Railroad Modeling Magazines available to look at on-line

[Jim Donovan]

Hard to top an earthquake for excitement, but I'll try.

How about free magazines?

Here's a screenshot of just some titles I found on Libby:



My local library is a member of a larger consortium of local libraries and as such offers Hoopla, Flipster and Libby which are different digital streaming platforms.

My library offers access to them for free. Obviously, your library might differ.

All three offer some magazine titles amongst their listings, but as far as I can find, only Libby offers titles of interest to the subject matter here. Here is a screenshot of titles I got after searching "Railroad" within Libby's magazine section.

Searching Libby's magazines for "modeling" returns more periodical titles like Model Rail, Model Engineer, Model Railway (Australia) but at 4 pages of results, too many to capture in a single screen shot.  Of note to many here is that list also contains Fine Scale Modeler

I searched around before posting this information here, here is the best I could come up with as a relative newcomer.  Moderators please direct it to where it fits best.Hard to top an earthquake for excitement, but I'll try.

How about free magazines?

Here's a screenshot of just some titles I found on Libby:



My local library is a member of a larger consortium of local libraries and as such offers Hoopla, Flipster and Libby which are different digital streaming platforms.

My library offers access to them for free. Obviously, your library might differ.

All three offer some magazine titles amongst their listings, but as far as I can find, only Libby offers titles of interest to the subject matter here. Here is a screenshot of titles I got after searching "Railroad" within Libby's magazine section.

Searching Libby's magazines for "modeling" returns more periodical titles like Model Rail, Model Engineer, Model Railway (Australia) but at 4 pages of results, too many to capture in a single screen shot.  Of note to many here is that list also contains Fine Scale Modeler

I searched around before posting this information here, here is the best I could come up with as a relative newcomer.  Moderators please direct it to where it fits best.

[IWannaRetire]

Thanks, Jim for moving that for me.  Since there's a new thread for digital periodicals, I'd like to add a couple more titles that forum members might not be aware of.

O scale Resource is a totally digital online magazine, one I read regularly. I find its content to advertising rate favorable to readers. Unlike some print magazines, the ads are usually confined to their own page.  While you may see ads on a left hand page with content on the right page, you will not see skinny content columns crowded by ads on the same page.  Longer articles run uninterrupted by ads.

You can either read it online from their website, or you can download it and read it off-line: https://oscaleresource.com/WP/


Writing is by varied contributors, and the photography is excellent.  Unlike print on paper where often details I want to see are hiding in small photos, I can zoom in to enlarge photos for study.  If you want to see close into a contest model winner, you can.  I also like to zoom in on the adds that feature new high end model kit to see the details.

I find it easy to navigate, and here's a great feature: all back issues since 2013 are available online to download. This longevity speaks to their quality, I think.

While you can't escape the ads in O Scale Resource, you can escape the subscription cost: it's free!!  You can subscribe and can get it delivered to your email if you want, or just do a click by for new issues.  I do subscribe and have not seen any mailings that come from them selling my address to venders. 

The same publishers also put out the S Scale Resource    https://magazine.sscaleresource.com/
I read it also, because as we all know, it is entirely possible to scale up or down a plan, it's the same with information. 

[Bernd]

The same publishers also put out the S Scale Resource    https://magazine.sscaleresource.com/
I read it also, because as we all know, it is entirely possible to scale up or down a plan, it's the same with information.

S Scale Resource shut down with the October/September 2024 issue due to lack of modelers sending in articles. If you try this link and scroll down, you'll see where they mention they are shutting down the magazine.

https://sscaleresource.com/WP/

Bernd

[IWannaRetire]

S Scale Resource shut down with the October/September 2024 issue due to lack of modelers sending in articles. If you try this link and scroll down, you'll see where they mention they are shutting down the magazine.

https://sscaleresource.com/WP/

Bernd

True, but the back issues are still available at this clicking.  If anyone likes their content, I'd suggest downloading them before they dissolve.

[IWannaRetire]

I thought I'd post this title separately.

Model Railroad Hobbyist    https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/   

It's very similar to the above two publications in format, or maybe one should say the above two are very similar to this one as this one's been around since 2009.

It's not scale specific, and has a lot of HO related content.  At 177 pages, it's considerably larger than the above two, but without measuring, I'd say the extra pages do not contain that much more content, if any more at all.  It does label advertisement pages with a taupe colored banner on top, but this month has no less than 28 consecutive pages not labeled advertising, but "New Product News". This section is curated by scale and type of product offered.  I might have been born at night, but it wasn't last night, and to me it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck....

[Bernd]

I've been a member of MRH since 2011. I find the free magazine more of an advertising rag than a modeling magazine. Very little if any content on scratch-building or kit building of any kind. There are no plans such as the paper magazines have if building a building or any kind of build. It seems mostly geared to RTR, DCC and operations.

One other thing I'd like to mention is writing articles for them. I did an article on adding better electrical pick by adding wiper wires. I had to e-mail them several times to get my money for the article. Another instance happened last year. I was asked if MRH could consolidate a thread I did on adding wheel wipers to a locomotive. Asked me if I would accept PayPal. I'm still waiting for my money.

As far as the forum goes, since Model Railroader got sold and members of that forum were having trouble posting there, they came over to MRH. At present is seems the noise to signal ratio has gotten quite high. There are some good modelers over there but the majority I think like to see their name in print and try to get there post count up high. I still post there every now and then but am beginning to think I'm wasting my time taking pictures processing them and writing up a post.

Ok, I'm getting off my soapbox now.

Bernd

[IWannaRetire]

I found the MRH digital magazine not long after it's inception, maybe 3rd or 4th issue. I was doubly intrigued as I was experiencing some beginners' success as a freelance automotive journalist for some special interest print car magazines, and had been approached by a digital magazine startup that asked me to be a contributor. I was on the fence about that so I watched MRH closely as it was same format, just different interest. 

The early years I read at MRH seemed to have more "how to" content than now, but like Bernd says: little to no kit or scratch building, topics I enjoy most.

After a while I felt that their content was drifting towards modelers who write way more checks than I do, so it fell off my reading list.

[IWannaRetire]

I just received the premier digital issue of New Tracks Modeling Magazine titled New Tracks Modeler in today's email.

https://magazine.newtracksmodeling.com/books/lgfx/#p=1

My impression so far is very favorable. This issue is 53 pages, the content to ad ratio is about what I would expect from a free publication, as someone has to foot the bill.

What I personally like is that there are several scratch-building articles.  Here's a screenshot of the contents page:



Your mileage may differ here....I have watched numerous New Tracks videos in the past, and I find some of them very informative, but to be brutally honest, too many are painfully slow for my liking.   

However, that reflects my personal preferences. Personally, I'd much rather flip through a paper document, second to that, a good slide presentation, third would be a decent video.  "Decent" to me is one that has very little to no "talking head" footage.




 

[jbvb]

I got put on New Tracks' email list some time back, so I got this notice a week or two ago.  Haven't deleted it, so I'll take a look next rainy day.