Apparently it’s official. Railroad Model Craftsman is done. According to an announcement on their Facebook page, Friday, August 22, 2014 was the last day for Carstens and their titles.
I’ve avoided comment until now because all the rampant speculation and outright gossip has been utterly useless in my view. Those who’ve engaged in it on the many forum threads have not been privy to the internal decision making, didn’t know anything about the ongoing circumstances that brought Carstens to this point and most annoying to me, generally know nothing about publishing as a business.
I don’t consider myself an expert about publishing or the hobby as a business but for me or anyone to have speculated about their circumstances as an outsider served no good purpose that I could see. Well, it’s academic now, they’re gone and that should give us pause.
Godspeed to the staff and their families who must certainly be looking for any ray of hope they can find right now. Thank you for all you’ve done to make this a better craft for all of us. You’ll be missed.
Regards,
Mike
Dang,that’s sad. Though I haven’t been a model railroad magazine subscriber for years,it still affects me that where once you had RMC,MR,MRG(My very favorite),RMJ(another great one),PM,and others,now is left only MR for paper publishings.
My first ever model railroad magazines I had were RMC.My dad would buy them at the grocery store for me when I was five.
Oh well. That’s ‘Progress’. I wouldn’t trade the internet for all those to be back,but it’s still sad.