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Lionel's Model Builder book 1998 Kalmbach Magazine hist
Lionels Model Builder by Terry Thompson & Roger Carp The Magazine that Shaped the Toy Train Hobby
Soft Cover Cover has some creases
95 pages
Copyright 1998
CONTENTS
Introduction 5
History of Model Builder Magazine 6
At the Drawing Board: Track Planning in Model Builder 14
Two Track Layouts (April 1940) 16
Playroom Railroad (February 1942) 20
Eastern Belt Lines (November 940) 21
The Scenic Limited (February 1945) 22
Layout with a Lake (January 1943) 23
In the Mind's Eye: Layout Design in Model Builder 24
Track Types (February 1948) 25
Let's Start Railroading: 1 (January 1946) 28
Let's Start Railroading: 2 (March 1946) 31
Construction Gang Completes Job at Raymondale (April 1948) 34
From the Studio: Lionel's Future Production in Model Builder 38
Scale Model Water Tower (December 1939) 40
Derricks (March 1942) 42
Depressed Center Flat Car (March 1947) .46
A Cattle Car (January 1948) 49
At the Feet of the Masters: Quality Modeling in Model Builder 52
Little Old Town in the West (February 1946) 54
Locomotive Conversions (February 1943) 58
Electrically Controlled, Operating Lift Bridge (November 1941) 63
Along the Line: Layout Features in Model Builder 66
World's Largest Collection of Old Trains (January 1941) 68
New York Society of Model Engineers (February 1944) 70
Snapshots (December 1945) 76
Table-Top Layout (April 1948) 78
Nicholsville in the Attic (October 1948) 79
Back at the Plant: Model Builder Looks at Lionel 82
Railroads in the Making (January 1938) .84
When in New York, Visit the Lionel "World's Fair" (December 1943) 86
They Came from Here (January 1948) 88
Suspending Publication (April 1949) 92
Model Railroader (April 1949) 94
INTRODUCTION
MODEL BUILDER. To someone who grew up in the dark ages of Lionel information, the 1960s and '70s, the name seemed magical from the first time I heard it. The whole possibility seemed almost too unlikely to believe-a train magazine published by The Lionel Corporation?
What could it contain? My mind immediately conjured page after page of Lionel classics: F3s, Turbines, and coal loaders; Alcos, Hudsons, and bascule bridges. I was sure it must have been like a Lionel catalog every issue-probably even better!-if only because those were the only Lionel publications I had ever read (and read, and read).
It was many years before I held my first copy of Model Builder, opened it, and glimpsed what this magazine actually had been. I was on a research trip to Washington, D.C., and I slipped a few hours into my schedule for a visit to the Library of Congress and some toy train reading.
The first surprise came when I looked in the card catalog and found that Model Builder ceased publication in 1949. Not knowing its history, I had believed that it had continued to publish into Lionel's golden era of the 1950s.
The second surprise came when the library page brought the first volume that I had requested-1948, as I recall. What I found was not the puffed-up Lionel catalog I had expected. Instead, I found a well-produced and balanced magazine about model railroading. Sure, Lionel equipment worked its way into most of the photographs, but Model Builder's promotion was more sophisticated than simply touting Lionel at every turn. If the catalogs made you want a Lionel for what it was, Model Builder made you want one because of what you could do with it.
I also found a magazine that was simultaneously ahead of its time and a creature of it. Its articles, especially those on layout design, are often far more sophisticated than many that appear today. Model Builder's writers were some of the finest thinkers in the hobby, and they worked to help readers create not simply platforms for showing off Lionel trains, but realistic model worlds. From signaling systems to backdrop painting, Model Builder articles cover the essential topics and back them up with technical information about model and prototype alike.
Mixed in with these forward-looking gems, though, is ample evidence to date Model Builder. Take advertising, for example. Recruiting pitches for the Army Air Corps, admonishments from top football coaches (most at Ivy League schools-when was one of them last a national football power?) to eat Baby Ruth (of course!) candy bars for "quick energy," and similar ads make it clear that this isn't a recent magazine. So, too, do the cartoons about railroad legends, the Wild West features, and, unfortunately, the humor, much of which is no longer funny.
Whether for better or worse, a read through Model Builder still offers a lot for toy train fans. This collection, I hope, will show you why I think that's so. The articles I've selected illustrate some of Model Builder's strengths, especially those topics in which the magazine was ahead of its time, and contain plenty of useful information. I hope you enjoy reading them; I know I enjoyed selecting them.
All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
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