Surprised Rich or Al haven't chimed in yet.
I've always thought it would be nice to maybe interview one of the different forum sponsors for each issue. Learn about their business, where they see the hobby headed, etc. It would be a great way for all of us to learn more about the sponsors and also get word from the street as to what trends they see in terms of what people are buying and where the hobby goes from here.
I personally would love to see an article interviewing the folks at Menard's. I think we all are curious at their recent push into the hobby and it would be nice to have a background as to why.
Interviews with all of the manufacturers as well. Other industry insiders. There is a story to tell with how to move this hobby into the next generations and would be interesting to hear that from the various players who are on the front lines and who can be responsible for that movement. I would be interested to hear it.
I think all of this would add some depth and variety to the publication.
Originally Posted by towdog:
I've always thought it would be nice to maybe interview one of the different forum sponsors for each issue. Learn about their business, where they see the hobby headed, etc. It would be a great way for all of us to learn more about the sponsors and also get word from the street as to what trends they see in terms of what people are buying and where the hobby goes from here.
I personally would love to see an article interviewing the folks at Menard's. I think we all are curious at their recent push into the hobby and it would be nice to have a background as to why.
Interviews with all of the manufacturers as well. Other industry insiders. There is a story to tell with how to move this hobby into the next generations and would be interesting to hear that from the various players who are on the front lines and who can be responsible for that movement. I would be interested to hear it.
I think all of this would add some depth and variety to the publication.
Towdog, Great idea, regarding interviewing small and large sponsors. Menards would be interesting, they must have a couple of train nuts in the organization.
Originally Posted by Seacoast:
Originally Posted by towdog:
I've always thought it would be nice to maybe interview one of the different forum sponsors for each issue. Learn about their business, where they see the hobby headed, etc. It would be a great way for all of us to learn more about the sponsors and also get word from the street as to what trends they see in terms of what people are buying and where the hobby goes from here.
I personally would love to see an article interviewing the folks at Menard's. I think we all are curious at their recent push into the hobby and it would be nice to have a background as to why.
Interviews with all of the manufacturers as well. Other industry insiders. There is a story to tell with how to move this hobby into the next generations and would be interesting to hear that from the various players who are on the front lines and who can be responsible for that movement. I would be interested to hear it.
I think all of this would add some depth and variety to the publication.
Towdog, Great idea, regarding interviewing small and large sponsors. Menards would be interesting, they must have a couple of train nuts in the organization.
I think Menards has one big train nut, and his name is over the door.
George Brown's product reviews are way too long and "wordy", same with Roger Carp's narration of layout builders; writing 101: cover the facts in as few words as possible.
Nearly every thing that has been suggested in the above posts has been tried by OGR and other model magazines at some time. I really enjoyed Jim Barrett's back shop articles that used to appear in nearly every issue of OGR. I am following his layout construction series now.
Take a look at British model railroad magazines if you want to see truly amazing content. The hobby seems to be stronger in the UK. I am looking at the Sept. 2014 issue of Model Rail. It has 147 pages and tons of ads. Model Rail covers all scales.
It also has many reviews - some of them aren't very nice. The layout articles are well written and the photos are amazing. The British are more into building kits and things from scratch than we are in the USA. There are several articles on how to assemble kits and how to build things from scratch. In addition, there are interviews with manufacturers.
Joe
And this is sort of what I had in-mind when I started this thread. Not to bash any of the current offerings (they are good on some fronts!), but rather to openly discuss how to improve the product so we enjoy it more and the publishers (assuming they’re paying attention) have continued success. Looking through the posts so far, I think there is a consistent theme that really boils down to two basic things: (a) “meatier” more detailed articles; and (b) broader content.
I can tell you from experience (3 years in the hobby now with no background in carpentry, electricity or civil planning) there are so many topics where in-depth articles would be so appreciated – everything from layout design to bench-work techniques and materials to wiring everything from a complex DCS layout to an Atlas 6924 gizmo to schematics for wiring accessories. Articles that really get into the nuts and bolts – with lots of photos! Would be helpful if these articles made a point of including mistakes, tricks, lesson learned, choices of materials and suppliers – and why, etc.
Completely agree with the “broader content” suggestions. Interviews with manufacturers, major hobby players, pro layout builders (considerations for design, planning, building, products they prefer and why, etc.), companies that upgrade locomotives (how do they stack up versus OEM in terms of quality and realism?), etc. As another “for instance,” I just received a DVD that discusses lighting – from considerations for effectively cycling lighting to appear like realistic daytime/nighttime to computer-controlled sequencing for all this – interesting stuff!
Also agree that anyone can present topics on this or other forums. In fact, I get most of my information from this forum and You-tube (I for one am indebted to so many here that have gratuitously helped me through so many problems as we build our first layout). But the point of this thread wasn’t to discuss what we can do on this forum, but rather, to constructively discuss what the magazines can do to evolve their products to stay interesting. As someone once said: anything worth doing is worth doing right (– especially when someone is paying for the product!). I think keeping the suggestions coming can only help give the publishers and give us a better overall product.
Peter
