Modelling magazines

[TTDB]

Rummaging through some boxes the other day came across some 34yr old Euro Model Rail Revue magazines made some interesting reading , Roco had just introduced the first 1/87 303mm coaches and some excellent layouts and photos, pity it didn’t last perhaps quarterly may have been better, anyone else remember this publication? 

[SimonBoulton]

The one that Steve Rabone wrote a lot of the articles for? It had some really good layout ideas and track plans 

[TTDB]

13 hours ago, SimonBoulton said:

The one that Steve Rabone wrote a lot of the articles for? It had some really good layout ideas and track plans 

Not quite sure think he did, the one I’ve found has a very interesting article on a DB/CSD border station there was also Auchaux think this was Andy Hart of the SNCF society layout , it was nice to have a European magazine I like models from all over the world but Europe is my main interest CM sometimes has a large US presence , but on the other hand I did think it was Rhb fan club magazine  once! 

[Allegheny1600]

I remember the magazine you refer to, I probably had a few copies.

IIRC, it had a mostly blue cover?

Then there was a similar more recentish one with a red cover - this latter did go quarterly but still fizzled out. I’m quite sure the former editor still builds and exhibits layouts. I helped him once but his name escapes me!

 I once had every copy of CM (up until I left the UK) and while I still like it, I must agree with TTDB above even though I know they can only publish what they receive.

 I think CM’s success is due to it selling around the world, I know it’s read down under and I think I’ve seen it in Europe, the number of articles from European modellers indicates that. I don’t know if it reaches across the Atlantic though, anyone?

Does anyone know of any other English language global coverage modelling magazines?

[Phil Parker]

8 minutes ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Does anyone know of any other English language global coverage modelling magazines?

 

Chris Ellis edited Model Trains International - http://www.modeltrainsinternational.co.uk/

[TTDB]

1 hour ago, Allegheny1600 said:

I remember the magazine you refer to, I probably had a few copies.

IIRC, it had a mostly blue cover?

Then there was a similar more recentish one with a red cover - this latter did go quarterly but still fizzled out. I’m quite sure the former editor still builds and exhibits layouts. I helped him once but his name escapes me!

 I once had every copy of CM (up until I left the UK) and while I still like it, I must agree with TTDB above even though I know they can only publish what they receive.

 I think CM’s success is due to it selling around the world, I know it’s read down under and I think I’ve seen it in Europe, the number of articles from European modellers indicates that. I don’t know if it reaches across the Atlantic though, anyone?

Does anyone know of any other English language global coverage modelling magazines?

I’ve sweet CM  for sale in a US shop once and in Jocadis in Belgium , when ever I go abroad I try and buy a domestic model rail magazine and besides MIBA I must say none are on par with CM but then again the magazine that I may buy on the Ramblas will be 98% RENFE as a MIBA is mostly DB/R where as CM is worldwide , I agree they can only publish content that they receive , one name sticks in my mind is Len Weal the  photographer, Model Rail did a European supplement a few years ago with a nice Italian coast layout modern image , I wrote a couple of articles for a magazine Modern Railway Modelling about 14 years ago one was about my 1/80 Japanese HO and the other about GM locos in Europe I had written a third and the publishers pulled the plug, Nigel Burkin now does Rail Express modelling section, 

[D9020 Nimbus]

Euromodel Rail Review debuted in 1982. The first four issues were edited by Steve Rabone. The magazine was published by Trevor Ridley. There was a hiatus in publishing after the first four issues; it then resumed at a significantly higher price this time with Trevor Ridley as editor and publisher. A further hiatus took place—issue 13 was long-delayed—before publication resumed under Brian Lockwood. Steve Rabone contributed layout design articles in most, but not all, months.

 

The cover was an orange-red colour. Issue 24 marked a tie-up with Eisenbahn Journal and colour throughout but was the last to be published (Eisenbahn Journal is itself now defunct.)

 

After Trevor Ridley purchased Atlantic from David Jenkinson he acquired the rights to the title European Railways from Robert Spark. This is the magazine that had a blue cover. He started publishing with issue no. 150; it was initially sold through WHSmith and the like before going subscription-only with (I think) no. 176. I don’t think there were many more issues.

[SimonBoulton]

On 02/02/2022 at 11:45, TTDB said:

Not quite sure think he did, the one I’ve found has a very interesting article on a DB/CSD border station there was also Auchaux think this was Andy Hart of the SNCF society layout , it was nice to have a European magazine I like models from all over the world but Europe is my main interest CM sometimes has a large US presence , but on the other hand I did think it was Rhb fan club magazine  once! 

 

I've got that edition, the border station was Schirnding. The Andy Hart article was really good too. There was also an article suggesting modelling a German branchline in the US style with multiple stations and using waybills for the freight movements. There would probably be lots of copyright issues but it would be great if some of the articles from those early editions could be reprinted. 

[ellocoloco]

21 hours ago, Allegheny1600 said:

I think CM’s success is due to it selling around the world

 

I once picked up a copy of CM from a supermarket in Dubai, next to the copies of Hello for the western crowd!

[TTDB]

1 hour ago, SimonBoulton said:

 

I've got that edition, the border station was Schirnding. The Andy Hart article was really good too. There was also an article suggesting modelling a German branchline in the US style with multiple stations and using waybills for the freight movements. There would probably be lots of copyright issues but it would be great if some of the articles from those early editions could be reprinted. 

Very true after all nothing operational apart from DCC has really changed in 35 years, and the Czech border is now history and interesting history I remember the Czech was is T679 loco being used? Likewise CM are any of the layouts they have featured say 30 years ago still about?  Brian Harraps ZOB comes to mind with his Bo-Bo-Bo variant of the OBB 1044 , 

[298]

On 02/02/2022 at 15:52, Allegheny1600 said:

Does anyone know of any other English language global coverage modelling magazines?

 

I ordered an English copy of Voie Libre after seeing an advert featuring my favourite S word ironically in the back of Continental Modeller. I'm not sure if it's coverage is global or even as wide as CM from the one edition I've seen, and it took just a couple of days to arrive. I'm very impressed with both it and CM this month. 

 

https://trains.lrpresse.com/CT-152-voie-libre.aspx

 

 

[Pacific231G]

On 02/02/2022 at 11:45, TTDB said:

Not quite sure think he did, the one I’ve found has a very interesting article on a DB/CSD border station there was also Auchaux think this was Andy Hart of the SNCF society layout , it was nice to have a European magazine I like models from all over the world but Europe is my main interest CM sometimes has a large US presence , but on the other hand I did think it was Rhb fan club magazine  once! 

I have a number of those. including no. 4 Sept 1982 which included Andy Hart's Achaux (the name a pun on how H0 is pronounced in French) 

 

Andy's original description of Achaux, a 12ft long (plus FY) Main line Terminus   had been in MRC in two parts in October & November 1980. 

I still find myself reading all three articles quite often.

The Euromodel Rail Review article was on "Exploitation- or train movements, French-style",   basically a description of the timetable used for exhibtions and the thinking behind it . (The "ancient autorail" on P13- an FNC-  is currently  in service on my own French BLT) . In the earlier MRC articles the location of Achaux  "somewhere in the Ouest" was fairly vague but by the time of the Euromodel article he'd placed it as a cathedral City in the location actually occupied by the smallish town of Château-du-Loir with some changes to the local railway topology.

The original terminus became a through station with an extension built by Andy's great friend Roger Beacham and that version was described in Continental Modeller in May/june 1986  (It was also still exhibited as a terrminus particularly in its later years)

"Achaux- Then and Now" was the other article about Achaux twenty years later in European Railways - which seems to have been the successor to  Euromodel Rail Review  - in no. 152 Feb/March 2003 (presumably Trevor Ridley started E.R. at no 150 to make it appear well established) That article was a retrospective on the orgnal portable layout- both its terminus and through station mode-   and an introduction to the new larger permanent version of Achaux as a main line terminus  which sadly Andy Hart didn't live to complete before he died in 2013.  

 

Although it was a far less glossy publication I always rather liked Model Trains International and its Chris Elllis edited predecessors and, in the end, sometimes wrote for it. It included some very useful small layouts that didn't ever appear anywhere else. 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Pacific231G

[SimonBoulton]

On 05/02/2022 at 00:36, Pacific231G said:

I have a number of those. including no. 4 Sept 1982 which included Andy Hart's Achaux (the name a pun on how H0 is pronounced in French) 

 

Andy's original description of Achaux, a 12ft long (plus FY) Main line Terminus   had been in MRC in two parts in October & November 1980. 

I still find myself reading all three articles quite often.

The Euromodel Rail Review article was on "Exploitation- or train movements, French-style",   basically a description of the timetable used for exhibtions and the thinking behind it . (The "ancient autorail" on P13- an FNC-  is currently  in service on my own French BLT) . In the earlier MRC articles the location of Achaux  "somewhere in the Ouest" was fairly vague but by the time of the Euromodel article he'd placed it as a cathedral City in the location actually occupied by the smallish town of Château-du-Loir with some changes to the local railway topology.

The original terminus became a through station with an extension built by Andy's great friend Roger Beacham and that version was described in Continental Modeller in May/june 1986  (It was also still exhibited as a terrminus particularly in its later years)

"Achaux- Then and Now" was the other article about Achaux twenty years later in European Railways - which seems to have been the successor to  Euromodel Rail Review  - in no. 152 Feb/March 2003 (presumably Trevor Ridley started E.R. at no 150 to make it appear well established) That article was a retrospective on the orgnal portable layout- both its terminus and through station mode-   and an introduction to the new larger permanent version of Achaux as a main line terminus  which sadly Andy Hart didn't live to complete before he died in 2013.  

 

Although it was a far less glossy publication I always rather liked Model Trains International and its Chris Elllis edited predecessors and, in the end, sometimes wrote for it. It included some very useful small layouts that didn't ever appear anywhere else. 

 

 

I liked Model Trains International too, I picked up my first copy from Victors and it is one of the things that got me into modelling German railways. There were a few articles about branchlines around Nuremburg and the German Nebenbahns. It had lots of really practical modelling ideas and realistic small layouts that most people could build. I think the danger sometimes with magazines like CM, is that people think you need a lots of space and a big budget to even start modelling 

[SamThomas]

I used to buy it & preferred it to the CM.

 

Although I rarely buy other magazines thesedays (maybe to read on a long train or other journey) I would probably still be buying this one if it were still available.

 

On the subject of magazines I used to buy quite a few of the model railway ones - I would go into WHS & flick through them all - just one artical*** that interested me was reason to buy it (no point in buying a magazine with niothing of interest).

 

*** I would sometimes buy "UK" magazines for articals on such universal subjects as we

[Pacific231G]

On 07/02/2022 at 12:47, SimonBoulton said:

 

I liked Model Trains International too, I picked up my first copy from Victors and it is one of the things that got me into modelling German railways. There were a few articles about branchlines around Nuremburg and the German Nebenbahns. It had lots of really practical modelling ideas and realistic small layouts that most people could build. I think the danger sometimes with magazines like CM, is that people think you need a lots of space and a big budget to even start modelling 

MTI was the only model railway magazine I kept every copy of and managed to buy a complete set of Scale Model Trains at one of the Wealden Railway Group's exhibitions. 

MTI was always very congruent with the Wealden Railway Group's continuing ethos of "Layouts you can live with" and a good number of its articles were written by WRG members (a few of them even by me!). I don''t think  Chris Ellis ever made any money from it (he edited other titles that did) but it was really a response to the many people who wanted it to keep going when its previous incarnation Scale Model Trains ceased publication.

I've not been in touch with him for several years and I gather that Chris has now retired completely but there's a topic on SMT/MTI here. 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/169950-scale-model-trains-and-model-trains-international/