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How long do you hold onto your printed magazines? I generally hold on to the for about 15-18 months then I recirculate them to other members at my train club.  Of course when I publish an article I will hold onto that issue.

Just curious as my club just inherited a COLLECTION of Model Railroader and Model Railroad Craftsman which dates back to the Late 1970's. Needless to say we are inundated. We put them out as free give aways at our open house shows. Amazing how many guests leave with a few magazines.  If anyone is interested please stop by at our next open house and please help your self.

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I hold onto them too long, because I don't have a good outlet for them.  I did find an HO club to donate all my Model Railroader magazines to a couple years after I switched to O gauge.  Now I have all my OGR magazines dating back to 2012 when I first discovered it.  I could ask my friends at the Pittsburgh Independent HiRailers if they want them to give away at shows, but I would still keep the last couple years and a few issues that are special to me.

In my modelling heyday I kept various publications for reference quite a few years, i.e. Pacific Rail News, Extra 2200 South, CTC Board, etc. Then I saved only articles I thought would be needed in binders. Finally, everything went to recycling. For the very little modelling work I do now the internet works for me..... No more clutter.

Last edited by PAUL ROMANO

Retirement+Downsizing+Diminished Time Reserves = Digital Subscription...

The OGR offer of all the back issues in digital format finally brought me back as a subscriber after many years of lapse. It is a brilliant piece of marketing and...it worked on me. It was an elegant solution to just what you're dealing with right now. I gave away and /or recycled all my many years of train magazines over ten years ago. 

Part of the problem is we were all taught as children that ALL books are valuable and precious and printed material is worthy of protection and veneration. As with so many things we were taught as children we are coming to realize it "ain't necessarily so"...

One of the first "organizing" experts I used to follow in the early 1980's was Don Aslett. His helpful tips soon got me off the " all printed material saved forever" bandwagon. It was quite liberating.

John

 

Last edited by John Meyncke

On the contrary:  print IS worthy of preservation.  Unlike electronic material, it doesn't go anywhere when the plug is pulled or the wrong button is pressed.

I not only keep all mine permanently--if I have to downsize, my mags and books will be the LAST thing to go--I keep mags that are older than I am (Trains going 'WAY back).

Lionelski posted:
Mark Boyce posted:

Since the digital subscription offers every 300+ issues, I’m thinking what’s the point of keeping them. I hate to just recycle but may do just that if I don’t find someone to give them to

I prefer to sit on my recliner with the paper mag.

I still read a paper newspaper too

Oh, I prefer a paper magazine and newspaper as well.  Those are what I read.  I was just pointing out OGR is providing an option for those who are space constrained as we are.

palallin posted:

On the contrary:  print IS worthy of preservation.  Unlike electronic material, it doesn't go anywhere when the plug is pulled or the wrong button is pressed.

I not only keep all mine permanently--if I have to downsize, my mags and books will be the LAST thing to go--I keep mags that are older than I am (Trains going 'WAY back).

Same, almost.  I have RMC back to '55, several decades of NG&SLG, nearly complete Traction & Models, near complete Trolley Talk, near complete O Scale News, and complete O Scale Trains.  Exception: I tossed all of the OGR ~20 years ago and never looked back.

MartyE posted:

The main reason I went to OGR's Digital Edition was to get rid of magazines.  I have never looked back, download the edition to my PC and it takes up no physical space.

John Meyncke posted:

Retirement+Downsizing+Diminished Time Reserves = Digital Subscription...

I want to remind all of you that with the launch of our new Subscription Portal, every issue of OGR - 50+ years worth - is available in the OGR Digital Library. Looking back on the old issues from the 70s and 80s is fascinating reading. And some of those old articles are timeless. Many of the modeling ideas they present are still valid today!

All the issues can be downloaded as Adobe PDF files, so you can build your "digital collection" on your computer or tablet.

  • If you are already an OGR Subscriber and would like to add a digital subscription, CLICK HERE to log into your account. If you don't know your account number, click on the "Don't know your account number?" link on the page. We'll automatically send you an email with that info.

  • If you are not an OGR subscriber but would like to purchase a new Digital Subscription, CLICK HERE.

$29.95 gets you access to 310 issues of OGR! That's less than 10 cents per issue!

Last edited by OGR CEO-PUBLISHER

As others have said, I much prefer reading the paper copy of anything. However, my allocated storage space for paper copies of everything is reaching critical mass! 

I was a paper subscriber and added digital when it became available. Will probably continue to take the paper edition for reading, but may switch to keeping only the digital copies for space savings.

The additional back issues added to the digital archive is great to have. Every magazine issue ever made is now in there, very nice! 

I love my magazines, but I generally keep them until I try and clear space in my storage room and I get mad at them. A couple of years ago I posted two tubs of CTT, OGR and Lionel catalogs for free. A guy picked them up and said they were going to his friend the train guy. I have also reached the breaking point and thrown some out. Just this Sunday, I dumped a stack of JP (Jeeps) magazines in the recycling tub. Hate to do it, but space is at a premium.

I keep most of my old magazines.  I enjoy reading in bed and I don't take a computer to bed like some people that I know.  Print magazines have the advantage that I don't have to wait for them to download.  I tried reading the new Lionel catalog last night online.  Although I have a fast computer and internet service, it took minutes for each page to download.  I only got half way through the catalog after about an hour.  

I am a member of a club.  I have found that most of the younger members almost never read print magazines.  They get all of their information online - for free.  We can't give magazines away at the club to members or the public.  It is a sad situation.  Recycling seems to be the only option.  NH Joe

I have OGR, and its predecessor OSR, dating back to the late 1980s, and some of the older articles and layouts are treasures, worth reading and re-reading every couple of years.

I do maintain have a stack however, mostly CTT's and some OGRs, that I've designated as not worth keeping and will either give away or recycle some day.

Lionelski posted:
Mark Boyce posted:

Since the digital subscription offers every 300+ issues, I’m thinking what’s the point of keeping them. I hate to just recycle but may do just that if I don’t find someone to give them to

I prefer to sit on my recliner with the paper mag.

I still read a paper newspaper too

Yes, while I don't save magazines, I do prefer a paper magazine for reading.  I work from home and I eat lunch alone at my kitchen table every day.   Reading a magazine while eating is more practical than using a phone or tablet.  I don't even wear reading glasses yet but no one escapes that fate (if you make it much past age 45).  So that day will come and I suspect I'll appreciate a good mag even more.

New Haven Joe posted:

……..  I tried reading the new Lionel catalog last night online.  Although I have a fast computer and internet service, it took minutes for each page to download.  I only got half way through the catalog after about an hour.  ………

 NH Joe

I hate to tell you Joe, but you don't have a fast computer and internet service - something is wrong.   I have a 4 year old computer and mid-level internet service and page turning/opening was quick and seamless.

Do you have a "computer guru" that can look into this for you?

 

 

I used to subscribe to too many magazines of all sorts, especially weeklies.  I would rotate my stock by only keeping the most recent 4 issues regardless of publication frequency.  Around the time that I got back into model railroading (2010-11) is the time I started going online in all of my reading with the exception of the magazines for all of my hobbies.  Those I had to have as hard copy.  I've cut down on my hobbies but still have all the old hobby magazines - even the hobbies that I no longer partake -  in plastic bins in a storage facility, probably because of the "keeping printed documents" philosophy mentioned earlier in this thread.   I have purged many bins of printed materials over the past 3 years, except for the hobby ones.  Have this thing in my head about keeping them for reference material. 

I became a OGR digital subscriber last year and enjoy it.  Storage space is running out and reading this thread is telling me to purge the old hobby magazines... all of them, and I will survive.  Maybe just keep a rolling inventory of the last 12 months of both OGR, CTT, etc., and move on from there.   We'll see.

Not to go off track, but one particular article from Run 77 (Nov-Dec 1982) makes me chuckle.  O Scale is Extinct according to a hobby shop owner 37 years ago, and also according to present-day model railroaders posting every month in various online forms that model trains are dying.  Lets see what they say in 2057 when reading ancient publications from 2020 

OGR Article Excerpt Run 77 [Nov-Dec 1982)

OGR Run 77 Cover [Nov-Dec 1982) 

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  • OGR Article Excerpt Run 77 (Nov-Dec 1982)
  • OGR Run 77 Cover (Nov-Dec 1982)
Last edited by Amfleet25124

Only recently have I been giving consideration to finding a source for some fifteen years of OGR and CTT. Without an index for story location I never really go back to look for information that interested me in the past. I really like the printed versions of the magazines as I can take them along to my deck, the car, McDonald's, doctor's office, etc. Already, the growth of FB and other web-based sources of information of all kinds has taken me away from the forum more than I like. 

Way back in the mid '80s, I inherited a bunch of very early Model railroader, Model Railroad Craftsman, and a few others I cannot recall.  There were hundreds of issues dating back to the 1930s.  I breezed through most of them, but as we all know, very little was devoted to the three rail Lionel or two rail American Flyer trains in those days.

So I placed an ad in a newspaper and sold them all to a single buyer at $.50/copy.  I doubt they could fetch that price today.  I have even sold all of my early Lionel Club periodicals and another stack of "Third rail" ( I think that's the title ) a few years ago, before I returned to "O" gauge trains.   

The bottom line is this; Printed copy of any kind is a true historical record, while internet information can be altered quite easily.  That's not to say that we should keep every magazine and book we encounter in our lifetime.  How many books and periodicals do we have sitting on shelves and in storage that we never pull out once we've read them ?  And why pay for storage for such things.    

We also inherited, recently, hundreds of history, cookbooks, novels, etc. from my late aunt.  Only the history books were taken by my niece who loves to read and will have the time to read as she has Progressive MS.  But the other books, cookbooks, novels and miscellany are sitting in cabinets and on shelves awaiting boxing up and who knows what fate.  

Like Mike H., I prefer to read a magazine while sitting at the kitchen table eating.  Novels are read in the head.  It's the one place where one does not usually get disturbed.....LOL

 

TonkaNut posted:

I keep all of them and then give several mags each to the non-model railroaders who visit my layout. This is in hopes of them maybe joining the hobby. It's best for all of us if our hobby is kept alive and my selfish reason is that it might give my heirs a broader audience to sell to!

TJ

TJ, Giving a magazine or two to each non-model railroader visitor who comes is an excellent idea. 

I do have to add to what I wrote earlier.  I was thinking of it when typing another thought, then forgot to put it in.  Last summer our church did something new.  They wanted to start a summer reading program with magazines.  They asked for members to put magazines in a box in the fellowship hall.  They could be Christian magazines or on any tasteful topic.  I didn't ask, but I think so someone didn't dump 50 years worth of a magazine, they requested the magazines be no more than 2 years old.  I gave some magazines other than ORG that were train related.  I made sure my name was on them.  Someone took them, but no one ever approached me about the topic.

Amfleet25124 posted:

I used to subscribe to too many magazines of all sorts, especially weeklies.  I would rotate my stock by only keeping the most recent 4 issues regardless of publication frequency.  Around the time that I got back into model railroading (2010-11) is the time I started going online in all of my reading with the exception of the magazines for all of my hobbies.  Those I had to have as hard copy.  I've cut down on my hobbies but still have all the old hobby magazines - even the hobbies that I no longer partake -  in plastic bins in a storage facility, probably because of the "keeping printed documents" philosophy mentioned earlier in this thread.   I have purged many bins of printed materials over the past 3 years, except for the hobby ones.  Have this thing in my head about keeping them for reference material. 

I became a OGR digital subscriber last year and enjoy it.  Storage space is running out and reading this thread is telling me to purge the old hobby magazines... all of them, and I will survive.  Maybe just keep a rolling inventory of the last 12 months of both OGR, CTT, etc., and move on from there.   We'll see.

Not to go off track, but one particular article from Run 77 (Nov-Dec 1982) makes me chuckle.  O Scale is Extinct according to a hobby shop owner 37 years ago, and also according to present-day model railroaders posting every month in various online forms that model trains are dying.  Lets see what they say in 2057 when reading ancient publications from 2020 

OGR Article Excerpt Run 77 [Nov-Dec 1982)

OGR Run 77 Cover [Nov-Dec 1982) 

Kevin, By chance maybe the article was referring to O-SCale-2Rail????

 

L.I.TRAIN posted:
Amfleet25124 posted:
 

Kevin, By chance maybe the article was referring to O-SCale-2Rail????

 

Steve, it could very well could be as the magazine at that period was heavily oriented towards 2R O-Scale with rarely a mention of 3R and "Lionel" (quotations added for emphasis). After all, it was called O "Scale" Railroading.  I don't partake in 2-Rail O Scale at this time, but I would say that looking from the outside that it is just as healthy as the other facets of "O" model railroading.  
 
Apologies to those who knew him, but the author (Carl P. Munck) of said article comes of as very arrogant and goes down the tricky road of telling people how to spend their money (never a good path to travel). No Letters to the Editor section or internet forums back in 1982 to allow for rebuttals. 
 
Times have changed, but it always fun to read old publications to gauge the thoughts and actions of the time, as it is able to capsulate one's own memories of what they were doing at the time.  Heck, when I was in high school and college in New York City during the early 1980's I used to go to used magazine stores and constantly buy old issues of Time, Sports Illustrated, etc. from the early 1970's.  

There is always confusion because even though both versions are completely different, they continually get lumped together by suppliers. O Gauge, 3 RL AC.  O Scale, 2RL DC.   Because both are 1:48 scale many think they are the same.  Accessories yes.  Motive power, Not the same'... I can't determine which version the author refers too.  I think it is O Gauge, as O scale was still fairly new to many in 83'... And not inexpensive either'... compared to O Gauge'...

 Either way, Kevin, this is all your fault ...........

For me, I pass the RR Magazines around to friends, family......etc......and with permission, I leave them at the dentists' and other doctors' offices. I rarely keep any OGR or CTT, or any others because nearly the same articles with similar "modeling solutions" surface every few (very few) years or even months. Recycle them at curbside!     How many times have you seen, "1953 ( an example) was the BEST year for Lionel" as an headline and article?

After accumulating 20+yrs of OGR and CTT plus a couple issues of Model RR and storing them in metal or plastic magazine holders that I obtained from a university surplus, I made the commitment to go through each past issue (oldest forward) and remove any articles/pics that I still find interesting or useful.  I started placing the selected individual pages in plastic page protectors that are held in a 3-ring binder.  Also started scanning those same selected articles and pics into PDF's to store and use on computer/tablet or the like.  The pdf file name will provide a basic aid to later information searches.

Although the physical "process" may at times seem tedious, there is also a renewed spark when you come across either a good/informative/still relevant article tip, pic or layout.  I still like when CTT and MR put the annual 1 page index of articles/topics in each year end issue; made looking for a topic SO much easier.

RJT posted:

Keystone: I just recently started unpacking CCT since day one and about 20 years of OGR and assorted other magazines and learned the same thing rediscovering good and relevant articles on layout building and Post War repair.

Rick,

Right you are. 

Post (and Pre) War trains are still the same as they were when made over a half a century ago. I've even found relevant articles in Model Builder mags from 80-90 or so years ago. Lastly, I like how proper everyone spoke/wrote back then, just seems classier than how things are written now

Last edited by Lionelski

Lew, I am getting like you with the eyestrain.  Even after getting my cataracts removed, I still have issues with some paper print material.  I still do okay with OGR and CTT magazines, but some books; no.  Train shows, I have trouble watching HO layouts, much less N and Z trains.

I was looking at the magazine boxes I have and am thinking about flipping through the oldest first to see what I may keep, but most will be recycled.  We have a space issue in this small house.

Mark Boyce posted:

Lew, I am getting like you with the eyestrain.  Even after getting my cataracts removed, I still have issues with some paper print material.  I still do okay with OGR and CTT magazines, but some books; no.  Train shows, I have trouble watching HO layouts, much less N and Z trains.

I was looking at the magazine boxes I have and am thinking about flipping through the oldest first to see what I may keep, but most will be recycled.  We have a space issue in this small house.

Mark, we have space issues here as well, even though we actually upsized with 1050sqft instead of the 780sqft we had in Bethel Park. But for the first time ever we have room for a sewing room AND a train room so it's all good. But given the choice between storing magazines/books or having more layout space my answer is a no-brainer! 

in the 1990s I actually bought up several collections of old OGR and CTT as train fever had struck me again.  Now I am trying to convince myself to get rid of them, including the ones that were caught in various water leaks through the years and have deteriorated.  Digital is definitely the way to go, so I may be following that link Rich posted for a digital subscription...

 

I would characterize myself as seemingly a hoarder when it came to printed items, magazines and catalogs.  A few years ago I tried to sell all my back issues of OGR and CTT, not a single offer.  I then tried to give them all away, same result, zero interest.  In the recycler they went, it actually took a few weeks to get rid of them all.  I still have my catalogs pretty much 20 years worth.  At some point those will go too.  

As some have pointed out once you go digital you don't go back and I firmly believe that.  It's the same as when I went Mac, tired of the blue screening of the PC, bit the bullet and all good.

John

Alentown posted:

Only recently have I been giving consideration to finding a source for some fifteen years of OGR and CTT. Without an index for story location I never really go back to look for information that interested me in the past. I really like the printed versions of the magazines as I can take them along to my deck, the car, McDonald's, doctor's office, etc. Already, the growth of FB and other web-based sources of information of all kinds has taken me away from the forum more than I like. 

Hang on just a little longer...we are working on some sort of index over the next few months!

mwb posted:
palallin posted:

On the contrary:  print IS worthy of preservation.  Unlike electronic material, it doesn't go anywhere when the plug is pulled or the wrong button is pressed.

I not only keep all mine permanently--if I have to downsize, my mags and books will be the LAST thing to go--I keep mags that are older than I am (Trains going 'WAY back).

Same, almost.  I have RMC back to '55, several decades of NG&SLG, nearly complete Traction & Models, near complete Trolley Talk, near complete O Scale News, and complete O Scale Trains.  Exception: I tossed all of the OGR ~20 years ago and never looked back.

Gee Martin...thanks for your support....  Nice thing to say/imply especially since you get to do so for FREE here as Editor of your magazine O Scale Trains......

I provide past issues as well as the current issue to local libraries.  Many also have book drives which is a good time to donate.  Each time I have gone into the library to check on the magazines, they all have been gone with the possible except of a few.  When I asked if the mags were being recycled, I was told that folks were picking them up and were among the most popular!   So....you may want to consider taking your old issues of whatever kind of magazine to the library and let others enjoy!

Last edited by OGR CEO-PUBLISHER
OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

I provide past issues as well as the current issue to local libraries.  Many also have book drives which is a good time to donate.  Each time I have gone in to the library to check on the magazines, they all have been gone with the possible except of a few.  When I asked if the mags were being recycled, I was told that folks were picking them up and were among the most popular!   So....you may want to consider taking your old issues of whatever kind of magazine to the library and let others enjoy!

I'll give that a try, however I am worried about the state of print at local libraries. I went to mine recently to use a meeting room, and decided to peruse the book aisles. I was aghast that they had been significantly thinning the shelves. There were nowhere near the number of books I had seen in the past. They only had two train books. Yet, they had ten rows of DVD movies!

George 

OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

Hang on just a little longer...we are working on some sort of index over the next few months!

In addition to adding ALL the issues of OGR magazine to the digital section, this makes retaining digital copies only even more attractive. That just might put an end to saving all my print copies. However, I still prefer print versions for reading.

I'll be watching for the index! Great new feature, Thank You!  

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