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BRM March 2019


Howard Smith
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You need to click the watch later symbol on the video  (providing you have a Gmail account ) best if you view the magazine in google chrome. Go into YouTube and you can watch the movie in full frame. Also cast to your TV (by your phone), mine works on Now Tv and amazon fire stick.

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7 hours ago, dave_7820 said:

 

Perhaps I need to take a subscription.  That way I get the DVD, and I'm not paying extra to get a free gift which is of no use to me, as an N gauge modeller.

 

It would make sense. Realistically, most gifts will have to be aimed at the much larger 4mm scale market - all the recent ones with the exception of the brush pack have been. It's not practical to produce different packs for different scales and then ship them all out to newsagents. Even if we did, you'd probably find yourself in a shop behind people who had snapped up all the mags with "your" scale gift on the front!

 

I recorded some more practical this week and I've tried to make them suitable for all scales. Plus we have loads of other good stuff on the DVD.

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19 hours ago, ColinK said:

The fact that people keep complaining means there is a problem and its not being fixed, which is not good for BRM nor its readers.  To be successful in the long run a publication needs happy customers.

 

Anyway, I’ve had a good offline chat with BRM so I’ll say no more for now.

 

People keep complaining because this is an online forum.

 

If you can think of a way to keep every single one of many thousands of grumpy railway modellers happy simultaneously then you really need to be working for us, or better still, in government.

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5 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

 

People keep complaining because this is an online forum.

 

If you can think of a way to keep every single one of many thousands of grumpy railway modellers happy simultaneously then you really need to be working for us, or better still, in government.

this month a free Tim Horn baseboard, next month a NCE Powercab controller........

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1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

this month a free Tim Horn baseboard, next month a NCE Powercab controller........

 

And on RMweb:

 

"The baseboard isn't big enough"

 

"The baseboard doesn't fit the top of my odd-shaped bookcase!"

 

"Why isn't the baseboard made of Sundeala?"

 

"I DON'T WANT ANY OF THIS DCC RUBBISH!!!!!!!!"

 

"Why isn't this compatible with my Zero One chips?!"

 

continue until everyone loses the will to live...

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2 hours ago, Bluebell Model Railway said:

Picked up BRM today... I'm slightly confused... Should it have a dvd or not? 

 Been some confusion on model groups... Some have dvds some have laser cut kits? 

 

BRM Facebook shows an image with dvd.. 

See this earlier post:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/141676-brm-march-2019/&do=findComment&comment=3458378

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10 hours ago, Kiwi said:

 

Thanks sadly the whole page doesn't load on my phone sadly the update hasn't helped.. 

 

 Its disappointing as I don't have a fast enough broadband to view or download the mag and video... I tried with other mags sadly just doesn't work that well.. 

 

Shame I was looking forward to the dvd, I'll just have to return it to the shop. 

 

Thanks for the clarification 

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2 hours ago, Bluebell Model Railway said:

 

Shame I was looking forward to the dvd, I'll just have to return it to the shop. 

 

 

Odd, only last week you were happy to tell Facebook readers "I don't buy BRM any more, used to be a good mag sadly gone down hill recently."

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On 06/02/2019 at 19:39, Phil Parker said:

 

People keep complaining because this is an online forum.

 

If you can think of a way to keep every single one of many thousands of grumpy railway modellers happy simultaneously then you really need to be working for us, or better still, in government.

 

That’s a fair question Phil. As I was already in discussion with Howard, I’ve just sent him several ideas for keeping eveyone happy. Hope they help.

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I do not have a digital subscription as I am more than happy buying the magazine as it’s a treat for me and I like the gifts that pop up from time to time. This is my choice, I think people should be thankful we have a choice digital or magazine or both and just stop the complaining. :victory:

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On 07/02/2019 at 14:15, Andy Y said:

 

Odd, only last week you were happy to tell Facebook readers "I don't buy BRM any more, used to be a good mag sadly gone down hill recently."

Sorry I don't recall.... 

 I've stopped writing for one or 2... I buy what I want to read. 

 

BTW the LNWR comp vote link stopped working  before the end sue to the upgrade, has that been rectified? Or extended? 

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I'm sure I will be proven wrong, but...
The free kit available via Newsagents of a couple of Terraced houses, and has within the magazine a recommendation on how to add variety to them.
One item as supplied is the (left hand) chimney as shown in the attached photo.
I believe this to be wrong. The chimney should be the outlet for the fire in the front room and presumably the kitchen stove/range etc., at the back of the house, and the first floor bedrooms.  The chimney in a position as supplied would be for something behind the front door where the hall and staircase up to the first floor are, no fireplaces on that wall.
The chimney twixt the brick and stone fronted house is in the 'correct' position. Further.....
It would also have been useful if the window/door fret had included sash windows,
as I believe the style shown, top hung, are relatively modern.
And perhaps on the back of the brickwork, there could have been an outline to allow the occasional small window above the front door to be added, and a lintel overlay onto the brickwork, but, the fret is, what it is.
 

RMweb - Freebi #1.jpg

Edited by Penlan
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If you take out a subscription for the paper copy using the in mag promo slip code which controller do you get? Not giving the code out for obvious reasons and happy for a PM'd reply if necessary.

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On 09/02/2019 at 20:48, Penlan said:

I'm sure I will be proven wrong, but...
The free kit available via Newsagents of a couple of Terraced houses, and has within the magazine a recommendation on how to add variety to them.
One item as supplied is the (left hand) chimney as shown in the attached photo.
I believe this to be wrong. The chimney should be the outlet for the fire in the front room and presumably the kitchen stove/range etc., at the back of the house, and the first floor bedrooms.  The chimney in a position as supplied would be for something behind the front door where the hall and staircase up to the first floor are, no fireplaces on that wall.
The chimney twixt the brick and stone fronted house is in the 'correct' position. Further.....
It would also have been useful if the window/door fret had included sash windows,
as I believe the style shown, top hung, are relatively modern.
And perhaps on the back of the brickwork, there could have been an outline to allow the occasional small window above the front door to be added, and a lintel overlay onto the brickwork, but, the fret is, what it is.
 

 

That's why the image says 'Chimney supplied in the middle on this prototype kit' so readers know it's an early prototype of the kit and not the one supplied.

Windows/doors and fascias for that matter can be altered easily with a bit of 'modelling', as Phil has demonstrated.

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On 10/02/2019 at 10:52, Hroth said:

I was browsing through back issues of BRM when I came across the October 2016 issue...

Headline Snap!

(Eco-friendly recycling, I suppose...)

 

Ahhh - well, please forgive me on that occasion! It was a few years ago and there are many headlines to remember. You have a good memory, though.

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On 10/02/2019 at 10:52, Hroth said:

I was browsing through back issues of BRM when I came across the October 2016 issue...

 

Headline Snap!

 

(Eco-friendly recycling, I suppose...)

 

(Both issues of BRM carry the same heading on their front covers, in block capitals: "Rolling Stone". This fan of classical music is relieved that neither version of the heading has an "S" at the end.)

 

11 hours ago, Howard Smith said:

 

Ahhh - well, please forgive me on that occasion! It was a few years ago and there are many headlines to remember. You have a good memory, though.

 

I'd also imagine that, when the March 2019 front cover was assembled, certain people might have been preoccupied with loads of other stuff - a situation which might continue for a bit longer (but I don't think the time's right to go into any more detail on that ...).

 

Somehow, I suspect we might encounter some rather different front page headings (and magazine content) with the August 2020 issue of BRM.

 

 

Personally, I'd be delighted if I were to see something about a couple of RailRoad GWR / AEC "Razor Edge" railcars morphing into a multi-car DMU set - but, unfortunately, I'm not expecting to find anything of this sort.

 

Of course, this is a real pity, since this sort of content would have had plenty to recommend it - practical stuff, with the serious risk of some people getting their hands dirty - extra points because we're talking "D&E" - we're also talking short, passenger trains, in the shape of railcars / multiple units - even better still, those iconic "Razor Edge" railcars had "GWR" written all over them - so what's not to like about them ... ?

 

OK - "kettles" are / were also available (like Pannier tanks, for instance - some people like them) - the same goes for other railways (some people are even reputed to like them, too) ... . If you also consider people more interested in freight, or who prefer models in other scales, you're looking at a number of subsets of readers with conflicting interests, all of whom you'd quite like to keep on board.

 

Anyway, for some reaason, the last time I checked, mainstream model railroading magazines weren't exactly known for doing "reader requests", even if suitable content exists (which it probably doesn't right now). It certainly doesn't exist here - even if I had a few of these models to hack around, I probably wouldn't have a lot of time to do this work - and as for somebody like me knowing how to create the sort of "copy" that would get magazines flying off the shelves, let's just "get real" ... .

 

 

This aside, whoever's in the Editorial chair in the middle of next year, I don't think they'd want their hands tied.

 

Anyway, I'm sure it's been said before that, as well as the "bodger" types like me (who crave practical, "how-to" content), there are also a number of people who are more interested in layouts. There are also other "factions", none of whom exactly wish their interests to be forgotten.

 

 

None of this makes life easy for magazine Editors - many of whom have probably got their own personal preferences for the sort of articles they'd like to read (personal preferences which a number of them probably go to some effort to keep in check).

 

 

Huw.

Edited by Huw Griffiths
I wished to clarify certain points.
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Re Terraced Houses

 

I am a subscriber to the printed edition of BRM and was pleased at the time to read about the low relief terraced houses that have been commissioned by BRM. I  promptly ordered 2 from the online shop at £9.99 each. However, I was horrified to see today that if I had bought the printed magazine from a shop I would have got a free terraced house. I could have bought an additional 2 copies and saved myself £10. I'm not happy......

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I've now read the previous comments on this matter and wish I'd read these earlier.

 

I have no issue with BRM adding freebies to the print versions sold in the shop which are not on the subscription version.

 

What annoyed me is that the article states you can buy them from the BRM website and made no reference to the fact that you can pick them up cheaper by buying a the shop version

 

I will be more wary in future

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20 hours ago, Huw Griffiths said:

Anyway, for some reaason, the last time I checked, mainstream model railroading magazines weren't exactly known for doing "reader requests", even if suitable content exists (which it probably doesn't right now).

 

Then you didn't do much checking. I've written a number of pieces based on reader requests - in fact, a couple of weeks ago I filmed one based on a single request made at Peterborough show.

 

As I repeatedly say to people, if you have ideas for projects you'd like to see covered, then let us know. You'll find this appear in many RMweb magazine threads, usually followed by a deafening silence, or suggestions so specific that they would appeal to no-one except the questioner. We're still listening though and sometimes we hear something that makes its way into future plans.


We even have a potential article to fit your pretty specific request, although how many people are going to buy 3 railcars so they have enough material to chop up into two bodies, which will then need to be repainted, is up for debate. My guess is that if you have the skills to make a decent job of a 2-car razor edge railcar, you don't need a magazine article to show you. The difficult bits such as accurately cutting up bodies and grafting them together are difficult even with a step-by-step.

 

Model railway magazines are excellent ways to have a go at writing articles too. I started by submitting a few pieces to BRM and then MORILL . Many others did exactly the same. Much of our material is by freelancers who write up projects they have carried out for their own enjoyment.

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On 11/02/2019 at 22:16, Huw Griffiths said:

Anyway, for some reason, the last time I checked, mainstream model railroading magazines weren't exactly known for doing "reader requests", even if suitable content exists (which it probably doesn't right now).

 

4 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

Then you didn't do much checking. I've written a number of pieces based on reader requests ...


... We even have a potential article to fit your pretty specific request, although how many people are going to buy 3 railcars so they have enough material to chop up into two bodies, which will then need to be repainted, is up for debate. My guess is that if you have the skills to make a decent job of a 2-car razor edge railcar, you don't need a magazine article to show you. The difficult bits such as accurately cutting up bodies and grafting them together are difficult even with a step-by-step.

 

Model railway magazines are excellent ways to have a go at writing articles too. I started by submitting a few pieces to BRM and then MORILL . Many others did exactly the same. Much of our material is by freelancers who write up projects they have carried out for their own enjoyment.

 

Many thanks.

 

Just for information, part of the reason for my comment about requests was that I suspected something like this might be too specific. This is also one reason why I've studiously avoided mentioning one long term build project (which I'm sure you've already heard about) in any magazine threads on this site.

 

My reason for using a "razor edge" as an example in my comments was to make the point that, although a stone traffic theme (and heading!) had been repeated on front covers, 17 or 18 months apart, I doubt if history will repeat itself in another 17 or 18 months' time. For this reason, I was trying to think of something as different as you could get (albeit a "niche" build project I'd personally be delighted to see - not only because I've been thinking of building one myself for a number of years - not only because of the potential "wow factor" - but also because I could actually see a build project like this yielding a number of credible "spin-offs").

 

However, quite reasonably, I also thought that few Editors would particularly wish to have some reader attempting to "tie  their hands" (probably not much wrong with readers coming up with crazy ideas - but expecting them to find their way into any publication might well be a stretch too far).

 

I would actually have expected a number of magazines to be inundated with requests for articles - if nothing else in the hope that some staff writer gets landed with doing all the hard work, so readers don't have to. Well, it's either that or a lot of people not reading their copies of magazines anything like as thoroughly as you or I might hope.

 

As for me, when I read "how to" articles - even ones for projects I'm never likely to build myself - I'm actively thinking about all the potential issues that might be encountered (and how the people who've done the featured builds solved the issues they found). This mindset might have something to do with my engineering background - and the fact that, for a number of years, my work involved training engineering students to analyse and deal with any technical issues they might encounter.

 

 

Please don't get me wrong - I've been eyeing up a 2 car "razor edge" build for a number of years - but it's the prospect of the single car version in RailRoad trim that looks like making this an affordable proposition. Not having seen this model "in the plastic", I'm not sure what chassis it uses - but I can't see Hornby doing anything too adventurous here. The fact that I could personally imagine a number of other credible drivetrain options is neither here nor there (after all, few people would be likely to replace a working chassis with something completely different unless they had other ideas for how to use the original chassis).

 

Meanwhile, I'd guess that the RailRoad railcar probably uses the ex-Lima bodyshell - which could actually leave a couple of minor issues, even for anyone wishing to produce an accurate model of a single car version (eg guard's doors and windows the wrong way round on one side - plus certain door handles the wrong way round - even though I might be left handed, I can't see this being the case for the majority of train guards).

 

The bodyshell stuff also makes me wonder what sort of plastic is used - and whether "standard" styrene sheet and solvent glues would bond reliably (or if there might be issues with warping further along the line). I could imagine these issues affecting a number of potential "cut & shut" / rebuild projects - and that's before you get to the challenges inherent in getting all the cuts and joins right. Further challenges could also include working out how to do a decent job of lighting these models.

 

In other words, there are plenty of potential issues with a project of this nature. Assuming this article appears in a future BRM, I'll be very interested to see what issues have been identified and addressed by the modelmaker - how they've gone about achieving this - and if I can think of any straightforward "tweaks" of my own for any future build of my own.

 

I'm under no illusions - I very much doubt doubt if any version of mine would be as good as the published one - but I reckon I'd learn a lot in the process. For me, I'd actually expect this process to start with "cut and shut" jobs on some coach bodyshell "seconds" - the sort of stuff that can sometimes be seen on certain exhibitors' stands at major model railway shows.

 

For these reasons, I hope this article apears in due course - and, assuming it does, I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

 

 

Huw.

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