. Got good pictures, and made a fine layout, BUT, and I do mean BUT, what I have seen on this forum equals, or surpasses it.

I am definitely inferring, or downright saying, that we have modelers of all kinds, and photographers, that are as good as any.

I do a lot of lurking, and spouting off on ocassion, but I would put this group up against the best of them at any time. And noobies needn't feel ashamed or embarrassed, for their work also appears to be outstanding, with all things considered.

(I think I put a nickles worth of thought in on this)

Lynn

[bigsteel]

i dont know if you guys noticed but 2 members here DID get in a mag. Hminky got into RMC for his rusting water tank bands i believe last month and shamus was in numerous narrow gauge and O scale mags for his layouts. athough,i do agree that alot of our memebrs work is easily good enough to make it into a mag along with there great tutorials.--josh

[Ralph]

Thanks for that reminder Josh! Actually I've been published in Model Railroader....it was a cartoon! Its in the November 1992 issue on page 74. For a while I thought it would be fun for this amateur cartoonist to have a gag published in a real magazine. Since I figured the New Yorker might be a challenge I sent some to MR which at the time had two cartoons in most issues.

Oddly enough they chose the toon I thought was the least funny. It had several images of the same modeler (in the obligatory engineer's cap) with a hand held throttle. The caption read, "Careful placement of mirrors can create the illusion of more operators on busy open house nights" . I drew it at a time when mirrors had been mentioned a few times in previous issues.

Once seeing a cartoon in print I was satisfied and didn't send them anymore.
I draw doodles for friends when I have an inspiration to make them laugh.

While I don't see my layout work as "magazine worthy" I'd have to agree that I see several daily examples of modeling that could easily grace the pages of the major hobby magazines.

Ralph

[eightyeightfan1]

I did submitt an article for "consideration" to Model Railroader once. An article about a building I scratchbuilt when I was in N scale. Back in the mid '90's.
I got rejected......

As far as the guidlines for submitting an article to them, you can find it on their website.

[steamhead]

I believe a couple of months ago, one of the members (whose name escapes me just now....) in the O-Gauge forums got a couple of pictures published in the Toy Trains mag.
For sure, there are modelers here that rival any published anywhere...And we get to "talk" to them....
Now what could be better than that....

[slekjr]

My penny's worth:
The problem with print media, and it is not new, is errors.
I recently purchased two books written by local authors about railroad history. I know there was a lot of time and effort put into writing these books, but even with my limited knowledge I found some pretty big errors that will now go down in history as fact. At least with some of the magazines corrections are printed the next issue or two, but by then it may be too late. It's like one of the old M.A.S.H. episodes where they were reading instructions on defusing a bomb and following it step by step. as in cut wire.......but first be sure you do this! .
One example I discovered tonight was in the wiki about E9's.
They were talking about all the named trains they pulled and included the PRR Broadway Limited, which just wasn't so as the PRR didn't buy E9's, and the E9 roster on the same page didn't list PRR either, so it was just a minor slip, but without a correction some modeler elsewhere would argue that PRR used them.
On this forum the information is accurate, and if not, corrections are tactfully made by other members, Not a lot of dribble, just good corrections, and a chance to discuss what was, or should be. None of us are perfect, And members of the gauge know that. Lets hope we never get perfect.
And like anything else, to be published it helps to be known.
Frankly all of you guys and gals are better.
Charlie