I started subscribing to Model Railroader, probably when I was about 14 or 15 years old. When I went away to school, I changed my address and continued to have my subscription sent to me at college.
I had one roommate from Rochester, NY who turned out to be into trains also (N and G scales) and he enjoyed reading the magazine also. Another roommate also read it cover to cover, but only because he was a voracious consumer of anything printed on paper.
In February, 1979, the headline on the MR cover said "Kitbash a Doodlebug." I vividly recall the non-train roommate charging into the common room, thumping the cover with the back of his hand and saying, "There are NO English words in this headline!"
He happened to see a copy of the same magazine on eBay today so he sent me the image -- 38 years later.
What struck me, however, is how primitive the scenicking seems to be! If you look at the larger version of this image, note that that grade crossing looks like an adapted AHM or Tyco plastic re-railer. The crossbucks look like the white pieces of plastic they are, and the ground cover looks like someone dyed a terry cloth towel burnt umber, put some lichen on small sticks, and called it a day.
I used to hold up MR as my aspirational goal in terms of scenery and recall being awed by it every time it arrived. I still am.
It seems to me that our materials have gotten better, and our experience, and even our photography. There's any number of guys on this forum who do work that's 10 times better than that MR cover and I'm starting to think that we've all just gotten better at it. When I look at the photos that someone like Norm Charbonneau posts on this forum with the cover photo of MR from 1979, there's almost no comparison. And that cover used to be considered the top of the mountain.
These are the good old days, my friends.
Steven J. Serenska
