Garden Railways Magazine offers an on-lline magazine survey specific to reader assessment – presuming advertisers are not included.
What would you retain?
What would you change?
link?
I would go back to the way it was in the early 90’s. I really liked the format better. Dont get me wrong I still enjoy GR I just think they had more and some reaally neat sections like building 2 axle cars and simple things to build.
Jason and all:
To take the survey - 3 pages - google Garden Railways Magazine, home page, left side heading “Take survey…”
John
Now, I didn’t either as I just brought up the home page.
Hmmmm. OK, with Google’s assistance, I typed in Garden Railways Survey – top of the list there it is.
What gives, I don’t know.
Wendell
Probably by invitation only, or since the August issue is now history it could be an old page. http://apps.kalmbach.com/survey/default.aspx?sid=1912&auth=MSuquJuy5F
Meanwhile, what changes, if any, do readers or non-readers want in the magazine?
Me? Biggest loss is the listing of, plus needed magazine promotion of its value, the garden rr clubs. Sure, people may or may not join. However, the clubs give reported structure to the hobby – as with other known hobby interest groups. So what events are the clubs promoting other enthusiasts can attend? Any chance of an open house nearby? The “garden reports” somewhat accomplish that feature, yet, both the author and topic is singular, its not a club activity report; with the conversation understandably restricted to the bottom line what grows and what does not.
Second loss is the non-promotion of the commercial public events before and after. How about a listing of the vendors as part of the article Maybe that would encourage vendor and public attendance if there were purposeful expectations of the show. Remember when the BIG train show was just to show BIG trains ?
Selah,
Wendell
I hate to sound a negative note, but my honest impression is that outside of presently active hobbyists, the hobby generally is in rather ill-health and on the whole is failing to attract sufficient new recruits.
Would you agree that during the '90’s we experienced a growth phase? Were we doing things differently then? Are many of our promotion efforts, such as train shows and open houses, really directed at the already-converted? Isn’t there something new and different that we ought to be trying?
But I digress… Back to the magazine… Much of the hobby is about doing it yourself and gardening too after all, so why not place the magazine on the rack in Home Depots and Garden Centers, and catch a few crafty types and garden fanatics while we’re at it? I’d like to see the major manufacturers place at least a few of their products in these places as well, in the Garden department.
I still can’t go to Lowes at Christmas time and buy a Lionel or Aristo-Craft Xmas Set. Why not? Now, admittedly, as an experienced Railroader, I probably wouldn’t buy one for myself - I might get one for a relative, however! … And I’d certailnly expect some newcomers to the hobby to be recruited by a Christmas display. These displays should include information on further development in the hobby, sample magazines, brochures from the local club, public displays nearby, etc…
John Le Forestier said:This hobby is like any other Niche hobby, it is directed only to those "already converted". Garden Railways is not going to bring in new subscribers by changing their format as there is nothing they can do to get someone to pick up the magazine that does not already have an interest in it. When was the last time any of us picked up a copy of 'Modern Bride'?
...Would you agree that during the '90's we experienced a growth phase? Were we doing things differently then? Are many of our promotion efforts, such as train shows and open houses, really directed at the already-converted? Isn't there something new and different that we ought to be trying?...
Every garden railroader I know started with trains indoors. I dare say this is the way most of us started. Not saying some “gardener” doesn’t think “Hey, trains might be cool” but I personally don’t know a single ‘G-scaler’ who started that way.
If the magazine wants to pick up more readers, then they need to do the work to earn those subscribers. My suggestion would be to expand their coverage in all their magazines to include a different scale once or twice a year. Sure, some will whine about it, “I don’t do “X-scale” why am I paying for it”? But if an ‘O-scale’ publication ran one article a year on a guy who runs ‘O’ in his garden…Maybe.
Case in point…I used to subscribe to “Classic Toy Trains”. ‘O’ dominated the pages, followed by ‘Standard’, ‘S’, ‘HO’, etc. I read all the articles even though I was mostly interested in ‘G’. When they decided to drop coverage of all the other scales and concentrate almost entirely on 3-rail I dropped my subscription.
If Garden RR wants more subscribers they need to appeal to a larger audience. They should use their own network of publications to get it.
I wouldn’t say the hobby is in ill health. In my opinion i think the hobby is in a slump due to the overall economical state of things. The movie theatres, bowling alleys, restaurants etc all are down. People have less disposable income as of late. The two biggest problems with our hobby is sticker shock and space. When a loco rears it’s ugly head for the price tag of $1500 people shy away from it. Thats a big pill to swallow. More on that later. The second is space. Many young people rent now and the land space inside or out is not available to build a railway on. Currently N scale is the biggest in growth right now for both of those reasons I would guess.
Your idea of Garden Railway in do it yourself stores is a great idea. Most of us are in the “trains with a garden” mindset. The garden centers may bring a “garden with trains” mindset out and more people to the hobby. The Christmas trains there is a great idea as well. i got started with the bachmann Christmas set from Sam’s Club.
For the changes in Garden Railway mag, that’s tough. You can’t please everyone here. The advanced guys dont want beginner stuff and the beginner needs that stuff. I think the magazine struggles with this too. If i understand correctly their articles are mainly done by subscriber send in, save for the monthly “normals”, so their hands may be tied in that aspect. For changes I would like to see a monthly mag & I really liked the pull out plans.
The other change i would like to see is more promotion on starter sets. Yes the die cast, stainless steel, gold plated, diamond inlaid loco that sings the blues and costs 1.5 million is nice. But I think they and everyone else need to do a better job of promoting the humble starter set.
Terry
As far as placement of the magazine in a certain area of the store, it isnt up to GR to put it there. It is solely up to the store. GR can encourage that it be placed in a certain spot but the store will ultimately determine where it is displayed. GR is a hobby magazine and will be displayed in the appropriate spot.
As far as the content of GR. I think they do a pretty good job of balancing the content as best you can, “you can please some of the people all the time, but you cant please all the people some of the time.”
As a fairly new person in the garden railroad scene (started in Fall 2010), I feel that Terry probably has the most accurate opinion. All hobbies are down, due to a bad economy. The 90’s were good because people had more disposable income.
Moving forward, I think we should be tolerant of GR, I think they have a genuine interest in Garden Railroading and want to see it grow. Not for just profit, but they actually are garden railroaders themselves. We tend to get too critical of others because it doesnt fit our “mold” of how things are suppose to be. But, we often forget that there is such a wide variety of skill and opinion in our hobby and GR is doing its best to please any many as possible.
Given Bmann’s investment in their Lil Big Haulers along with their expanding Thomas lie I’d say that they must expect some increase in new model railroaders, albiet ones still in Elementary School 
, or at least with their parents or grandparents, and I think this is wholly correct, get them young, get their parents and grandparents while the kids are still interested and over the years, while some may drop off, some kids and parents will always stay interested, and I also believe its important to get them to build SMALL layouts that will fit the smaller smaller yards and spaces MOST people around the country have available to build a garden type layout. A small layout is more likely to get finished, and most importantly small layouts are more AFFORDABLE and hence more likely to get expanded in the future.
I’ve had a real problem over the last few years by what I termed the “wider is better” movement, and for the more seasoned type modelers that are moving into LS as they age and want to keep doing the proto heavy type modeling they did in the smaller scales, and there definetely IS a place for that in the LS world. But over the last few years, beginning about 2006, there was an increasing attitude that this was the ONLY way to go in LS. This was reinforced thru the magazine who only published large full yard layouts, manufacturers who offered ever bigger models (Dash 9, SD40, 3(?) Big Boys, 2! GG1s, the giant K27 etc.) and endless postings telling someone with a 10 foot wide yard that they really need 20’ diameter curves in order to be happy in large scale. Not to mention the massive amounts of time and monetary investments these “wider” layouts require. Not everyone can plunk down $1K for an engine.
The collective effect of that has been to alienate a very large segment of potential LSers, those who, like me, live in URBAN/SUBURBAN regions where the available real estate is often what most die hard “widers” would consider barely large enough for a passing siding. Well that’s a real fact of life for alot of folks, LIMITED SPACE. Garden Railroader finally got the clue, and did the Small Layout Contest which helped show that no, you don’t need 1/2 acre of land and a Trust Fund to gain entry into garden railroading, this I applaud, they should keep it up. Small layouts are more accessible and buildable than Fairplex sized layouts. They don’t look as nice, they don’t have than “Blame Wow!” photo spread appeal, but they get people involved, when I look back at what RRs got me seriously involved in LS, it was the small, very accessible layouts, often no bigger than 10 x 20 that got the spark going. If all I was told was that I needed 40x40 area and 10’ curves, I would be doing On30 or something else, which is what I fear alot of other potential LSers went and did.
Support small layouts and small trains, over time they tend to grow into bigger trains and bigger layouts. 
.
I have to agree with you Vic. I see too many people building a large layout and it takes a few years before a train can even run. I took the, keep it small approach, and then added as I got money. Space is not an issue for me. With 9 acres I could build as big as I want but I dont. The main reason why I keep it small is I like the look of smaller layouts and smaller trains. Maint is a big issue. If its too big you spend more time maintaining then running.
I think Bachmann has the right idea with their Lil big haulers. They are affordable. I think there needs to be more focus on small layouts but also a focus on small layouts that can be expanded
Shawn said:Every layout should be expandable if the space is available. If it isn't it was sloppy planning at the start! ;) :)
I have to agree with you Vic. I see too many people building a large layout and it takes a few years before a train can even run. I took the, keep it small approach, and then added as I got money. Space is not an issue for me. With 9 acres I could build as big as I want but I dont. The main reason why I keep it small is I like the look of smaller layouts and smaller trains. Maint is a big issue. If its too big you spend more time maintaining then running. I think Bachmann has the right idea with their Lil big haulers. They are affordable. I think there needs to be more focus on small layouts but also a focus on small layouts that can be expanded
As always strictly my opinon.
Here, here, Shawn… not everyone has a fortune and the ground to build a big railway even if they have the years left!!
Got the former…just not got the latter :)