Favorite OGR Magazines

This afternoon I re-read numerous OGR Magazine issues. One of them I got particularly excited about: Run 237, which is the August/September 2009 issue. In that issue was Jim Policastro's article entitled "We Aren't in Kansas Anymore."

Jim's article talks about various ways to have your track change grades, and still have your trains run well.

I initially wanted a layout with changes in grades, but opted not to do so when I built it 25 years ago.

Jim's article has opened my mind to the possibility of either changing grades or adding an elevated line on piers or trestle on my layout.

IMO, Jim's article is excellent in every way; it's very clear, thorough, informative, and has excellent photos to illustrate the points he makes.

Now, it's your turn to share some of your favorite issues of OGR Magazine. Among your favorites could include those with articles you may have had the good fortune to have published. Arnold

Another great thread Arnold. Likewise, I don’t discard any issues. However, I do cut out articles of interest, staple them, and put them in specific folders. Some examples are; trestles, bridges, and water; track plans; electrical, etc. There is probably an electronic way to do this but this method doesn’t cause angst.

An invaluable resource for this thread is our new "All-Time OGR Index" which was something that many of you kept requesting over the years.

My two favorite issues are Run 233 from January 2009 and run 236 from june of 2009   My favorite layout is in both

Run 154 is one of my favorite OGR magazines.

(All rights belong to OGR)


When I became a digital subscriber, I got access to all previous OGR magazines (One of the best investments I have made). There were many awesome magazines that I have read but Run 154 stands out. Les Lewis' New Haven traction layout is a sight to behold. I was blown away by detail he put into his layout. Sadly, I have not found any images of his Yale University Module which was a work-in-progress when this article was published.

Bryce

Hi Arnold,

Two of my favorite issues of OGR magazine also contain articles by Jim Policastro. Run 247 and 248 contain parts 1 and 2 of Jim’s article titled Reading Central Railroad’s Doorway to the Northeast.  This modular layout measures 31” X 78” but packs a lot of play value in that compact size. Mountains to the left, city to the right, and plenty of action in the middle!  Truly a genius design, it has become the inspiration for my layout.

John

Great thread, Arnold - AGAIN!

My favorite issue is Run 216, but not for the reason you might think.  

My favorite OGR article was the "Edgerton Parks Four Great Lionel Layouts", on the Police Academy League community model train layout for improving relations ships between the police and kids in Rochester, NY. starting in the 1950s.  The layout was operated by local kids and police officers.

Fred Dole did a great job on this article in the OGR October 1989 issue and I keep rereading and enjoying it.  It shows how model trains as a hobby can keep kids off the street and enjoy this great hobby with the help of a community and improve relations with police officers.

I also loved that this exhibit was four separate layouts, with a layout for each of the four seasons of the year.

Here is a OGR forum link to my post on the " Edgerton Parks Four Great Lionel Layouts" as featured in OGR Magazine Run 107 Oct 1989 and CTT June 1991 and Aug 1991 issues.  Link include links to youtube videos on the layout.

Here is a link to Edgertons railroad club web site.

Charlie

Runs 119, 120 & 121. Chester Holley's collection in three parts. Chester Holley was my good friend and can honestly say he got me back into the hobby back in the mid 1970s after a few years absence.

I must confess that I'm not sure if the following articles appeared in OGR or CTT Magazine, having subscried to both for most of the past 30 years.

However, the articles that made the biggest impression on me were those about the following:

Frank Sinatra's layout with structures reminiscent of his hometown, Hoboken, NJ.  I believe the article mentioned that he was good at maintaining and repairing his Lionel trains and he hired a highly regarded layout builder to construct his layout.

Several of Phil Klopps's layouts since he was first featured in a 1989 magazine. Phil builds massive around the walls layouts with vignettes, enabling his trains to run through the scenery of all 4 seasons. He has beautiful scenery (including the Horseshoe Curve and Starrucca Viaduct) with Postwar accessories and combines realism with whim and whimsy. I try to emulate Phil's approach of combining realism with whim and whimsy on my own layout.

One of the most inspiring articles was the one about Neil Young's layout. It showed Neil and his son having a great time running their trains on it. I remember the article mentions that Neil's gorgeous mountains were made from wood that came from the Redwood Forrest.

Another fascinating article was about the layout of Presyterian minister that was in a NY City Presbyterian Church. He made very nice structures and scenery using brown paper bags and wooden coffee stirrers that members of his congregation used and threw away.  He also devised a clever way to throw his switches using pulleys instead of electricity.

Thank you for the kind words Arnold and John. My favorite aspect of submitting magazine articles has always been hearing that they provided inspiration and that others made good use of them.

My favorites for obvious reasons.

My first cover (Run 227):

..and a favorite part of my old layout (Run 230):

And while I was going through my old cover photos I found this true collector's item:

I bet your cover of Run 256 looks more like this:

A last minute change had to be made in my cover photo when that month's issue of another famous magazine appeared to be very similar to the one originally selected for OGR.

Jim

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

My favorite OGR article was the Edgerton Park Train Exhibit about the Police Academy League community model train layout for improving relations ships between the police and kids in Rochester, NY. starting in the 1950s.

Fred Dole did a great job on this article in the OGR October 1989 issue and I keep rereading and enjoying it.  It shows how model trains as a hobby can keep kids off the street and enjoy this great hobby with the help of a community and improve relations with police officers.

I also loved that this exhibit was four layouts, with a separate layout for each of the four seasons.

Charlie

That was run #107. It is my favorite issue too (so far, I only subscribed last month but I have already purchased many years' worth of back issues) because my father was the Edgerton Club's secretary at the time.  He joined to become more involved with me in the hobby. I am only now revisiting my O-gauge roots.

I enjoy reading the old paper copies from the Vane Jones era.

Woke up early  and flipped through a few issues of OGR. Nice way to start the morning

The one most interesting to me was Run 172 (April 2000). That issue included an article entitled Hi-Rail on the New Haven, story by Peter Paulnak (owner of layout), photos by Fred M. Dole.

Everything about the New Haven RR appeals to me, and Peter did a great job modeling it, with 4 tracks in one area, and beautiful scenery and structures reminiscent of the New Haven and New England in the 1950s.

What blew me away was Peter's operating missle silo with a Lionel operating rocket launcher inside one of his mountains. Peter explains that missle silos existed in the mountains of New England during the Sputnik and duck under era of the 1950s. On Peter's layout, the viewer can see the interior of the mountain with the missle moving into position, as sirens and steam go off and the missle is launched.

A layout does not get more dramatic than that, IMO.

Arnold

My favorite would probably be Run 183. Because it featured the Ocean City Train Garden layout. The layout was located in a now demolished shopping mall on 94th street in Ocean City, Maryland. It was later moved to the old Lifeguard Headquarters, which was later also demolished.

It was open to the public and had free admission every weekend during June, July and August. Although admission was free, they did use the layout to raise money and take donations for a local charity that gave terminally ill children and their families a free beach vacation. The train garden was built and operated by Don and Bobbie Murphy, Ernie Teague and Frank Utz. Don and Bobbie were frequent contributors to this forum in the early days. Some of you might remember them from the forum meets at York in the grandstands during the early 2000’s.

I spent countless hours there running trains during the summer months when I was in high school. The older guys took me in and we all became friends and bonded through our shared interest in model railroading. Frequently we would stop running trains on Saturday evenings and grab dinner at the Bull on the Beach. I miss those guys. And while they might be gone and the layout no longer exists, the memories remain. 🚂🌊🏝

The Digital ones because I can read them all.

Not a magazine per se, but the OGR 50th Anniversary DVD set is something I highly recomend. It includes fantastic videos of the layouts of Marty Fitshenry, Don Klose, Jim Policastro, Dave Minarik and others.

I've seen them many times, but still enjoy playing them again periodically, and always get more ideas for me to improve my layout when I do. Arnold

I'm hoping that a good number of our fellow Forum members will consider purchasing the new 21 Great Track Plans for Compact Layouts book by Ken Hoganson that was released this past week. It would certainly help generate some useful ideas for experienced modelers, but best of all would be a great item to stimulate interest in O gauge layout building for those who, to this point, have been "armchair modelers" and/or those who feel they don't have space for an O gauge layout. Consider getting one to give as a Christmas stocking-stuffer to someone you might want to see enter our great hobby. Every book sold helps to support the magazine and this forum.

Looking forward to reading it Allan... I'm always amazed at what can be accomplished in small spaces (in any scale).

@Pre-War Steve posted:

Looking forward to reading it Allan... I'm always amazed at what can be accomplished in small spaces (in any scale).

Please order a copy (if you haven't already done so). It's available in print and digital versions. Personally, I always prefer to have a printed book for how-to topics that I can add to my library and easily find if/when I need to look something up; transport from place to place; or have by my side for ready reference if I am trying to follow various building steps or techniques.

Hi Allan... I ordered the digital version earlier this morning and will "thumb through" this weekend.  I prefer printed product as well, but I've about run out of room to store all my printed reference materials LOL.  (BTW:  it looks like a GREAT reference with plenty of ideas!)

Hi Arnold, this is a great thread, I love it and thanks for starting it.  Alan, I didn't know about the index that you spoke about, how do you get to it?  Right now I can't really think of a favorite OGR Magazine, I don't know how many I actually have but I can tell you that I like them all, there is always something in them that I find that is of great interest to me.  I've kept all that I have and even have a few duplicates.  However, I'm seriously thinking of going to just straight digital because i'm running out of room for magazine storage and I can't get my wife to throw out some of her magazines that she hardly ever looks at.   I just need to get with Alan and ask me a few questions before I make up my mind.

Thanks for starting the thread.

My favorite is the one that just came in from the mailbox 😁

I have contributed a number of articles to OGRR magazine which appeared in Runs 288, 298, and 314, so I guess they would be my favorite runs. Working with Allan Miller has been a complete delight!

How about this one? David Birmingham's narrow gauge layout......and the subject of one of Rich's all time best videos!

Available here at.....A Day in the Life of a Railroad.

Peter

@J. Motts posted:

…I didn't know about the index that you spoke about, how do you get to it?

Just go to the OGR WEB SITE.

I've kept a few back issues dating back to when the magazine was "O scale." My favorite issues by far are ones where Fred Dole photographed outstanding 2-rail and 3-rail layouts - some are black & white but they are that good; and the Frank Ellison articles - which was a personal favorite of Fred's as he was re-creating parts of Delta Lines on his 3-rail pike. For me, the articles written in the old days, I suppose by the old timers, were the best. Fred had a knack or an innate talent for capturing the essence of a railroad.

My favorite issues are those from the Myron Biggar years and Fred Dole did the photographs....

This evening I enjoyed reading Run 238 (October/November 2009) in my collection of OGR magazines.

Run 238 features the massive and beautifully scenicked layout of George Kush in his article entitled Operator's Dream. That issue also had a very well written and instructive article by Jim Policastro entitled A Compact Layout for All Seasons.

Lately, I've been playing OGR videos at bedtime, and I seem to be sleeping better! My wife is fine with it because I keep the volume low so as not to disturb her sleep but just loud enough for me to hear it.  I particularly enjoy the Great Layout Adventures 50th Anniversary Blue Ray 2 Disc Set of DVDs. IMO, every layout featured in that 2 disc set is sensational.

Arnold

Just had a chance to flip through the current issue, Run 320 Oct./Nov. 2021, of OGR Magazine in hard print. I think it's one of the best ever.

I particularly enjoyed reading the article entitled Fall is Here! Can Winter Be Far Behind, by Peter Condro, Tom Gilsdorf, and Walter Strohecker of the River City 3 Railers Train Club in Virginia.

The whole magazine is excellent. You won't be disappointed when you get it and read it. Arnold

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

I particularly enjoyed reading the article entitled Fall is Here! Can Winter Be Far Behind, by Peter Condro, Tom Gilsdorf, and Walter Strohecker of the River City 3 Railers Train Club in Virginia.

If you liked Run 320, you will likely also like 321 because the River City 3 Railers group is going to be the cover feature with their new Christmas module. Work on that issue is being wrapped-up now, and if I can get some significant computer glitches taken care of by my IT guy, we should be right on schedule. There will be some 19 layout photos and another 11 photos describing how the guys built this module.

Received in mail yesterday hard copy of Run 328 February/March 2023.

Haven't read anything yet, but I did quickly browse through the photos.  What do I think of them? My answer in a word is: stunning. Another word is: magnificent.

IMO, the photos are stunning and the trains and layouts in those photos are stunning and magnificent.

And, what other word comes to Mind? Bravo! Arnold

My favorite is all of them--and the videos!  Rich Melvin, and others, did a WONDERFUL job with the videos.  I count myself as very blessed and fortunate to be featured (The Glacier Line) in BOTH the magazine and video.

All model railroads have something in common: one day they are gone!  Thanks to OGR I shall always have the documented memories of the Glacier Line.

@John C. posted:

All model railroads have something in common: one day they are gone!  Thanks to OGR I shall always have the documented memories of the Glacier Line.

My sentiments exactly, John.

It's nice to be able to relive memories of my former layout through OGR magazines and video.

Jim

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Received in mail yesterday hard copy of Run 328 February/March 2023.

Haven't read anything yet, but I did quickly browse through the photos.  What do I think of them? My answer in a word is: stunning. Another word is: magnificent.

IMO, the photos are stunning and the trains and layouts in those photos are stunning and magnificent.

And, what other word comes to Mind? Bravo! Arnold

The extra photos at the end are amazing.  Really happy I subscribe.

John

Four isssues (some where around 150-160) have 'How to' artcles by Bob Bartizek about weathering.  I refer to them before starting to weather any items on our railroad.  John