Railroad Man's Magazine

[ACL1504]

Many years ago on this forum, I started a thread with the Railroad Magazines covers. I believe when this forum shut down a several years ago that thread was lost.

I started a new thread on RR Line and now that forum is gone.

It was all started in 1882 by Frank Munsey with Argosy. Argosy was a pulp magazine  There were literally dozens of pulp magazines on the marked in the early 1900's. Adventure, Railroad, Fishing, Flying and so on.

Munsey turned Argosy into a story and railroad magazine. The Argosy magazine is from April 1919



Eventually, Argosy was dropped in favor of an all railroad magazine for men. The magazine below is from October 1906

[ACL1504]

The Judge's father, Mr. Eaton, subscribed to the magazine and had decades of copies of them. Bill, inherited the magazines and were kept in the Eaton's attic over the past 40 years.

Fast forward and Bill and I have been reading the articles and donated many of those early magazines to the local ACL/SAL Historical Society. However, I found the water color covers fascinating so I copied all ones given to the historical society.

Bill still has several years of magazines.

I'll post the covers here. I've also gone back and resized all the covers to one pixel size for the best quality and color with Irfanview. Irfanview is the program I use for all photos, cropped, resized, cleaned and posted on this forum.
Please enjoy the efforts of Bill to keep these so we may all enjoy the wonderful water color covers

February 1958 -



May 1931 -

[Jerry]

Thank you Tom & BIll for saving all these old covers.

So once again the adventure starts again.  Hopefully Tom it will last this time around!!   
And a great start to begin with.

Jerry

[Philip]

Neat stuff Tom!

[Vietnam Seabee]

This is gonna be fun. Thanks Bill and Tom
terry

[Rick]

Bill and Tom, thanks for saving these magazine covers for us to enjoy.
And thanks Tom for starting another thread and posting them.
Those first two covers you posted don't seem very railroady.
It looks like the editors then were trying to get sales by being a bit scandalous.

[ACL1504]

Thank you Tom & BIll for saving all these old covers.

So once again the adventure starts again.  Hopefully Tom it will last this time around!! 
And a great start to begin with.

Jerry

Jerry,

You are welcome. I don't mind doing this over are the covers are wonderful and very well done water colors.

I'm sure this forum will last, Jim, our CEO, says he isn't going anywhere.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Neat stuff Tom!

Philip, I agree.

Tom

[ACL1504]

This is gonna be fun. Thanks Bill and Tom
terry

Terry,

Yes, and this time it will stay.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Bill and Tom, thanks for saving these magazine covers for us to enjoy.
And thanks Tom for starting another thread and posting them.
Those first two covers you posted don't seem very railroady.
It looks like the editors then were trying to get sales by being a bit scandalous.

Rick,

You are welcome also. I agree, but the covers to get much more railroady themed.

Tom

[jbvb]

Tom, I remember those threads, and I'm glad to see the subject reopened.  I only have a half-dozen issues but the magazine is the original source for Don Steffe's (sp?) "speed survey". I've always been proud of the years when the B&M had a dozen or more RDC trains making the 65 MPH Start to Stop listing for the 12 miles between Haverhill MA and Exeter NH (speed limit 70 mph).

Also, I have to ask: Is the "Piggyback" issue really 1929?  The vehicles and the half-dollar price make me think post-1940 at least.

[ACL1504]

I realized the magazine was called Railroad Man's Magazine and then Railroad Stories prior to being called simply Railroad Magazine.

About ten years ago Bill and I took many of his dad's magazines to the ACL/SAL Historical Society. I found some covers I copied that were part of the ones donated. I found these in a separate file from the ones I posted on RR Lines.

I'm gong to contact Ken Murdock, Curator of the Museum, and see if I can pull them out and photograph the covers I didn't copy. I'll let you know later in the thread.

Here are some I copied prior to letting them go.

The last photo above is called Railroad Man's Magazine - May 1931. I don't know what month the change took place but here is November 1931 and it is Railroad Man's Magazine Stories.

November - 1931



August 1934 -

[ACL1504]

Tom, I remember those threads, and I'm glad to see the subject reopened.  I only have a half-dozen issues but the magazine is the original source for Don Steffe's (sp?) "speed survey". I've always been proud of the years when the B&M had a dozen or more RDC trains making the 65 MPH Start to Stop listing for the 12 miles between Haverhill MA and Exeter NH (speed limit 70 mph).

Also, I have to ask: Is the "Piggyback" issue really 1929?  The vehicles and the half-dollar price make me think post-1940 at least.

James,

I may have copied the date/year wrong on the piggybacks. I thought it looked to modern for 1929. However, I no longer have the magazine to check. If I get to the ACL museum, I'll see if I can find the true date.

Mystery solved - It is the February 1958 cover.

Tom

[elwoodblues]

Tom,

I'm really glad that you decided to bring this back, I really enjoyed seeing them on the RR line forum.

[Rick]

Tom, "Monk" must have been stealing for a long time because back in 1931 that was a lot of money.
It woks out to over 21 million in todays dollar.

I wonder if the story by E. S. Dellinger titled "Easy Money" was about theft too?