Congratulations Joe and crew

When I first heard of MRP I had my doubts that an online magazine could survive. Now five years later you have not only survived but have become a premier model railroading resource. I think your character and high principles are what makes it work and I want to thank you for putting in all the effort to bring us this gift each month.......DaveB

Happy Birthday MRH

Congratulations and Happy Birthday to MRH. 

For me, MRH magazine and the forum are my first stop when looking for modeling information. Not everything can be covered at once, but Joe and his staff are mixing the variety of articles as best they can. The response to magazine questions from MRH has always been prompt and useful. The knowledge of the forum members and their courteous answers to questions surpasses all other online forums, IMO. Many of the modeling articles cross international and scale boundaries. I enjoy seeing the photos from our forum members from around the world and do hope that some of them will submit articles.

Also, I must thank the sponsors for their support without whom we as modelers would not have this outstanding resource at our fingertips.

I'm looking forward to many more years of excellent content from MRH.

Happy Anniversary

Congratulations MRH on your 5 year anniversary. From startup to the hobby's best magazine in only five years is quite the accomplishment. Wishing you continued success.

For the investor in all of us, Joe what are your predictions for five years from now? You seem to be much better at forecasting than my stock broker!

My! How the time has flown.

Five years!  Somehow, it doesn't seem possible.

Like most individual magazine issues (all magazines, not just MRH), this one didn't have much in the way of interest to me ... In fact, the only thing I actually read was the first part of Joe's column (skimmed through the rest).  It was an interesting read; viewing the past, armed with the knowledge of how events played out is always fun.  

Will be even more interesting to see where the next five years takes us ... any guesses?  

Thanks Joe and company, for all that you have done.  

...

If the next five years bring us More of the Same....

GREAT!!!!

I cannot remember if I ever had a doubt.  I think I took one look at the idea and from there...I was hooked!

Free for me, an active community, world wide contacts, and pertinent content material that really hooks in the hot topics of the day?!

The DCC articles alone are worth the cover price!  If you took them all and bound them into a new book, "Dr. DCC's Guide to Communications, and renewed the edition every couple of years with new material like they do with colelge textbooks, I dare say that would be a book on Every model railroader's shelf - and a fair chunk of change for both MRH AND Bruce!!

Congrats to Joe and the crew.

Congrats to Joe and the crew. I'm happy to have been a sponsor  for the last few years and hope for many more.        

Thanks, Rich

Thanks, Rich. It's the sponsors like you who've helped fund this venture, to the benefit of modelers everywhere! We greatly appreciate all you do, and the many long hours you put in designing and producing your products so the rest of us can enjoy this great hobby.

Future Success

This publication has transformed my (leisure time) life - can't thank you and your team enough.

Wishing you continued success. 

Excellence

About a decade or so ago, when there was talk of printed magazines going away, I often wondered how that would work. I mean really work. Joe you and you team not only offer a true modeling magazine for modelers, but also in a multi level interactive format where one can actually have a dialog with the author and other readers alike. I love this magazine, I have every issue and participate often in the forums. In fact, several of articles have been used in my own modeling efforts. Thank you for all you do. As someone who worked in the publishing industry, I know that you are short on staff and still manage to put out a great publication. Thank you.

Love the magazine!

Happy Birthday MRH

I have been a subscriber since 2010 I think, but I have all the issues from day one downloaded. MRH is my goto place for information...modelling tips, product news. great forums and wide supplier coverage. I have learned more from this source than any other single source, by far. I recently became a subscriber to Trainmaster videos, and find that a great  source of information and entertainment.  Joe, you were way ahead of the times when you started and you  and the staff have stayed there.

  I am an N scaler, so naturally would like to see some more attention to that scale. Having said that, I find many subjects covered that fit across any scale. I live in a remote area so I do most of my purchasing on the internet, usually  from suppliers that sponsor MRH.    Keep up the good work.

Thanks and Happy Birthday

Thank you and the crew and authors for bringing this FREE magazine (e-zine) to us every month.

Looking at your requirements for a reader, might I suggest a 16MB Nook HDplus  currently on the market for $149

I donwload the landscape embedded version to the desktop and the portait regular for portable reading on my Nook.

Anniversaries

Excellent

Love it with one request....

I found you 2 months ago and am slowly making my way through the archives.

As an IT guy to begin with I love reading this on my tablet!

You beat the 2 big magazines in content and availability. 

The only mag you can't replace is Garden Railways, I am a large scale guy.

I know I am in the minority but please please please a little more large scale stuff?

Jeff Walls

We publish what we get

Sure, we would if we could. But unfortunately, we can only publish what we get. If you would make your large scale friends in the places you hang out aware that we'd like articles, then maybe we could accommodate you.

Congratulations

Joe and Staff,

CONGRATULATIONS! Most small businesses fail less than 5 years after launch. Clearly you have beaten the odds. For this all of the members of this form, subscribers to MRH Magazine, and now subscribers to TMTV are very grateful. I'm sure that each of us has improved our modeling because of the resources and inspiration(s) found here.

You and your staff have set the new standard in publishing. Instead of subscribers paying to view ads (oh, and content too), you have persuaded advertisers to do that part of the heavy lift. I would bet the farm that other magazines and even newspapers have at least looked at what you have done and asked, "How can we do that with our resources?" But you have a huge advantage, that you have acknowledged in the past, you have no capital investment in print publishing. Having a very substantial investment in print publishing makes it extremely difficult for others to follow you lead. Even the boldest publisher must look at what writing off all of that capital investment means to their bottom line. If it wasn't for that I'm sure there would be many more ezines and e-papers, and maybe even e-textbooks too. It is the future, at least in part, because economics demands it.

However, I have begun to wonder how many hats you wear, and caution you not to spread yourself too thin. With all do respect to your modeling, business and publishing skills, I see your greatest value to this enterprise as the visionary-in-residence. Of course, you, as the publisher, have a finger in every pot, but don't get too involved in any one pot. If necessary put off projects until time and money permit staff investment. I, for one, would certainly hate to see you get burned out or have product quality diminish.

Once again, congratulations on five years of model railroad publishing!

Dick Johnston

echoing the small business

congratulations to joe and all of the mrh family.  i agree with those posts talking about the success of your small business.  what an amazing accomplishment.

i hope that as mrh grows over the next five years that it is able to keep this small, family like feel.  much of model railroading is served by similar small businesses. this is part of the attraction to the hobby - its a place where everybody knows your name, so to speak.  a hobby that is fun and relaxing, something rather different from the corporate world.  so thats a long winded way of saying that i hope that mrh vision includes 'more of the same'.  this is success and keeping that success should be a part of the mrh future.

some of the things that i really enjoy about mrh are the quick connections to advertisers and the things they have that i need.  like everyone, i have happily spent plenty of money with the advertisers and i pretty much only make purchases through mrh advertisers.  i regularly check the posts in the forums.  its a great way to see what others are doing, to get inspired, and to get answers to questions.  i hope mrh keeps these going.

i wonder what the monthly mrh 'magazine' would look like if we werent first trained in hardcopy magazines?  the mrh pdf looks  like any magazine - nothing wrong with that, but is this the future?  should the front page be updated more regularly, say a couple times a week with an article edited by the mrh team?  would this result in a more searchable mrh?  should mrh be on facebook or twitter?  should mrh sponsor some sort of online  gathering where people around the world gather via skype or whatever to see a live presentation and then have q and a?  i dont know, but am just thinking out loud about these things....

most of all, thank you joe and the entire mrh family.  thank you soooo much!

Happy Anniversary

here is hoping for many more to come !

5th Anniversary

Congratulations on five years of great magazine publishing.  I've been there from the start and I agree: the magazine has become great and the options for viewing it are even better.  I really appreciate your time and effort to provide a good magazine...I REALLY look forward to the beginning of each month to see if the notice for the new magazine is there on the web site.  I really take the time to read each and every page, even the ads.  

Keep up the great work...I'll be following along each month.

Congratulations

Well done to Joe and staff on bringing the MRH e-zine to its fifth anniversary. What surprises me most is that I look forward to every issue even though I model Victorian Railways (Australia) in N scale. This is because you publish plenty of articles on scenery techniques, weathering, building methods and electronics that transcend scale and prototype. And many of the featured layouts are so good they provide plenty of inspiration regardless of their setting or scale. The inclusion of these types of articles is a major reason for the magazine's appeal to the widest possible audience.

Please keep up the great work.

Tony in Victoria, Australia

Joining the chorus with every

Joining the chorus with every good wish for your past efforts and continuing success.  You've provided tremendous leadership in bringing model railroad publishing into the digital age (and dragging along a few of us dinosaurs who couldn't believe we would get the same coverage as a printed mag.).  I have consistently enjoyed every issue of MRH, and always find at least one article that is particular to my interests.  Even as a steam fan, I read with pleasure every month!

Bill

It's simply exceptional

I really love the quality and content of MRH . I have to confess that I also really love print media as well. I am still not willing to take my laptop into the bathtub which is where I find time to relax quietly with the hot water trickling on my toes. So, when they have a waterproof, shock proof laptop or tablet, I'll be entirely there!

I am spending a lot of time right now tracking back in the industry and currently looking at 1942 about six months after the beginning of WWII. It's fascinating watching what the vendors were doing , trying to support the war effort through the war production bureau and still trying to supply a fledgling hobby. Many manufacturers simply went out of business, unable to acquire materials to make anything for trains. Did you know that Walthers made Zinc HO Rail in 1942?. Some, like Megow, Lobaugh, Walthers and Varney banded together to form a lobbying group in congress to plead for survival.  When the war ended the explosion of people entering the market was fascinating.

What I really loved I ran into last night. I had thought that the guy building dry ice steam engines was way out there but then, I ran into the man making switches and signals work using compressed air. He did it with bellows under the dispatch desk!

So, we really have come a long ways. Hats off to you and find me that waterproof Kindle Fire.

CONGRATULATIONS MRH!!!

I remember when I first stumbled upon MRH, I was randomly Google searching things of railroading interest. At that time you were still bi-monthly. I have since saved to my laptop and read every issue, I look forward to each new issue and am considering canceling other pay subscriptions in order to take on a subscription to MRH TV.

Just to throw this out there, my interests lie in N scale steam (standard and narrow gauge (1925 era)), while most of your articles can easily be adapted I certainly appreciate anything more specific to my interests.

Keep up the excellent work!

regards,

Tom L