A musing about MRJ

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cmax

cmax

Western Thunderer
76043 said:
I had the first 150 or so and sold them for a tidy sum, possibly on eBay. I can't recall now. I also had a collection of modellers and other mags and was extremely glad to have freed up the space. Collectively they weighed a ton. I did keep the compendiums though. No regrets. Unfortunately during lockdown I bought a couple and quite a few modellers, so am going to strip out the drawings and chuck them in due course.
Tony
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Snap!, I had very issue from Zero to 275, loads of Modellers, and other mags etc, they take up loads of space, so I decided instead of just binning them, to scan them, a couple a day, this just happened to coincide with lockdown, so I still have the magazines electronically, they don't take up the space, are easy to find. I realise this won't appeal to everyone and is time consuming, I still buy MRJ, get to about 6 physical copies, then scan and recycle.

Gary
 
Captain Kernow

Captain Kernow

Western Thunderer
Neil said:
A contrary view; well would you expect anything less? At one time I had most issues but about five years ago I gave most away (just kept a few, North Shields, Chee Tor, etc) and found it most liberating. I still usually pick up a copy from the newsagents here in Tywyn and look forward to reading it but it is as disposable as the Modeller, BRM and the rest.
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Yes, I can really identify with that, Neil.

I recently got rid of all my copies of Scalefour News, apart from odd ones which had contents that I wanted to keep. That was also liberating!

Simon will also well remember the 'Immaculate Collection', as we called my pristine collection of Railway Modellers, covering every issue from the mid-1970s to 1992. When we moved to Devon in that year, they were all unceremoniously dumped in a supermarket trolley at the Avon Valley Railway at Bitton, for them to sell individually.

I have never missed them.
 
PhilH

PhilH

Western Thunderer
I used to subscribe regularly to the Railway Magazine since the 1960s and kept all the issues "for future reference" - which I don't think ever happened ! However I found that the local library service provide the facility to read various magazines on line free of charge including a total of 10 railway related titles. In addition to Railway Magazine these also include British Railway Modelling, Model Railroader, Garden Railways (US) and Australian Model Rail. With some of these magazines you can also "borrow" back issues going back 2-3 years. So its worth enquiring if your local library also provides this service.

With other shorter term subscriptions to Model Railway Journal, Narrow Gauge & Industrial Review, Model Railroader and Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette, these were all stored in an upstairs spare bedroom and I began to worry about the effect of the weight on the floor. So after several hours going through all the Railway Magazines and extracting any articles of interest they all went for recycling.
 
Martin Shaw

Martin Shaw

Western Thunderer
Hmm, as I thought a broad spectrum of opinion which ultimately leaves me no wiser. Your responses in the last 24 hours have caused me to consider the whole matter in a greater depth, here is the repository from whence they are moved once every other year to dust them a bit.
IMG_1869.JPG
I make no use of them for reference purposes and the odd one gets looked at if I hapen to have 5 spare minutes in the workshop. As some of you know I reorganised the libtrary last autumn and the truth is storage of magazines long term is only sensible if they're bound which I couldn't justify to myself. It might make them more sellable but I suspect the binding costs would out weigh the potential uplift in sale price.

The decision, for which I thank you all for your contributions to the thought process, is to continue keeping Mr Castens in beer money until issue 300, and then stop, around the end of this year I surmise. I'll probably offer them here at the time and see what responses that garners.
Regards
Martin
 
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M

MoatLane

Western Thunderer
I have the full set with me here in France, together with GWRJ, providing ballast in the bookcase that supports Llangurig's fiddle yard. Postal charges almost double the cover price and I have seriously thought about giving up. Then an issue comes along that dispels all doubts, so I hope I'll still be around when our factrice brings Issue 300.

I wish it was a bit less po-faced though, and a permanent editor would iron out unevenness in content as well as keeping up standards and style.
chris
 
cmax

cmax

Western Thunderer
Martin Shaw said:
Hmm, as I thought a broad spectrum of opinion which ultimately leaves me no wiser. Your responses in the last 24 hours have caused me to consider the whole matter in a greater depth, here is the repository from whence they are moved once every other year to dust them a bit.
View attachment 184555
I make no use of them for reference purposes and the odd one gets looked at if I hapen to have 5 spare minutes in the workshop. As some of you know I reorganised the libtrary last autumn and the truth is storage of magazines long term is only sensible if they're bound which I couldn't justify to myself. It might make them more sellable but I suspect the binding costs would out weigh the potential uplift in sale price.

The decision, for which I thank you all for your contributions to the thought process, is to continue keeping Mr Castens in beer money until issue 300, and then stop, around the end of this year I surmise. I'll probably offer them here at the time and see what responses that garners.
Regards
Martin
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Martin, As you make no use of them for reference and only keep them if you happen to have a spare 5 mins, why don't you just bite the bullet now and dispose of them, I've been in the same boat as you, I just kept putting it off, and spent more time thinking about it than actually doing it, yes I scanned mine, which took me a couple of months, but in your case, I'd just offer them for disposal, the space is more important.

Gary
 
jonte

jonte

Western Thunderer
My daughter has been a long standing subscriber on my behalf, but only the other day (with my birthday pending) I asked her to cancel it.

A shame, but there it is.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
-missy- said:
Dare I say it, maybe its time MRJ went digital (along with a paper copy)? All of my other railway magazines are now.

Julia.
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I would very much like that. I’d happily pay for access to digitised back numbers too.

I was a subscriber, and I do love reading the articles from time to time, but I’ve disposed of nearly everything else, magazine-wise, save my GWRJs, of which I have the first 40 or so, and which I bound in BRM covers that I bought at a B&B at a show.
 
76043

76043

Western Thunderer
I 'heard' the MRJ is laid out on paper in a pre-Macintosh style then handed over to remade digitally. So in theory the printers or whoever may have the digital artwork, but then again they may not have room for it.

I'd be interested to know how it is laid out as a former graphic design student who was taught to layout artwork on cardboard, but then learnt the wonder of the Apple Mac.
Tony
 
T

Tim V

Western Thunderer
The last MRJ I bought was 262. And that was an exception.

I was increasingly being annoyed by the articles within it. I was incensed by an article I'd written on reliable running getting rejected, only to see an article I considered plagarised another person's work getting published extolling the use of EM flanges on P4 track.

I realised that MRJ and I were moving in different directions. So I haven't bought one for a long time.

I would also agree that the early ones (pre No. 30) were better.

I recently went through my collection - a load of GWSG & EMGS newsletters, BRMs, Steam World (etc), HMRS and GWS all went in the recycling. A massive space has been created. As for my 30 years of Railway Modeller collection, and Scalefour News, I haven't (yet) come to the point of disposing of them. And how about the 40 years of Railway Magazine?
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Tim,

might there be a place on WT for your article? (Presuming it wasn’t published elsewhere)

reliable running is crucial to maintaining the illusion.
 
ullypug

ullypug

Western Thunderer
I remember looking through MRJ back in the early days and being inspired by the modelling. It was like nothing else in my mind and having something worthy of publication became an aspirational goal. I feel very privileged to have subsequently had stuff published (still don’t always think it’s good enough) and I also take pleasure in having shopped more than one person to the editorial team over the years. It can be a bit cliquey but it still is the magazine I look forward to reading, along with the S4 news, Railway Modeller and to a lesser extent the EMGS newsletter. Nothing lasts forever of course and it may stop at some point. I like the rotating chair of editors as it keeps things fresh, some issues have less to interest me than others but so what? From a personal point of view though I hope it carries on for a bit longer yet. I’ve still got a few binders to use up!
 
K

King Crab

Western Thunderer
As I moved abroad in the early 90’s I was out of touch with the UK modelling scene, and MRJ in particular. So when I recently had the chance to get the first hundred issues off Ebay for a decent price, I jumped at it. I am reading them at the rate of one a week, in order. This week I arrived at number 80.

I find it a fascinating history document as it discusses the various developments around fine scale modelling, as well as an appreciation of the ‘Giants’ of the hobby whose shoulders they stand on. Something that the MRJ was particularly keen to explore.
So for me the journey is very worthwhile, at least on the evidence so far.

I have now managed to acquire most of the remaining copies, but I will need another four years at the current rate of consumption, before I arrive at the 300 mark.

I’ll have to let you know if the quality declines…

Peter
 
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