Railroad Model Craftsman November issue

[highpeak]

My subscription copy of the November issue of Railroad Model Craftsman arrived today, RMC seeming to have eschewed the convention that magazines should be published several weeks ahead of time.

 

I doubt the contents will stir up the discussion the MR December issue stimulated. The meat of the issue consists of:

 

- a fairly short description of the Creek Lumber Co, an On3 logging road

- an article on building an antiquated coal loader as used by the Belfast and Moosehead Lake in Belfast ME. This labor-intensive piece of infrastructure was part of the reason the purchase of GE 70 tonners very quickly brought the road back to profit. It's a good article though if you don't have the Fine Scale Miniatures crane that the structure was built around you'll be improvising.

- some ideas for improving Classic Metal Works pickup trucks, including a way of making bales of hay

- an account of modifying Walthers Pullman parlor cars to represent cars operated in the 60s by the Long Island RR

- detailing and adding sound to Athearn's HO scale FP7

- Bob Walker discusses ways of and reasons for making molds for casting plaster in the first of a multi-part series

- description of the modelling of early B&O TOFC flat cars

 

Product reviews include the Bachmann N scale Alco S-4, Creative Laser Design's kit for the Maine Central freight house at Barlett, NH, Model Rectifier's new Prodigy Elite controller and some N scale relay cabinets by NZT products.

 

I think RMC tends more towards words than pictures and perhaps puts a bit more emphasis on the Craftsman part of its title most of the time

[dave1905]

The tendency towards the "craftsman" is exactly why I subscribe to RMC and not MR.

[highpeak]

The" ######" Creek Lumber Co is named for the abbreviated form of the animal known as a raccoon. I just saw that the software took umbrage at what I imagined to be a fairly well-established usage, at least on this side of the ocean.

[Gene]

?

[Gene]

Thats interesting...political correctness gone crazy

[dave1905]

It would probably REALLY hate the nickname of somebody for the state of Louisiana.

[dave1905]

 

I doubt the contents will stir up the discussion the MR December issue stimulated. The meat of the issue consists of:

 

 

 

Once again hopes are crushed.

[trisonic]

I thought the issue was entertaining, to a degree.  

Where RMC fall down is when they publish 10 part articles on very obscure subjects. By which I mean that whilst we can all applaud the modelling integrity (hey, I like that phrase...) only 3 people in the World read them avidly.

Dunno why but their ads are very interesting.

 

Best, Pete.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Creek?  I thought it had taken umbrage to Creek....

[The Stationmaster]

The" ######" Creek Lumber Co is named for the abbreviated form of the animal known as a raccoon. I just saw that the software took umbrage at what I imagined to be a fairly well-established usage, at least on this side of the ocean.

Just had a look at the layout's website - just bung the name into Google and it links straight away (if you haven't got the pc barred word simply start with corn - take out the r and put in a second o).  But as the software seems to have been developed on the left hand side of the pond it's probably advisable not to smoke a fag while doing so or think about having faggots for tea 

[torikoos]

I like RMC for the 'craftsman' style articles, but I let my subscription lapse a few years ago, as there was just too many 'old time/logging/lumber yard' style stuff in there, along with a series on classic toy trains, taking up so many of the pages, and hardly ever anything on scratchbuilding/kitbashing a diesel, or slightly more modern freight cars and buildings etc, which is what I was hoping to find.

Being able to construct a beautiful wooden loco shed or something is obviously something I admire, but I would not build such a thing at this time, so for now, RMC is not for me.

 

Koos

[JWB]

What I don't understand is the Belfast & Moosehead Lake coal loader is available pretty much as described in a kit from Durango Press http://www.shop.jlinnovative.com/Coal-Loader-041.htm  The builder went to great lengths to scratchbuild it, using parts from an out of production Fine Scale Miniatures kit (good luck finding that for less than several hundred bucks).

 

I agree that there's a lot that's appealing in RMC, definitely including ads from lesser-known but good producers like Mount Blue Model -- but the mag suffers from Schaumburg's coasting over the past ten years or so. It's going to take D'Amato some real effort to catch up I worked with the guy when they ran my article on Larry's Truck and Electric, and I found him genuine and likeable -- I wish him all the best, but he's got his work cut out.

[highpeak]

What I don't understand is the Belfast & Moosehead Lake coal loader is available pretty much as described in a kit from Durango Press http://www.shop.jlinnovative.com/Coal-Loader-041.htm  The builder went to great lengths to scratchbuild it, using parts from an out of production Fine Scale Miniatures kit (good luck finding that for less than several hundred bucks).

One of my pet peeves is a project that includes components made of Unobtainium.

Now, the coal loader article isn't going to mention the product you linked to for fairly obvious reasons, and I didn't know about it, so thanks for the link!