Model Railroader
 | |
| Categories | Rail transport modelling |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Publisher | Kalmbach Publishing |
| First issue | 1934 |
| Country | USA |
| Website | http://www.trains.com/mrr/ |
| ISSN | 0026-7341 |
Model Railroader is an American magazine specializing in the hobby of model railroading. It was founded in 1934 by Al C. Kalmbach and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is published monthly by Kalmbach Publishing. It promotes itself as the oldest magazine of its type in the United States, and is commonly found on newsstands and in libraries.
MR is considered to be a more general-interest magazine, appealing to a wider range of hobbyists. While most other model railroad magazines, such as Railroad Model Craftsman, specialize in a particular scale, or particular facets such as prototype operations or scratch building and kitbashing, Model Railroader tries to cover a variety of scales and modeling techniques for engines, rolling stock, right-of-way, structures, and scenery. It reviews products including ready-to-run models as well as kits, tools and supplies. The magazine presents blueprints and photographs of prototype equipment, as well as photographs of models and layouts. A long-standing philosophy of modeling is manifest in its editorial features of layout design and operation, in which the model is viewed as a three-dimensional and temporal compression of the real world, so that, for example, the motive power, freight, trackage and scenery of a real-world branch line are formed into a layout which captures the spirit of not only the equipment and region of the railroad but also its purpose and how it operates.
Collecting back issues of Model Railroader and similar magazines is a popular sub-hobby among model railroad enthusiasts. Hobbyists who only read the magazine are sometimes called "armchair model railroaders." Many of the blueprints, layout plans, articles on operation and signaling, and methods of construction of bridges, structures and scenery are also published as books by Kalmbach Publishing. These are useful to modelers in general, railroad historians, and are valuable references on the steam and diesel eras.
Model Railroader also has several other "sister" magazines, also published by Kalmbach, including such titles as Trains Magazine and Classic Toy Trains Magazine. They are often advertised in Model Railroader, & on occasion, an article will refer to these other magazines.
The magazine is published under ISSN 0026-7341. Individual issues use the UPC 074820085486.