Long ago and when I lived in a state far away, I had a few items published in Vane Jones's TRACTION & MODELS .
Shortly after Myron Biggar took over O Scale Railroading magazine in the late 1980's, I was surprised to get a phone call from him. He had seen some models I had shown at an O scale meet and tracked me down. He was quite insistent on having me write an article for his magazine on "whatever you are working on right now." He wanted a construction article that would almost go step-by-step from beginning to finish.
I told him my project was a caboose - a model of a Wichita Falls & Southern eight- wheel, wood- body caboose from a photo in one of Lucius Beebe's books. "A caboose is not a simple model to build, " I told him. But no matter, that is what we wanted. This was in the "BC Days" (Before Computers). I drew the plans on my drawing board with my 1950's high school mechanical drawing implements. I typed it on an IBM "Selectic' my boss let me use after hours and I had to get a professional photographer to take photos.
That was my first published piece, and it appeared in four parts. The "Texas Woodside Caboose" was in Runs 107 (Oct 1989), 109 (Feb 1990), 110 (Apr 1990) and 112 (June 1990).
I wrote two more for OGR later. One was a three-part article on building a Rio Grande Southern "Galloping Goose" that was scaled to run on Lionel 3 rail track as 3' narrow gauge. (Runs 127-129, Feb, Apr and Jun 1990). The other was giving my 1950 Lionel 675 a shop job to make it look more 'Pennsy" with added details including a PRR type pilot shroud and more accurate paint and lettering. When done, I sent it to Fred Dole at OGR who photographed it for the article that was in Run 130 of Aug 1993.
Other articles I've written since were for the B&O RR Historical Society "Sentinel" magazine, 48/ft O Scale magazine and OST magazine.
S. Islander
Not yet, but it is a goal of mine.
Over 50 years ago, my Dad was published in our local newspaper for his train collection. His collection is now in my care, and I'd love to continue the story, but there is much work to be done before anyone would consider my collection and layout.
Almost 19 years ago in OGR, Run 201 - "Shannon Hinkle's Hanging Layout" When I look back on it, there were some neat concepts but the layouts I see published nowadays are way more detailed and look really super. I've got a layout now about the same size as the old one, and much more detailed, but it just doesn't compare in my opinion to what I see published. I've thought about trying to get published again, but am daunted by the quality of what I see published now.
I have been published a half-dozen or more times in the Live Steam magazines (7.25" gauge), but nothing in the smaller scale publications... yet.
Run 278 June/July 2015 • Page 48 & on my YouTube Channel.
Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂
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@Lionelski posted:Congrats Steve!
I'm looking forward to receiving my copy and reading it.
I have not yet received this issue - has anyone else?
I had some photos of Toronto streetcars published in Trains Magazine in 1970. Have edited/published numerous magazines over the decades, and had an article and photos in Publishers Weekly in 1972, and numerous of my photos in various places—Omni, The New York Times, program books for many, many science fiction/fantasy convention program books over the decades. Just had my photo of Greg Bear published in his obituary in The Guardian in the UK last week.
In January of 2021 I had an article published in Reminisce magazine about the Lionel Norfolk and Western 746 Class J Northern which I had lusted after as a young boy way back in 1958 but which was far outside of my Mom's ability to pay for it. I never acquired that magnificent engine until 2015 when I won it in on an Internet auction for a fraction of the price it was worth due to a listing foul up on the auction site. It really was a fantastic reminisce.
