Large Scale Central

Outdoor Railroader

General Discussion
#1

In an old Aristocraft box I came across a glossy insert for “Outdoor Railroader - Realistic Large Scale Modeling”. Did anyone who has been in this hobby ever get this magazine, or know what happened to it?

Mail check to Westlake Publishing Company.

#2

A search for the term produces lots of results.

I’ve never heard of it but that’s probably not surprising. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#3

I have that same insert…I believe they went belly up many years ago. Garden Railways had the market cornered at that time. Now Garden Railways magazine has one foot in the grave. Cant believe they are still asking top dollar for a subscription and not much less for a digital subscription!

#4

Hi Guys: That mag was edited and published by Russ Reinberg for several years - high quality and great photography. Iy was changed to Finescale Modeler and lasted about 8-10 more years. He also put out a Narrow Gage edition yearly as well as a broader encompassing modelers yearly. I think the Finescale forum is still up - www.finescalemodeler.com. Some real fine stuff on there.

Talk soon

Dick w.

#5

Yea, I was disappointed when Uncle Russ stopped dealing with subscriptions. I used to get all the annuals. But to have to go through a third party just wasn’t my cup o’ tea.

#6

Richard,

Unfortunately your finescalemodeler link goes to a Kalmbach site.

They publish MANY modeling mags, including Garden Railways

A search on Westlake Publishing Company finds a nearly identical weblink: finescalerr.com

It used to be the pages were online.

Hopefully they still are.

#7

Here is the link to Russ’s forum

http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/

Some of the finest model builders in the world

grace their pages. That’s why I just lurk there(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

#8

Rick Marty said:

Here is the link to Russ’s forum

http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/

Some of the finest model builders in the world

grace their pages. That’s why I just lurk there(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

Hey Rick,

When I first met you at Dave’s place a few years back, you gave me the link to this site. I’ve enjoyed “lurking” there myself. The guys that post there are definitely the best in the world!

#9

Very first issue.

Lasted in various forms until a few years ago.

#10

If you poke around Russ’ site, you’ll find all his Annuals and issues of Finescale RR magazine are still available and downloadable (for a fee) as a PDF. Finescale RR Annuals and Magazines

The only correction I would offer to all the above is that Russ stopped FinescaleRR mag and started the “Annuals” (3 per year: NG, Logging/Mining and Modellers Manuals.) I recall the tirade he wrote about the clients, who all had very narrow interests - even within the large scale hobby! But I guess if you are making finescale models of a logging camp, you don’t much care about the Chama sand house.

As mentioned, there are some very fine modellers writing articles for Russ’ manuals and posting on his forums. I bought his 2013 Modellers Manual after Geoff Ringlé wrote an article about the batch of Fn3 EBT cabooses he made for RY Models.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to have been any production last year.

#11

Outdoor Railroader morphed into Finescale Railroader, which eventually was replaced by three sets of annuals: The Modeler’s Annual, the Narrow Gauge Annual, and the Logging and Industrial Annual.

I discovered Russ’s publications too late to get the Finescale Railroader, except for some back issues. I loved the Annuals, and eventually got all of them. The last annual was the Winter 2014 Modeler’s Annual, which actually came out in December 2013.

#12

It was a great magazine, in all forms, too bad it’s gone. Russ’ jazz cd he made is pretty good, not sure he’s still offering it or not.