Starting in the March 2011 issue, Model Railroader will have an N scale column, called "N Scale Insight" by Jim Kelly, which will appear every other month in the magazine. http://mrr.trains.com/en/News and Reviews/MR Express/2011/01/N scale inisght.aspx
Is this the same MR that is owned by Kalambach? They have ALWAYS catered to HO and O scale for years and kind of kept us Normal scalers in the dark. This is something completely different for MR in the past.
I hope the type won't be 87/160 the size of the normal type. I have found that I can get quite a bit in the way of ideas and tips from a magazine article regardless of what scale is involved. It's only really when you get down to something really scale-specific, like say a decoder installation, that I think one needs to get really scale specific.
Times are changin! The manufacturers already know that N scale is coming up. MR is finally realizing that fact.
I think they finally see the potential of N scale the more they advertise it the more money they can make and since N scale is becoming more popular well they just had to jump the band wagon.
Gee... playing catch-up again... Model Railroad Hobbyist has had an N-scale column since it started... and Railroad Model Craftsman has also had a fairly regular N-scale column.
I hope they expand it to a monthly feature! I also wish they would bring back the electronics symposium.
Man, I had no idea MRH was getting 40+ thousand downloads a month. That is about 3x NRS and N-Scale combined.
Definitely good news; I would hope that they make N scale a permanent part of their Magazine. That is the reason that I subscribe to the mag and not one of the n scale mags. "Variety of coverage" Thanks for posting this Metro
MR needs a full section on N to get me to Subscribe. A coloum is not going to do it. After all there is more to N Scale than colums on trees.
Maybe I'm the pessimist, but it sounds like funneling N scale content into an every-other monthly column would have the opposite effect we'd be after. It would "contain" N scale versus let it grow naturally to fill the magazine. It also seems to indicate that N scale is somehow different than "regular" (presumed to be HO) model railroading.
Twenty years later, they're going to start trying to catch up, in a market that's already well served? We've had two magazines fully dedicated to N scale for ages. A "column" isn't enough to have me spend any money, let alone even think about doing so. :tb-wacky: Boxcab E50
I doubt that will be the case. What makes you think they will "segregate" N scale into just that column? Maybe they will be starting various scale-specific columns this year - a G-scale column might be next. I last subscribed to MR in the mid-1990s (when I was an HO scaler). Will I subscribe again? I'm not sure. I only let my subscription lapse because I was inactive in the hobby. But I don't subscribe to any other model railroading publications, either. Whether you plan to subscribe to MR or not isn't the important thing; I do think this is good for our scale in the long run.
I agree with Dave Vollmer - why are we different? It reminds me of my once-favorite-now-gone train shop locally, Express Station Hobbies. There ads went from "fair and balanced" to nearly all HO, with one corner labeled "N Scale Goodies". Nothin' says lovin' like N Scale Goodies or Bi-Monthly Column. Anyhow, the pragmatic side of me says that if they saw the money and the return, they'd be doing more with N. I also tend to think we get a little sensitive about it, almost like a defense mechanism. Like we "need" someone's approval or something. As it is, MR is hit and miss. They do a good job, but after umpteen years as a subsciber, I am on the fence whether to let it lapse next time around. My only other subscription is N Scale Railroading, which I enjoy, but after letting Trains lapse five years ago and I didn't have a heart attack, maybe it's time to just let go of them all......ok, Kirk, not yours! I do wonder, too, what would be in an N Scale column that would warrant a unique space or perspective? I guess we'll see in March.
