Hadn't been to Papa Ben's, the LHS, in about a month since I bought the plastic for the Summer Challenge bridge. Stopped in today to pick up new materials for the next bridge (they had everything I needed in stock!). Generally when I am there, I'll pick up a couple of old magazines from the 80s and 90s for reading material. They charge $1 per copy which I feel is a good bargain for the reading pleasure and learning I derive from them. Well, today, they tell me they are wanting to get rid of all the old magazines to make room for more stuff and they give me two BIG boxes full! Must be at least 150 Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman mags. Very cool!

And already I have learned something. I never knew what Plate C and Plate F and all that meant, but sitting here looking over one of the free magazines, there is a little article describing what it is all about.

Okay, 10 views and no replies... so who around here knows what the Plate designations are for?

Very cool hook up! I'm jealous

Plate designations? Beats me. I had to google it Some of those oldschool techniques still work today, but have been been forgotten to the pages of those old magazines.

BTW, those old magazines make excellent "private room" reading material .

To put it in the simplest terms - Plate designations describe clearances. Height above rail - maximum width - maximum heights, etc. You can find the various Plates in any issue of the Official Railway Equipment register.

That's it, Ed. Funny I never knew that until I read the article in the June 1984 Railroad Model Craftsman.

Looks like you scored with all those mag's.

Yep, very nice. Lots of reading material for awhile!

Gary,

Must be the season...I too was able to snag some goodies from the local hobbyshop. Someone dropped off 20 boxes of magazines for them to get rid of. So I started looking and found some goodies took it to the front counter and asked what I owed them. They smiled and told me "don't ever bring them back...and enjoy!!"

So needless to say I was HAPPY...

As for your Plates this is a good thing to have...you should verifiy that all your cars on your railroad have the proper Plate...that should slow you down from completing your bridge

mountaingoatgreg Wrote:As for your Plates this is a good thing to have...you should verifiy that all your cars on your railroad have the proper Plate...that should slow you down from completing your bridge

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I admit that I really really enjoy looking through the old magazines. Now I just need to come up with a system of noting which articles I might use in the future - and give the rest away! They're starting to build up around here. Hope you enjoy yours, Greg!

Some may think this is sacreligious but I cut out the articles I want and place them in three ring binders sorted by interest. SO I have scenery binder, drawings, prototype information. This way if I need something I just grab the binder look through it go from there. I have also beenthinking ofplacing the articles of interest in plastic sleves and then I can take them out and use them on the benchwork. When I am done I could place them back into the binder.

This also keeps from having to keep hundreds of magazines taking up valuable space for more kits!! It also makes all those other magzines people collects more valuable

Geez, Greg! I hope you weren't cutting up really old issues! People pay decent money for certain older issues and some issues and some years are getting quite hard to find! I have lately been expanding my library and there are a couple issues I just can't find ... but I have doubles of others.

mountaingoatgreg Wrote:Some may think this is sacreligious but I cut out the articles I want and place them in three ring binders sorted by interest. SO I have scenery binder, drawings, prototype information. This way if I need something I just grab the binder look through it go from there. I have also beenthinking ofplacing the articles of interest in plastic sleves and then I can take them out and use them on the benchwork. When I am done I could place them back into the binder.

This also keeps from having to keep hundreds of magazines taking up valuable space for more kits!! It also makes all those other magzines people collects more valuable

Actually, I think that is a GREAT idea.

Being a RR Museum, we get cases of these things dropped off at the museum all the time. They're EVERYWHERE. So, we pretty much distribute them everywhere but the ladies room and it is fun when sitting down in an office or breakroom to grab a bottle of water and cooloff to thumb through an old MR, Trains, or RF&R. I did that last weekend with an old early 80's issue of MR while waiting for my sister to decide how she wanted us to switch her special charter private car train that was visiting and they were reviewing train sets by Tyco, Bachmann, Model Power and AHM. Pretty neat little nostalgia trip, I had three of the sets that were comparted in the article when I was a kid.

I used to stock pile old magazines to save for down time or modeling ideas; I LOVE to read. But when you live in a 1 bedroom apartment and can stand anywhere in it and see a train magazine without turning your head... it's time to get rid of them. I put them in a box and gave them to my brother. When done with them, he gave them to our nephew who gave them to the museum. Sometimes folks come into the giftshop and ask "how much"? I just tell them to promise never to bring them back, we have too many as it is, and they smile and carry a fistful of them out and EVERYONE ends up happy.

Tom, I buy Magazines from the museum all of the time, Almost all the magazines I have I bought from the museum, Every time I go up there I usually get a handful of magazines and a few Timetables and such. My hobby store sells them for a $1 a piece and so I only buy them from there when I really need to.

Gary, You sure are lucky getting all of those, next time I go to my LHS I might have to see if they need any help getting rid of some .

Justinmiller171 Wrote:Tom, I buy Magazines from the museum all of the time, Almost all the magazines I have I bought from the museum, Every time I go up there I usually get a handful of magazines and a few Timetables and such. My hobby store sells them for a $1 a piece and so I only buy them from there when I really need to.

Gary, You sure are lucky getting all of those, next time I go to my LHS I might have to see if they need any help getting rid of some .

Justin, while I appreciate you supporting the museum with your hard earned $$$, let me know when you're coming up and I'll bring you a bunch. That way you can spend your $$ elsewhere at the museum