Carstens Publications Ceases Operations

I first heard about the possibility of this on this forum last week in a topic that got zapped.

I'm very sorry to see them go I subscribed to them along with some other magazines including OGR and always enjoyed reading about the work of my fellow hobbiests on a regular basis. I will miss their articles on scratch building specific prototypes as well as the well researched history's of rail related industry which they covered very well. Keith Willis' Collector's Consist was aways a favorite of mine. I love the obscure, early and  odd toys and models he covered in the column. I wish they would have collected them into a book I would have bought it. 

I'll miss this one. 

Hal Carstens was one of the hobby industry GREATS, and so were his publications, many of which reside in my personal library. 

I know we live in a very competitive times and all magazines are competing for our dollars, and right now, there just us not enough. I sell Honda, and believe me, there is a lot of Competition. We will miss Hal Carsten's Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine.

Thanks for the Years of Great Reading, Great Picture Stories of Great Layouts, Great Layout Ideas, and just Good Humor. We will miss You.

Carstens WAS digital. They have their own app. I subscribed to RMC, Railfan & Railroad, and Flying models and have several years of back issues on my iPad right now.

IMHO, the killer for them was the huge success that Model Railroad Hobbyist is having. It is an absolutely free magazine with a huge amount of content with a digital only model.

Yeah, hate to see them go. My RMC reading has been spotty, but they have offered some

interesting books, and simply were another source of train info. I have subscribed

to RMC and R&R, but not consistently. I had a little trouble ordering books, in the past

2 years (orders phoned in, but they never appeared...wasn't charged, though).

All in all, I get/got less out of MR and RMC than OGR and CTT, but still and all...

I'm still smarting from the loss of Mainline Modeler, which was a magazine that was

less layout and more rolling stock/locomotive oriented - as am I. I look at the

photos, but I seldom read a layout article.

Somebody or sombodies  (hm-m-m-m-m) should keep R&R and RMC alive. I'll

re-subscribe if you do!

Didn't they do the original "Toy Train" magazine, then combine it with RMC. Don

I hate to see a long-time publication pull up their roots. While I did enjoy reading their articles whenever I could. It was only a matter of time.

I sincerely hope that OGR does not follow down the same road. I'm able to enjoy each edition of OGR because my longtime friend is home only ten-days every month.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Only my opinion. I think before the present owner of OGR took over the magazine, it was headed for trouble. I remember picking it up a couple of times. It was small and into two rail mostly. I think two things happened at once. Scale three rail and Rich. It worked out well. I feel like the magazine is loose on it's feet, easy to change with the times. I also feel, it's our magazine. The Forum brings it all together. Again, I don't know anything about the inner workings but that's just my opinion. Don

I have a question about Model Railroad Hobbyist. If it's not published why present it like a magazine. It looks like it was shot with a Iphone. Present it horizontal like your computer screen. It's hard to read. I think their format is wrong. Not interested. 

Don

OGR is healthy and we're not going anywhere. We are not getting rich, but we're paying our bills and keeping the lights on. It has occasionally been a struggle. Jim, Ed and I (all partners in the company) have missed a few paychecks along the way, but thankfully not too many. OGR "Adman" Alan Arnold has brought in a lot of new ad revenue for us in the last year, and that has helped a LOT. Wait til you see Run 274!

Don, you give me too much credit.

I think you are correct in your assessment that the magazine was headed for trouble when we bought it back in 2002. However, our success over the last 12 years is due to the efforts of our great team of people, not just me. I am blessed to work with some of the most competent, professional, pleasant and dedicated people you could ever hope to meet. And everyone on the OGR staff has played a role in our success in one way or another.

We are a small but mighty outfit! Our staff consists of:

• Yours Truly - Publisher, President and CEO
  Business admin, video production, web site design and admin, forum admin and in-house IT guy
• Jim Barrett - Vice President/Partner
  Backshop Foreman and Special Projects - Cincinnati
• Ed Boyle - Vice President/Partner
  Collector's Gallery Column and Special Projects
• Allan Miller - Editor-in-Chief
  Allan's editorial efforts have made OGR magazine a leader in this industry
• George Brown - Associate Editor - Georgetown, Texas
  Product Reviews, Copy Proofing and The Helper column
• Alan Arnold - Advertising Sales Manager
  You can blame all those forum banner ads on "The Adman." 
• Don Pedicini - Ad Production Manager
  Don makes our own ads look good, along with about half of our clients' ads, too!
• Kitty Brown - Copy Proofing - Georgetown, Texas
  Kitty and George make us look good in print by making sure we follow our style book and don't make any grammatical errors.
• Cari Fanta - Product and Warehouse Manager
  Fast shipping of on-line orders and good inventory management of our products. Now that our new web store is with Amazon, she is really working hard to keep up with your orders!
• Linda Melvin - Accounting and Subscription Management
  The Lovely and Gracious Linda (my wife) handles most of your subscription questions and makes sure we don't spend all our money in one place.
• Derek Thomas - does a GREAT job maintaining our Facebook page.

We also owe a tremendous debt of thanks to folks like you who have made this forum the biggest and best place on the internet to talk about O Gauge Trains!

Well stated Rich. I also very much agree with Lee's statement about Darwin.

The truth is that I continue to subscribe to OGR (electronic version now) out of loyalty. Brian's recent post on the topic really hit the mark. Do I NEED the magazine? No. Much of what is covered in the print version is on the Forum. Earlier (faster), interactive (a big deal) and cheaper. I'm sure that Allan knows that, and I believe he really does try to work around it. But it doesn't alter the truth about traditional print -- it's being replaced.

Going back to Brian's post about loyalty, I believe that the Forum has increased that for OGR. For those of us who go to York, we get to meet and know the OGR family. For those who don't, you get to interact on the Forum and I think that the interaction with Rich, Allan, Jim, the Adman, et al., is very important in building loyalty that keeps one a subscriber.

Gerry

Terrible, terrible news.  RMC was the first publication I bought when I returned to the hobby c. 1970.

If you are doing OK you will not understand that many out there are not. While wall street is doing fine for those of us fortunate enough to have come through the good life there are lots of young families and individuals under employed or not employed at all. Main Street with disposable income are NOT doing well at all.

I have survived 20+  years in newspaper publishing. In that time, I have seen newspapers reduce the number of days publish, consolidate with other newspapers to maintain a presence, or simply vanish.

Whether its a magazine, newspaper or other periodical, the new model is becoming digital first/print secondary. My company recently 'reorganized' itself into a 'media' company, promoting - as I call it - digital first/print secondary model. Fortunately, the market where I am based, one cannot survive without the other, as the print portion still commands a significant audience.

Carstens is based in New Jersey, which everyone knows is not the easiest place to own a business, much less live. Coupled with the weather and infrastructure problems I can understand the situation, as my former company was dealt the same blows. 

What surprises me is that if they saw this coming, why they didn't begin to shop their tiles around, looking for a new suitor that could position the magazine(s) a little better or provide better printing/distribution.

I really hate to see them go.  They started in the halcyon days of the 1930s.  They started out about the same time or a little earlier than Model Railroader.  In fact RMC was originally called "Model Railroad Craftsman" but it was changed due to similarity of names with Model Railroader.  I subscribe to Model Railroader to keep abreast of hobby news but I subscribed to RMC because they published more steam era and historical stuff.  Also I actually read the articles and I enjoy a sort of folksiness lacking now in most other venues.  Oh well RMC was there for eighty years and they printed lots of narrow gauge articles and drawings and old time steam era (fond memories from my childhood) material all of which reside snugly in my archives and my memories....and my heart.  Gosh I hope they survive.   Odd-d      BTW they never did pay me for my last article in On30 Annual.  That's life I guess.

A lot of the replies here lay the "blame" for Carstens' demise on the digital world and the competition it created for magazines.  I really think it has more to do with issues like DaveP mentioned - business climate where they are located, etc., and mostly the people - I've seen good ideas wither and a few bad ideas sustain themselves because the people are just not that talented, or geniuses at running a business.  

Many magazines are thriving and without going to far into the digital world - I'm thinking in particular of Road and Track and Car and Driver, both of which I have subscribed to for just now going on fifty years.  I've watched the quality and volume of each wax and wane over the years as really great editors and general managers come and go, but both continue to thrive today even in the face of greater competition, and neither has really gone "digital" that much.  While I liked Carsten's publications (I don't think there was ever any RR publication I did not like), there were many I liked much more - I sort of think that is really where the issue lies, fundamentally.

It is always sad to hear of storied company closing their doors.  They will certainly be missed in the hobby world.

I sure hope someone steps in and makes a go of it.

Losing these magazines is sad for the hobby world. But barring an acquisition it will be the employees who will suffer the most.  I don't know where they are located or what the job market is there.  It is probably true that jobs are being created. That assumes you are willing to work for minimum wage and less than 30 hours a week. If so then you will do OK.

I wish them well.

Ed

BTW, I think Rich & Co. have done an excellent job with OGR - but there have been a couple of turning points in the past couple of decades.

If I remember correctly, Myron Biggar made the biggest transition from a moribund pub. to something like the present OGR.  

We're lucky to have OGR, CTT, MR.  Support them and their advertisers!

Lee, while I would agree with you as to the need to adapt to changing times, I don't think that was Carstens' primary issue.  Print media in general is in decline.  Modeling (trains, planes, miniatures, whatever) generally needs a print basis because people don't (usually) have a computer on their (ahem) messy modeling bench (maybe I should speak for myself here.  ).  Given the information that came out later regarding cash flow, weather / climate conditions, publishing supplier, and the general decline in the modeling population, it really seems as if Carstens was caught in a perfect storm of events.  Throw in the death of the founder, and the result is a Don Meredith rendition of "Turn Out The Lights (the party's over)".

I really do hope some of the magazines are picked up by other publishers.

George

There are a few 'Truths' in Rich's statement that are proven to be universal in the hooby business.

1. OGR is healthy and we're not going anywhere. We are not getting rich, but we're paying our bills and keeping the lights on.

I have the privilege of working in the plastic hobby business. We say it all the time.....Nobody's getting rich but we are moving forward. Pretty much the goal in the hobby biz. Keep the doors open with a decent product. 

2. However, our success over the last 12 years is due to the efforts of our great team of people, not just me. I am blessed to work with some of the most competent, professional, pleasant and dedicated people you could ever hope to meet. And everyone on the OGR staff has played a role in our success in one way or another.

Another proven truth. If every company worked together, with the skill and dedication we do....with no ego's in the way......there is no stopping them! We are a little smaller than even OGR staff.....but everyone I work with is a PRO. It is a vital component.

IT can be done today.....but like almost all things big changes are required to stay on top and relevant.  Sounds like OGR is doing the same thing we try to do.

I think you are missing the point. It is available in many different formats that are custom tailored to the device that you are using. Their photos are very high definition and allow you to zoom in to see great detail. It is a fantastic magazine.

Recently they had an article about them overtaking RMC as the #2 most widely read general model railroad magazine.

I had long since canceled my print subscription to OGR. I just don't have room for all those printed back issues that I never wind up reading again. Only recently when the digital library became available did I subscribe again. I store all my digital magazine subscriptions in the cloud so I have access from anywhere I may be. I find that I read them many more times than a print version. I seem to read previous issues more than before too. It also comes in really handy for travel nights in hotels.

This may be a generational thing, but I feel exactly opposite. As I mentioned above I have access to literally years of several magazines on my iPad. I would absolutely rather have one iPad to read magazines and watch tutorial "how-to" videos while at my workbench or doing scenery. I actually used my digital subscription to RMC in that exact fashion.

Probably is a generational thing or maybe a self-incriminating statement on messiness. 

I'm not technologically averse.  I do store lots of documents and publications electronically, and all my drawings and plans are electronic in nature.  I haven't yet adopted the practice of reading most documents via a Kindle or tablet, but that's probably a matter of time.  Old dog needs some new tricks. 

George

Sorry to see this about Carstens. Back in my HO days I subscribed to RMC. I was subscriber to Railroad magazine and when Carstens picked it up and combined it with Railfan I kept subscribing. I always like the Carstens staff better than the "K" guys at the other magazine. Model Railroader always seemed too full of themselves. I never got that from Carstens magazines.

Hate to admit it, but I haven't subscribed to any model train magazines in years, but I still have a bunch of of back issues of RMC that I pull out and go through from time to time.

I feel like I am hearing news of a death of an old friend.  My dad has read RMC for as long as I remember (30 years) - I don't have the heart to tell him the bad news.  

I noticed Railfan & Railroad was getting very short in the last few issues - but RMC seemed healthy with plenty of advertisements.  Hopefully RMC or both magazines (and the good folks who worked on them) can find a new home soon.

In all my years of model railroading, I might have looked at a couple of Railroad Model Craftsman and none of their other publications. Still, I don't like to see any business fail for whatever reason. Both OGR and CTT are two hobby magazines that seem to have the savvy to keep pace with today's uncertainties. I wish both continued success and I hope I never have speak about either in the past tense.

For many years, Railroad Model Craftsman had a section that I believe was called "Tinplate Topics".  That alone was a good reason to buy the magazine. 

Of course, when they bought the old standby magazine, "Railroad" which was originally aimed at professional railroaders; that brought them into competition with "Trains" magazine.  the merger of "Railfan" into the new "Railfan and Railroad" magazine brought them into a strong market of modern day railroad enthusiasts.  The guy that carried this all through and made it happen was Hal Carstens, the publisher.  Hal died just a few years ago and his son Henry Carstens was next in line to take over.

Railfan and Raillroad magazine was a good publication, covering issues and items of interest that kalmbach with their "Trains" magazine missed.  Especially during the Jim Boyd years, I always felt that it had great content that I just couldn't get anywhere else.  When Jim retired and then passed away just a few years ago, I felt that the new management wasn't up to the challenge, although I continued my subscription all through the years.  I never felt that Henry Carstens had much interest in the magazine, other than the fact that it was an old, family owned business that provided an income.

While I haven't had much interest in RMC for many years, I will certainly miss R&R and sincerly hope that another company will take over that niche in the business.

Paul Fischer

Maybe they could combine a make 1 work.

but i don't understand the comment about current economic conditions. i thought the economy was doing fine according to the media. seriously hope they find a buyer. 

I don't blame the economy as much as I blame the changing times. Print Media is rapidly dissapearing. Printed Mags will be gone. Ipad, phone and computer downloads will be the norm. I know some of you will not like that but it is a fact. Librarys will also I am affraid dissapear too. All my music, movies, newspapers, TV and books I already get on my Ipad or Kindle. Many of you read OGR (as I do) on it and even place your orders on it. Already in the world there are Magazines and papers that ONLY are available this way. The way we live and do business is changing. 10 years ago we spent 1900.00 a month on a yellowpages ad. Today we spend nothing on it. We even don't accept the big books when someone brings them around.

Hate to see this happen.I have fond memories of meeting Hal Carstens at York many years ago.Nat Polk introduced us. It was 1981 or 82.Very interesting fellow.

Get a flash drive or a portable hard drive. Also you can use a cloud service.

This is a tangent off the main subject here, but since it keeps coming up . . .

Print Media is rapidly disappearing. 

I hope not.

I am a premium member on the OGR Forum and I like being able to electronically preview the next issue of the magazine, but I still look forward to the paper copy arriving in the mail. What I love and enjoy the most is just being able to sit back and read the paper issue cover to cover.

The premium membership is a great value.  Being able to see videos is enjoyable, the additional photos are super, but the greatest enjoyment of all for me remains being able to read the paper magazine. 

I recall certain wags saying that TV would be the end of radio, and slot cars the end of model railroading, so I am cautiously hopeful that print media will survive too.  My old eyes really don't like looking at a screen for too long whereas I can read paper media for hours.  I just hope the subject of my plea does not meet the same fate as that in "Don't take my Kodachrome away."

I did have a subscription to RMC and I will miss it fiercely if indeed this is the end of the line.

Very sad news to hear. I have been reading every issue of RMC since I purchase the Dec. 1956 issue. Charlie

You don't have an off-site backup program? OUCH!

IDrive.com is your friend. You can get 5 gigs of space free or 500 gigs for about $40 a year. VERY cheap insurance.

We use IDrive here at OGR to back up EVERYTHING off-site. I also back up my machine at home with IDrive. The backups run every night in the wee hours of the morning. I get an email every morning telling me of the status of last nights backup. We have been using it for years.

Your first iDrive backup will take several days because the program will upload EVERYTHING on your computer. Once that first full backup has completed, it does incremental backups from then on, backing up only new files and those files that have changed. Those backups may take only a few minutes, depending on how much work you did in the computer on any given day.

IDrive has saved us here at OGR several times.

You better hope that doesn't happen too soon, Charlie (I'm confident it won't happen in my lifetime, so I'm not terribly worried).  A good segment of your existing and potential customer base still enjoys holding a printed publication in their hands, and the print magazine is still, particularly in small niches like the model railroading hobby, a darn fine and viable way to attract new participants. 

It's important to keep in mind that model railroading--the hobby as a whole--is just a tiny speck in the gigantic and ever-expanding cyber-Cloud, and that a major challenge this hobby faces, perhaps now more than ever, is future growth.  Growth in our hobby world most often results from exposure, and new participants in the hobby are most often enticed via public exposure to printed articles, magazines, and books; public shows, meets, and exhibits; brick-and-mortar dealers; and one-to-one contact with current hobbyists.  As one or more of those opportunities for real-world exposure are diminished, the challenges to expanding the hobby are exponentially increased.

There is a counter-point to that argument Allan. That is that newer generations use different media sources. There have been several articles written lately with statistics that show that model railroading is growing overall. The new, younger crowd tends to get all of their info digitally. YouTube videos, Facebook groups, web advertising, etc... The simple fact is that you have to go where the customers are. This generation expects instant access to information and they want it in a format that fits their lifestyle. Just as previous generations relied on books, magazines, VHS tapes, DVDs, Blu-Ray, etc... this generation will expect to find their content accessible to their mobile devices and tablets.

You can put up all the ads in hobby shops and bookstores that you want, but that won't gain many new customers. I love bookstores, but I go looking for what I know and what I want. I don't go in and say hmmm... I wonder what new hobby I can find a magazine for. Targeted advertisement based on web history and social patterns is a much more effective way to introduce people to the hobby. If you see something and Like it on Facebook you may find new ads of interest to you based on their algorithms.

You have to target the audience accordingly. Printed magazines will only last for a finite period of time IMHO. Eventually the demographic that prefers print will shrink to the point that it won't be economically viable. It is just a natural change. Neither method is better or worse than the other. It really has nothing to do with media type. It has to do with generations of people and their habits and expectations.

IMO printed media has its place but it is shrinking. Just look at the liberal propaganda newspapers that are steadily declining because people get truthful news online. As for magazines they are entertaining, information and fun publications. You can read them when the power goes out, on a train, at a lunch counter, in the bathroom and in rural areas where internet connectivity is weak or non-existent. Yes WiFi is sometimes available in those locations but what is easier;  reading a magazine or trying to thumb through one on an iPhone?

We are currently experiencing the worst economic downturn in our lifetime, conditions are poor and numerous businesses are closing. Remember Thursdays at Fridays, Borders Books, Bennigans, A & P, heck even the KFC and Burger King closed by us. Empty Malls are all over and now the economic climate has taken its toll on Carstens where I had a long running subscription to Railroad and Railfan. Add in a flat or negative growth hobby market and operating in a select market for these types of magazines becomes difficult. I am saddened to hear that Carstens is closing up shop. I thank them for their dedication to the hobby and for supporting it for many years.

The good news is that we still have OGR and the "other guy" that will fill the void.

I sure wholeheartedly agree with you on that!

Bene hearing for years among some folks that it's as easy to 'thumb through' an internet-based publication than a real printed one. It's really not. That's a fact, not an opinion. I've watched people try to read online publications, even from their own home computer. I promise you I can read the same material several times faster on a printed page than online. Printed publications cut back on eye strain, save electricity and you never have to wait for 'upload' times or be unable to read one if you're out in the boonies. And while I agree they can take up a lot of room, if you have a project that you needed an older article for, you're SO better off with a printed magazine on your workbench!