I'm reading on various Facebook pages that Morning Sun books will stop printing books. It appears due to slow demand, going forward after Nov- Dec. 2023? Morning Sun will be all digital. I guess get them while you can if you are looking for hard copy!
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Discussion on this over on the TRAINS Magazine forum. One poster says dealers have been advised cessation of all hard and softcover books by November 2025; another says he received an email from Morning Sun advising November 2024 for discontinuance of hard and softcover with only E-books thereafter.
Nothing is mentioned on their website nor have I received any notification as a Morning Sun account holder.
I reckon we can speculate all we want on multiple forums but, reaching out directly to Morning Sun would appear to me to be the best way of learning the truth.
Curt
@juniata guy posted:Discussion on this over on the TRAINS Magazine forum. One poster says dealers have been advised cessation of all hard and softcover books by November 2025; another says he received an email from Morning Sun advising November 2024 for discontinuance of hard and softcover with only E-books thereafter.
Nothing is mentioned on their website nor have I received any notification as a Morning Sun account holder.
I reckon we can speculate all we want on multiple forums but, reaching out directly to Morning Sun would appear to me to be the best way of learning the truth.
Curt
If I’m correctly understanding the MSB message Arthur posted, existing books will continue to be offered. That is good news!
My wife tells me I already have too many books but, there are a number of their titles still on my want list.
Arthur, thank you for posting this!
Curt
I have many of their books and, like Curt, many are still on my "want" list. With all the beautiful photographs in them, it's hard for me to get excited over the eBook only format, even if that's just limited to new titles.
At the cost of Morning Sun books - no surprise.
IMO the quality of their work has gone downhill. Typos, misspellings, and factual mistakes have become more and more prevalent in their publications since Robert Yanosey passed. There is also a tinge of false advertising as well - most of their published picture books on the New Haven, for example, are populated with Penn Central and later images. The previews of one of their latest books, "New Haven Railroad; New York - Boston Shoreline In Color" bears this out; out of the 11 images available in the preview, only 3 are New Haven vintage.
Couple that with the fact that they burned their retailers earlier this year by cutting margins, as well as changing distributors to one who, from what I have heard, has been packing things poorly and damaging books, it's not a surprise they are getting out of the print end of things.
Have no fear though, there are others to fill the void. Rudy Garbley has been doing amazing work with railroad history books; "Delaware & Hudson: The Final Years, 1968 to 1991" is possibly the best written and most compelling railroad history book I've read. Well researched and with original interviews with key figures alongside relevant images that help tell the story the text is conveying. If he and his company keep putting out quality work like that, we will all be better off for it.
~Chris
@C.Vigs posted:...most of their published picture books on the New Haven, for example, are populated with Penn Central and later images. The previews of one of their latest books, "New Haven Railroad; New York - Boston Shoreline In Color" bears this out; out of the 11 images available in the preview, only 3 are New Haven vintage.
~Chris
I briefly looked through my copy of the new book when it arrived and think it's quite interesting with good photographs. The New Haven Railroad has been gone for 54 years. How many publication-quality photographs do you think are still available for a new book? And how many knowledgeable authors or former New Haven employees are left to write one? I'm sorry to see Morning Sun Books ceasing print book publication but maybe my book collection will be worth a little more.
MELGAR
My qualm isn't with them producing a book on the Shore Line - it's that they advertise it as a "New Haven" book when it isn't. It could have just as easily been called "The New York - Boston Shoreline In Color" and not been misleading. The factual mistakes in the photo captions of other publications of theirs should also be a red flag; as these are historical books, shouldn't we be concerned when they're wrong about the basics of their subject matter?
~Chris
Face it…the days of holding a printed book (or magazine) in your hands to are coming to an end. The world is going digital, primarily due to cost, but also due to changing technology and the demographics of the audience.
If you are 60+ years old, the internet came of age when you were in your forties. However, if you are in your 30s, you grew up with the internet. It’s been there and available your entire life. You read your news and entertainment on a tablet or perhaps even your phone, not a newspaper.
There is a huge difference between starting to use the net in your 40s or 50s as opposed to growing up with it from childhood. For Generation X-ers, is is fully a part of your life, not something that was added to your life in adulthood.
aw, go ahead and rub it in, Rich--I'm an oldster, and I know it! 
@Tuscan Jim posted:aw, go ahead and rub it in, Rich--I'm an oldster, and I know it!
Yup, I'm old too (past 81) and will have absolutely NOTHING to do with the current "digital" stuff. Every morning I have a cup of black coffee and read the actual Chicago Tribune newspaper. I also enjoy real magazines (the few that come in the mail) and various catalogues.
Someday, all the current print world will be gone, but then so will I.
We're goin' down swinging!
@Freight Train Jim posted:At the cost of Morning Sun books - no surprise.
If you have an issue with the prices they've charged then you're clearly not a fan.
The rest of us, who are fans, have never grumbled.
Superb quality. You truly get what you pay for from them.
Remember that one of the goals for Morning Sun was to capture old color photos, in color and in a durable medium, before the negatives fade.
They've done an excellent job with it over the years.
Someone has to pay for this. Those of us who have are quite happy.
It's been well worth the money in my mind.
Mike
I'm king of in the middle in this. Because my wife and I were busy raising and educating our 6 children, there was a 30 year period in which I only bought a few books. After we had finished feeding teenagers (
) I began to selectively purchase books, and have enough for reference and pleasure reading, as far as I'm concerned.
But I would not rule out buying some electronic books in the future. The warehousing and shipping of books has become very expensive for publishers, and the printing and materials are also going up. So, maybe electronic books can be enjoyable at a lower price and some of us may become satisfied with that.
As someone who has lived and died in the print industry. What Rich states is very true. However for me having a book alongside as reference is invaluable when working on a highly detailed project. I'd rather not haul the flat screen to my workbench.
As others have said, Morning Sun does a top notch job. The volumes I own are a valued part of my reference library.
You don’t need to haul a big flat screen around. I do almost all of my reading now on an IPad. Pretty convenient.
Rich is right, it seems like the printed material is going away...and I don't like it. I have always enjoyed having a book/magazine/catalog in my hands to read. The demise of printed toy train catalogs and hobby magazines are ones I'll miss the most. Lionel still produces an abbreviated printed catalog, but how much longer will that last?
Change is inevitable, but it's just another change within the last 3 years that I don't like.
I don't care for it. I still like a printed magazine and news paper. You would be surprised at the amount of people that don't have internet.
@Rich Melvin posted:You don’t need to haul a big flat screen around. I do almost all of my reading now on an IPad. Pretty convenient.
Convenient, but to me there's no comparison between having a large, quality photograph on a printed page, versus looking at it on an iPad or even a laptop screen. A larger, high definition screen may be an adquate substitute, but I haven't tried that.
@C.Vigs posted:IMO the quality of their work has gone downhill. Typos, misspellings, and factual mistakes have become more and more prevalent in their publications since Robert Yanosey passed.
~Chris
My brother worked a number of years for a publisher, doing editing, and often working with technical subjects. He said the publisher began to outsource editing to foreign sources (non-native speakers not educated in the U.S., mostly Indian) to save money, and the quality of the editing dropped. Probably pretty common occurence these days.
Just received this email form The Morning Sun. 2024 will be the same. 👍 One more year of printing books.
Gary from Michigan 🚂
Hi Morning Sun Books. I would like to ask you to rethink your decision to stop production of printed Railroad Books. I have been involved with the publishing of High School Yearbooks for over 38 years. Have been a Yearbook Advisor and now do some Yearbook consulting work. The high schools that have gone all digital have returned to a printed Yearbook or 70% of book as a traditional hardcover & 30% digital for spring sports, graduation & prom.
A printed yearbook can easily be enjoyed with others. Students can leave handwritten messages in their classmates' books, which creates a more personal experience. Students can enjoy looking at their yearbook with their family in a relaxed setting, whereas a digital version may require sitting at a desk. Maybe twenty years in the future digital PDF documents will no longer be relevant with how technology is always changing. A hardcover book will always work. A family heirloom.
As a train room guy and a rail-fanning enthusiast, I have railroad books in my train room for my own use and for visitors to take a browsing look. I would never show a digital book to a visitor. Railroad books will always be in public libraries and become a family heirloom. Not digital books.
Respectfully submitted: Gary from Michigan 🚂
I read books, read magazines, and when a kid and now, newspapers almost cover to cover. I stared at a screen for a living, and still do, too much. More not desired. I picked up two structure kits, one more originally expensive than many, but long desired, and quickly built, for the sellers, as l ,wanted printed instructions. I quickly found one Morning Sun Rock lsland book, but my interest is more shortlines, so have those.
This is all very interesting. Perhaps this is why in 2022 and 2023 they refused to contact me as to why my orders were not being acknowledged made by the gift shop at Mid-Continent Ry. Museum.
@trainroomgary posted:Hi Morning Sun Books. I would like to ask you to rethink your decision to stop production of printed Railroad Books. I have been involved with the publishing of High School Yearbooks for over 38 years. Have been a Yearbook Advisor and now do some Yearbook consulting work. The high schools that have gone all digital have returned to a printed Yearbook or 70% of book as a traditional hardcover & 30% digital for spring sports, graduation & prom.
A printed yearbook can easily be enjoyed with others. Students can leave handwritten messages in their classmates' books, which creates a more personal experience. Students can enjoy looking at their yearbook with their family in a relaxed setting, whereas a digital version may require sitting at a desk. Maybe twenty years in the future digital PDF documents will no longer be relevant with how technology is always changing. A hardcover book will always work. A family heirloom.
As a train room guy and a rail-fanning enthusiast, I have railroad books in my train room for my own use and for visitors to take a browsing look. I would never show a digital book to a visitor. Railroad books will always be in public libraries and become a family heirloom. Not digital books.
Respectfully submitted: Gary from Michigan 🚂
The day will come that all this digital junk will be lost, but not a good old printed hardcover book. They will be around forever, look at some of the rare books still found in the 1700s and beyond. Of course this is my opinion.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
