Recently, I decided to thin out the horde of old railroad magazines that I've collected over the years. I'm at a bit of sticking point at the moment, as I'm not sure what to do with the ones I no longer want/need. The question is whether or not there's a market out there for them anymore aside from donating them somewhere (that will still accept them) or dumping them in the recycle (which I'd prefer to avoid, but if I so have to, then so be it)? As far as I'm aware, most of the ones that I'm getting rid of are titles that have not been digitized (to my knowledge at least). Even though some of them are rather old, I still feel like at least some of them would still be of some interest. Is that an incorrect assumption? Apologies if this is in the wrong place, but this seemed to be the most logical place to post this.
You might be able to sell a few specific issues, to someone seeking just those few. Most of the time, they will, (sadly), end up being recycled.
Not long ago, I dumped about 40 years worth of MRR magazines into the recycling dump. I tried multiple avenues to give them away and no one wanted them. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
We used to accept them at the railroad museum in Rosenberg to give away to kids, but there comes a point where you can't give them away fast enough and they take up too much space. So, until the mound is depleted substantially, there is no room for more.
I see the same thing at the Apple Valley Model Railroad Club in Hendersonville, NC. Despite my leaving many years of old MRs there, I used to feel guilty about taking other magazines from the pile. My worries were alleviated last month when a club member invited me to take as many as I wanted. They too are reaching capacity.
You might see if your local school library would want them. It would give kids a chance to see what the hobby is all about. Joe
What I've thought about are homemade digital versions. I know model railroader has their All-Time Digital Archives, but some high quality scans would be welcome too, especially of the old blueprints. The scenery and wiring articles are probably outdated, so I wouldn't feel too bad, but I would feel bad about losing blueprints or prototype photos. Rare photos of scrapped or lost locomotives are valuable, especially when they can't be found online.
I've boxed them up in the past, and sent them overseas to some of our military stationed far from home. A little bit of normalcy goes a long way in some of those places in the world we'd rather not know about. Get a hold of your local Post Office, they can ship pretty cheap for military.
Thanks for the assorted comments, gentlemen. Some of them I know will end up going straight into the recycle as they have little to no relevancy or useful information. The rest I'll see if there's any hope at all for them. Won't hurt to try I suppose.
I've got a tall filing cabinet and short filing cabinet full of MR magazines from the late 40's that were my Dad's, who got me started in the hobby. I just do not have the heart to, uh, "recycle" them or anything like that.
I completely understand. I have a few RMC and MR issues I bought as a kid in the early '70s with N Scale articles and I'm keeping them.
I send my old issues to The Madison County Historical Society to be given away in their Railroad Exhibit. It works for me.
Problem with giving them away now is that MR and NGSG are both on CD so no need to keep unless you what a clean copy to scan. MRC is not on CD and from what I hear will never be so I bought a full bound set. so have from 1948 to 2006. rich
I subscribe to MR, RMC, TRAINS, RAILFAN & RAILROAD, and others. I'm in the same boat. You can only keep so many. I get as many on CD as I can and have become very selective of which magazines I keep. We (NMRA, MCR Div 8) have Show & Sale{http://div8-mcr-nmra.org/site/html/trainshow.html {shameless plug]} twice a year. I box up any excess magazines and take them to the Show to be give or sold (kids FREE) to people. Usual price is 25 cents (depends on who it is) I don't want to keep all of them, but I sure want to read them.
I went through a thinning. Then years later I realized I hate new train magazines and all I want is old ones from 1950 - 1970's. If I was anywhere nearby I'd come liberate yours from you.
I used to take month old issues to my doctors offices (civilian and VA). Some time later I found they just threw them away and kept and there Ladies Magazines.
YES! I've noticed the same result most everywhere. Even barber shops will throw away my rail magazines to retain space for their expanding collection of dull circa 2015 automotive magazines. I like cars too, but this is hardly an era of inspirational design.
Well. I really hate to see old magazines get tossed in the trash, so I went and retrieved the massive load of magazines from Lego Man Bill. I grabbed a quick shot of his favorite scale O scale. This is his floor layout. And a blurry shot of two train fanatics, I'm the old dude, Bill is the younger one. Hopefully, we can plan another session and run some trains, or go do some train watching. Thanks for all the good reads, Lego Man Bill!
