(Survey on) Why People Subscribe to Garden Railways

Written by Paul D. Race for Family Garden Trains

Recently when my subscription for Garden Railways magazine came due, I got to wondering if I really needed to resubscribe. I always recommend the magazine to beginners, for the ads, the articles, and all the background information it provides. But when you've been in the hobby as long as I have, you've picked up most of the background information, you already own 90% of what you're going to buy, and most of the articles either don't apply, or they tell how to do things you've already done and don't plan to do again, even if you did them wrong the first time.

Being communication-oriented, I thought I'd ask some other old-timers why they keep on subscribing. I've compiled their responses into this article. The specific questions I asked included:

What could GR do to keep the interest of longterm hobbyists without abandoning newbies?
What features and articles keep you subscribing?
If you have let your subscription lapse, what editorial changes or additions would motivate you to resubscribe?

I also asked about an issue that plagued me when I was an on-again/off-again subscriber: asking GR when they were going to do an article about some topic I really needed, only to be told that they covered it once (say, in 1992), so they didn't have to cover it again.

Here are the responses. A summary is at the end.

Sam E. sez: Some issues there's nothing to interest me, sometimes there is. The gardening tips are usually useful as I am still on a learning curve there. Mostly I support GR because it is 'our' magazinne. If those of us who think we know it all stop buying it it damages circulation of what is a special interest mag with very small circulation. Lets keep GR going and if necessary submit articles of the kind we'd like to see. GR is quite a broad church, has to be, so it cannot please everybody all the time. Let's be grateful that we've got it.

Gary sez: I subscribe to a variety of modeling magazines, from the Gazette to Scale Auto Enthusiast. The predominant scale of the models doesn't matter much to me --- good articles, ideas, photography, and modeling are "applicable" to all scales. And as a resource, magazines are a very good place to find out about what is available and a handy source for phone numbers and addresses of those who make the things we need.

Please excuse me for saying so, but I have often wondered about the routine queries seen on . . . many . . . internet message boards asking about products or services that are regularly advertised in the most popular model train magazines. I can't imagine not taking the effort to be aware of what is available and see what is "going on," and the easiest way is to maintain a few regular subscriptions.

While I do not consider myself a finescale modeler, I have enjoyed the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette for 20 years. The articles are neat and the models presented are wonderful. Very little of it is large scale, but virtually everything is "applicable." Conversely, magazines like Outdoor / Finescale Railroader and Garden Railways are more mainstream and have the general articles, product reviews, new products listings, and advertising geared towards "our" niche in the model train world. There are a great many other modeling magazines that are gold mines of techniques, tips and ideas, and more resources for stuff than you could imagine - from doll houses, to model airplane magazines, to dioramas.

Scruffy sez: Well, I agree with you [with Paul, that is, --ed.] on most points. I buy GR once in a while (for instance, the Christmas issue) mostly for the ads. I try to browse through it at the newstand every other month, too. (Notice I say "browse" because chance are I won't purchase it). My personal feeling is its the same thing over and over again. But in the garden railroad world--is this a "bad" thing? The nature of the subject is such that you must cater to newbies every Spring.

However, I have had a modest pike outdoors and its really hard work to make it look like I would like it, so I am no longer a "garden" railroader--I model indoors. Thus, GR doesn't cater to indoor G scale, and thats my main beef with it.

My "hope" is that another company will see the GR niche and realize there is not a "all encompassing" magazine for Large Scale (my dream is finding at the newstand a thick "Large Scale Trains" magazine that shows both indoor and outdoor layouts and doesn't skimp on product reviews or news like GR does and is put out monthly--heck, there is enough stuff now in Large Scale to have a monthly journal!).

I do purchase Model Railroader time to time for the articles on prototypes, modeling, ads and I even enjoy the overview of products in all scales. - Scruff'

Vance sez: There will always be someone asking about something from three issues ago that they don't have a copy of.

On the GR web site (www.gardenrailways.com) there are indices to the last eight or ten years. You can buy copies of most of these from Kalmbach through their toll-free customer service number. This is listed on the web site, as well as in the masthead info in each issue of GR.

You know the disclaimer here: I do a small job for Kalmbach, but what they pay me has no relationship to your buying back issues. I only want you to know that previously published information is _not_ gone forever. - vance-

Summary

Okay, I didn't get a bunch of responses, but what I got fell more or less into three categories:

Some folks are still enthusiastic about the magazine in general.
Some folks get enough out of the magazine to justify continuing to subscribe, even if their enthusiasm has waned.
Some folks subscribe because they think the magazine is important to the hobby, so by subscribing, they're supporting the hobby. (I have to confess that I balk at folks who use altruistic reasons to justify supporting a commercial enterprise, but if it works for you. . . )
Even folks who've stopped subscribing still check out the magazine every once in a while.

I was also told not to expect the magazine to meet my needs all the time (at the expense of others), and that reprints were indexed and available.

In the end, I re-subscribed for two years, not because of any of the above reasons, but because I know so many of the contributors by now, I want to see what they're up to. And the very next issue had a photo of a model that a friend in Australia kitbashed out of an old locomotive I sold him over a year ago.

I guess another thing Garden Railways does for us is that it reminds us that we're part of a community that's larger than our back yard, our local club, any internet forums we use, or our love-hate relationships with our suppliers and manufacturers. We really are all in this together, one way or another, and GR helps us to remember that.

I hope my brief survey was of some interest to you, even if its results weren't "mind-blowing." As for reasons to subscribe to Garden Railways, as always, your mileage will vary.

Best of luck, all.

Paul

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