Plus Ça Change...........

[TheSignalEngineer]

Tonight I was looking for an old picture in a book. I have a few old bound volumes of magazines given to me by a long gone model engineering enthusiast.

 

I started with Model Railway Constructor for 1939 and it soon struck me that although the method of delivery has changed the content is much the same as today. 

 

One of the first items I spotted was an article about the relatively good appearance (by 1930s standards) of semi-mass produced models, but how Bassett Lowke O Gauge looked so much better if you changed the coarse flanged wheels by finer ones available from LMC.

I then came upon pictures of a garden railway running in the snow (c/f Jenny Emily's recent video), a series of articles on how to get into building your own locos and questions about structure clearances.

Soon I was on to advice on soldering various material, which iron, what flux, etc.

Next, horror of horrors, a debate on HO vs OO with a contribution from Edward Beal expounding the desirability of using 19mm gauge track for 4mm scale models.

 

Intrigued, I stepped back a War to 1910 and 1913. 

There were questions about "How do I signal this?"

Pictures of a Model Engineering Exhibition in Manchester.

An article about LBSC Headcode Discs

Suggestions for railway layouts

Details of the latest locomotive built by the xyz Railway

Articles on how to build coach bogies

 

 

In all it seems that the essence of railway modelling and the discussions between modellers have not really changed in over 100 years. Nowadays we just talk of the same things set in a longer time frame.

[Martino]

He who ignores history is destined to repeat it......or words to that effect.

 

Regrettably, all of us in the railway sphere have very mixed memories. I can’t even remember what I had for dinner!

Edited March 30, 2018 by Martino

[Vanders]

I suspect that biggest changes have, mostly, been in the materials we use & the electronics we have access to. Aside from that, many of the basic techniques remain the same, just perhaps with higher fidelity?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Alternative proposal for biggest change since pre WWII: while not cheap, good RTR models are now accessible to anyone in employment.

[w124bob]

I think the biggest change has been how we access information, the technological changes are sort of optional, you can still model coarse scale, tinplate etc. How many mags have letters pages? I'm only aware of the MRJ. Every query we encounter probably has the answer via the web almost instantly, technology has also vastly improved both the quality and quantity of the printed word, despite the presence of the web. I can't imagine anyone wanting to go back to just a couple of B&W mags a month and a handfull of similar produced books.

[Nearholmer]

RM still has a letters page too.

 

I was also amazed by how the format of magazines was set from ‘day one’ when I started reading the very first ones from 1909. We do seem to be a conservative bunch!

[Vanders]

RM still has a letters page too.

RM letters tend to be people noting things in the magazine, rather than an exchange of information, or at least the majority appear to fit that mould.

[Nearholmer]

Indeed, the nature of the letters has changed a bit over time.

 

One missing feature is ‘notes and queries’, which was a big thing n the early days, and has now been firmly superseded by first clubs, then the internet.

 

The questions are still the same though: ‘how do I signal xyz layout?’ was a firm favourite in 1910, and it still is; ‘how do I electrify my railway?’ was the old version of ‘how do I get dcc to work?’.