Opening the Railroad Modeler Box, Part 1: The Spirit of '74

The full run of Railroad Modeler magazine except for special issues.
Those yellow stickies mark things I want to write about.

I've written a little about Railroad Modeler magazine in the past, especially in regards to E. L. Moore's career. It was RM that revived it and marked the beginning of the 3rd and last stage of his presence on the national model railroading scene. And a very successful stage it was. 

As I was writing about John Olson's Cielo Lumber Co. layout I began to think I should pull together all my notes and references on RM and try to write something substantial about it. I won't be writing about it as an insider, but as merely a reader, a reader with a history.

I don't think RM is all that well known in the general model railroader population. Maybe amongst those of, well, a certain age like myself. And if it is remembered, feelings about it seem to be mixed. That's an unfair assessment in my opinion. There's a lot of mundane stuff in its pages, but there's a fair share of innovative gold too.

When the magazine was a going concern between 1971 and 1980 (well, I think it ceased publication in 1980, I need to verify) I only saw and read the 6 issues from January 1974 to June 1974. After that I never saw it again on newsstands up here. The next time I came across it was in a gentlemen's basement who wanted to get rid of his collection to someone who would take it off his hands; no charge, just rid him of it. That someone was me, and that collection is shown in the lead photo to this post. It wasn't until I got it home, re-bagged the issues in acid-free sleeves and boxed them in a clean carton, that I realized it was a complete collection. That was in 2017. I've studied the collection a lot in the intervening years thinking that one day I'd write something about that old magazine. Well, that day has come. Ok, that year has come because the story will roll out over the year.

Railroad Modeler covers for 1974
Row 1: Q1 | Row 2: Q2 | Row 3: Q3 | Row 4: Q4

Where to begin? Conventional wisdom says to begin at the beginning, which in this case would be with the first issue, September 1971. Be that as it may, I'm going to start with 1974 because it was the January 1974 issue I first came across, and June 1974 was the last I saw back in the '70s.

Oh, before I continue I should mention that RM published indices of the contents of each year. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to get Gemini to read the index pages so I can convert them to nicely formatted tables of plain text, which would be quite useful when it comes to performing searches. Once I get that figured out I'll post the results here. 

Bird's eye view of the CP&I layout in the February '74 issue of RM

Ok, back to regularly scheduled programming. 

Back in that January to June '74 period one other project that caught my interest then was the RM project layout, the CP&I, that ran from January to July - I never saw the last instalment. I must admit it wasn't until the second instalment in February that I was hooked, and it was the two-page, overhead view of the entire layout that grabbed my attention.

Looking back, I think the layout's purpose was merely to showcase what could be built with standard, off-the-shelf model railroading products. I was too young and naive to consider that in those days, I was simply enthralled by that overhead view and paid attention thereafter to the rest of the series. I still like that photo regardless of possible ulterior motives, and have been a fan of complete, overhead layout shots ever since. 

Apparently CP&I stood for Cahuenga Pass & Interbay RR in the series
I assume Cahuenga Pass was named after Cahuenga Pass in Los Angeles where Challenge Publications was located.
The authors also note CP&I was chosen to fit the acronym for Challenge Publications, Inc.

Interestingly, I hoped that the CP&I would be a little layout so I might discuss it in the Little Layouts series, but no dice, it measured 8' long by 3-1/2' wide, just a tad smaller than a standard plywood sheet. I'd say that tad wasn't taddie enough to qualify as a little layout: omnivagant, yes; little, no.

According to the January '74 issue the CP&I was on display at the 1973 Model Railroad Industry Association show in Orange County. If there are any readers here who saw or operated it, please leave a comment as I'd like to know what you might remember.

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Digressions

The issues of April '74 ordered from left to right by increasing cover price:
60¢ | 65¢ | $1.00 | $1.25

April 1974 was a very intense model railroading time for me :-) I built E. L. Moore's RMC Paper Company that appeared in the April issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, and I built Peters Sausage Co. in N-scale (sadly, it has been lost to time) that appeared in the April issue of Model Railroader, and I schemed about how to buy an issue of The Spirit comic, but alas, I had run out of money buying model railway magazines :-) 

On every trip to the newsstand over the next few months The Spirit continued to intrigue me, but I always left unfulfilled. Until a few weeks ago when I stumbled across a copy of The Spirit #1 from April 1974 at an online reseller. It was an excellent price, so, obviously, I bought it and wasn't disappointed. Coincidentally, the first story in it is called The Last Trolley; oddly appropriate for a streetcar aficionado. 

The world of print magazines was a fascinating one for me, and continues to be even in its death throes.