Large Scale Central

KALMBACH'S Track Planning Book G gauger promotion

General Discussion
#1

I was one of the Garden Railways subscribers receiving a mailed notice of a special offer: A renewal notice plus the Kalmbach TRACK PLANNING book – “12 All-New Plans HO, N, O” Also, the book’s cover supposedly incited large scaler’s renewal interest with “N Scale RR in HO space.” Included was the editor’s letter to garden railroaders exhorting asap renewal and getting this track planning book.

I consider the promotion effort extolling the value of this book for Garden Railways subscribers as unfortunate:

  1. No “G” gauge track plans or articles are in the book – if they exist it is certainly a secret.

  2. “G Gaugers” are targeted as consumers with claims of little substance to purchase outside their interests instead of offering a product that meets their interests.

  3. By the omission of “G,” Kalmbach’s analysis appears to be the presence of “G” has little following or even enough merit to include it for exposure to the HO, O, and Z gauge hobbiests.

My conclusion:
The promotional “letter” to Garden Railways subscribers is unfortunately unresponsive to our LS hobby and asks we agree to a pretension the publisher of Garden Railways is actually responding to and meeting our interests while excluding our hobby.

Wendell

#2

You got a free book with your subscription.
Many Large scalers model smaller scales too.
Any plan in the book can be converted to what ever scale you like.
I don’t see a problem.
Ralph

#3
Wendell Hanks said:
I was one of the Garden Railways subscribers receiving a mailed notice of a special offer: A renewal notice plus the Kalmbach TRACK PLANNING book -- "12 All-New Plans HO, N, O" Also, the book's cover supposedly incited large scaler's renewal interest with "N Scale RR in HO space." Included was the editor's letter to garden railroaders exhorting asap renewal and getting this track planning book.

I consider the promotion effort extolling the value of this book for Garden Railways subscribers as unfortunate:

  1. No “G” gauge track plans or articles are in the book – if they exist it is certainly a secret.

  2. “G Gaugers” are targeted as consumers with claims of little substance to purchase outside their interests instead of offering a product that meets their interests.

  3. By the omission of “G,” Kalmbach’s analysis appears to be the presence of “G” has little following or even enough merit to include it for exposure to the HO, O, and Z gauge hobbiests.

My conclusion:
The promotional “letter” to Garden Railways subscribers is unfortunately unresponsive to our LS hobby and asks we agree to a pretension the publisher of Garden Railways is actually responding to and meeting our interests while excluding our hobby.

Wendell


You act surprised, Wendell.

#4

And what in the heck is “G” gauge anyway??? Oh yeah, I think it was 1:25.56 or something like that, but no-one makes track in that scale.

EDIT: Oh my, I’m confusing Scale and Gauge again. Must be the Mad Cow.

#5

Aw, who needs plans anyway? Money for space, money for track, money for rocks, money for bridges, money for buildings, for plants, and anything else is in rather short supply… ideas, I gots lots of.

Klambake is only interested in where the money IS… ie HO and collector Lionel, Any and everything else they think they’re doing YOU the favor. The bean counters say so, and the bean counters are God. LS is a red-headed step-child, and will be for the forseeable future… unless it gets totally orphaned like S gauge.

As for the ‘special offer’, just be glad that they didn’t just SEND it to you… then try to BILL you for it. IIRC they did that with videos and “collector” coins a few years ago. I circular filed every single one that arrived. I didn’t order it, didn’t want it, and damn sure wasn’t going through the trouble of sending it back. After about 3 I think they got the point.

#6

Wendell,

You best address your concerns to Tony Koester and see what his reaction is. :slight_smile: As far as lack of garden layouts go, “Model Railroad Planning” caters to “innovative” track planning matters which by and large attempt to recreate the prototype and frankly we don’t see much of that in LS.
Contrary to popular believe transplanting the “average” indoor layout to the outdoors misses the possibilities to a large extent!
I doubt Tony Koester is looking for one more roundy-round layout even if it is situated outside, but when you address your concerns you could inquire what would give LS a better chance in “Model Railroad Planning”.

BTW I’ve been buying “MRP” since the inaugural issue back in 1995, of course strictly for professional reasons. :wink: :slight_smile:

#7
Jon Radder said:
And what in the heck is "G" gauge anyway???? Oh yeah, I think it was 1:25.56 or something like that, but no-one makes track in that scale.

EDIT: Oh my, I’m confusing Scale and Gauge again. Must be the Mad Cow.


:lol: :lol: :lol:

Actually Jon, for the less US centric there is 1:22.5 scale (aka IIm) which is pnp (prettynearperfect) to model Meter gauge railways. Of course there’s also 1:32 for SG and for the NG crowd there is 42" track gauge in 1:24. Admittedly less WOW factor for some.

As far as “G” is concerned it is strictly “G - wie Gummi” (G - like rubber) - coined by yours truly back at the turn of the century and the explanatory op-ed piece published in GARTENBAHNprofi 6/2003.

#8

Do the math - The 5 common gauge 1 scales averaged out got me the 1:25.56 number, so long as I didn’t fat finger the calculator :smiley:

#9

Quite true and I’d say close enough for the “Average G-Scaler/Gauger”. :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley:

#10

Steve-
No, I’m not surprized, just disappointed at the opportunity to feature at least one “G” outdoor layout in a book likely to be attained, read, and scanned overwhelmingly by HO, N, O readers. Point? Come on Kalmbach, PROMOTE OPPORTUNITY to increase the numbers of RR hobbiests who go outside! Show at least ONE “G” layout track plan and photos outside – or inside for that matter.

In short, by not showing at least one “G” layout is to discount the option. Clearly, Kalmbach is inadvertantly ( I trust!) discounting the outdoor large scale hobby by NOT indicating it as an option or addition to those dedicated to HO, N, and O.

By omission, the presumption is we are outside the hobby interests.

Golly, Gee whiz, imaging having an indoor HO and your outdoor “G” layout on the same piece of property.
Unimagineable!
Apparently. I have not seen any stories on having both.

Wendell

#11

Of anyone on this forum I’m one of the very few that have taken a stab at indoor large scale track planning, I’ve seen past copies of this issues, and they are totally oriented towards prototype operational planning, not a freelancer among them. I found them interesting as examples of different layouts, but otherwise it is really limited in its usefullness to large scalers, as almost all of us are freelancers, even TOCs layout which is one of the most operations oriented layout around wouldnt fit as its a freelancced layout.

The bottom line is that they want to sell the refrigerator to the eskimo, so they will sell it up to the buyer whether you need it or not. but even I have to say no G in any issues like the Track Planning issue or the Best Layouts of the Year issue, is really kinda poor representation. We dont exist to the “serious” modelers…

#12
Victor Smith said:
Of anyone on this forum I'm one of the very few that have taken a stab at indoor large scale track planning, I've seen past copies of this issues, and they are totally oriented towards prototype operational planning, not a freelancer among them. I found them interesting as examples of different layouts, but otherwise it is really limited in its usefullness to large scalers, as almost all of us are freelancers, even TOCs layout which is one of the most operations oriented layout around wouldnt fit as its a freelancced layout.

The bottom line is that they want to sell the refrigerator to the eskimo, so they will sell it up to the buyer whether you need it or not. but even I have to say no G in any issues like the Track Planning issue or the Best Layouts of the Year issue, is really kinda poor representation. We dont exist to the “serious” modelers…


Vic,

We are not serious modelers. We run large scale trains outdoors, mostly. :lol:

#13

I gave up on GR a few years ago. I do have the pleasure of a local hobby shop that carries it, and I brouse through it once in a while. I bought an issue for the trip to Syracuse, to read in the hotel room.
As far as track plan books…I feel that there is little use for one in LS, as the plans that usually are shown are all basicly “Roundy-Roundys” that give many new people the false impression that there is no pleasure in a point-to-point pike. Sort of like the “Lionel” mentality !!
If a person has the benifit of a large lot, why promote putting the layout over in a small corner, when the whole yard can be the “Canvas” for future creative expansion.
Every plot of land offers different opportunities.
Too often outdoor railroading is promoted as not a hobby, but an “Animation” in the garden; put in a corner of the lot, where it can easily be cleared away after the “Thrill” of watching a train going round and round, wears off, and the people move off to other things…I see it happening all the time.
A HOBBY should be something that a person can grow with, and have as a souce of pleasure; an outlet for creativity; a common intrest with friends, but most important; a lifelong “Thing” that can grow with the person, and not be too limited by space or imagination.
I push operation…some don’t find operation attractive to them, preferring the building of rolling stock, buildings, or the landscaping. But, each of us finds a freedom to grow, in our chosen hobby…that’s what keeps it alive, along with the new and old friends we find along the path…

#14
Wendell Hanks said:
I was one of the Garden Railways subscribers receiving a mailed notice of a special offer: A renewal notice plus the Kalmbach TRACK PLANNING book -- "12 All-New Plans HO, N, O" Also, the book's cover supposedly incited large scaler's renewal interest with "N Scale RR in HO space." Included was the editor's letter to garden railroaders exhorting asap renewal and getting this track planning book.

I consider the promotion effort extolling the value of this book for Garden Railways subscribers as unfortunate:

  1. No “G” gauge track plans or articles are in the book – if they exist it is certainly a secret.

  2. “G Gaugers” are targeted as consumers with claims of little substance to purchase outside their interests instead of offering a product that meets their interests.

  3. By the omission of “G,” Kalmbach’s analysis appears to be the presence of “G” has little following or even enough merit to include it for exposure to the HO, O, and Z gauge hobbiests.

My conclusion:
The promotional “letter” to Garden Railways subscribers is unfortunately unresponsive to our LS hobby and asks we agree to a pretension the publisher of Garden Railways is actually responding to and meeting our interests while excluding our hobby.

Wendell


a couple of years ago I received in the mail from Kalmbach a cd or dvd about track planning. I’m not sure what gauge they were hyping in this series of discs and goodies they wanted me to subscribe to. I trashed it and as I did not order it I felt it was a freebie from them. At least thats what the law says. They kept on hounding me wanting payment for this cd and I kept on writing back to tell them thanks for the freebie that I sh** canned. Tey finally gave up.

#15
Rudolf Jager said:
a couple of years ago I received in the mail from Kalmbach a cd or dvd about track planning. I'm not sure what gauge they were hyping in this series of discs and goodies they wanted me to subscribe to. I trashed it and as I did not order it I felt it was a freebie from them. At least thats what the law says. They kept on hounding me wanting payment for this cd and I kept on writing back to tell them thanks for the freebie that I sh** canned. Tey finally gave up.
I have the same problem. I keep getting a bill saying I didn't return some DVD I never received. It is not Kalmbach, but some marketing partner of theirs. IE....They sell our information to others. It wouldn't do me any good to not renew the subscription. The information is out there now. But I do need to let GR know I'm not happy about this. Ralph