Posing A Question About THe Hobby

[Sumpter250]

Starting on page 52 of the Feb '09 Model Railroader is a presentation of a layout titled Steaming Through The Winter Wonderland. It is a nice layout, but it wasn't built by the owner; it was commissioned from Raildreams, Inc., a commercial firm.
My feelings are that this isn't a proper display of a layout made by an owner or club, but essentially amounts to advertising for the company that did all the work. From a modeler's viewpoint, I'm uncomfortable with the way this was presented, but maybe I'm too much of a purist.
I'm interested in the opinions of other members.

OK, I just quoted the original post so we can all get back on page 1.

I will not state that they did, but, I would not be surprised to find out that MR (Kalmbach) was well paid for publishing that article............at least it wasn't a "senate seat" (that's a "Blagojevich" joke). I have watched Model Railroader make the change from a model railroader's "source of inspiration" to a "cover to cover advertisement", and "good ol' boys" brag sheet. which is why I dropped my subscription, like a hot rock!
MR is also one of the reasons I found and stayed here. There's far more inspiration, and genuine good fellowship here than can be found in the pages of "Kalmbach's Finest". Please don't misunderstand, there's a lot of good material published by Kalmbach........MR just isn't part of it, for me, at least.
I learned a lot from all the years I spent reading MR, but the "master" stopped learning, and the "student" passed by the master, and needs him no longer.
Sad, I looked forward to the learning, and now, have found new "masters" to teach me, some of them, right here.
No, I'm not taking "sides", but I do have to agree with Mountainman's feelings about the article being an advertisement, more than a source of new skills, or information. When I saw the article, I put the issue back on the shelf.
Sorry Kalmbach, one less issue of MR sold.