From the Dome Car: Train 2 Track 2 (July-August 1991)

 

By the second issue of the second year, some financial realities began to bite. In this case, it’s advertisers not paying their bills. One thing Morgan was very scrupulous about was paying his bills on time. It bothered him greatly when others didn’t. I don’t know if he wrote this down anywhere, but one of his policies was not to publish a new issue until all the bills from the previous issue were paid for—printer, graphic designer, post office, contributors, etc. For that, he needed those who owed him money to pay their bills on time. Since some didn’t, this resulted in CRM’s erratic publishing schedule and fluctuating page count. (He would only print when and what he could afford.) 

From what he wrote in this Dome Car, it sounds like he might have been getting calls from readers wondering where their next issue was. That was his attempt to explain. 

Not everything was negative, though; a majority of subscribers renewed their subscriptions for year two. And Morgan is already noticing more Canadian models being produced; he wonders if CRM might have had something to do with that.   

As most of you know, Canadian Railway Modeller is a small, niche magazine, run by a modeller who lost his job a couple of years ago through one of those corporate cutback deals. He decided to start his small Canadian publishing business producing a full colour, glossy magazine that would be of benefit to modellers looking for more Canadian train information. 

The response from modellers was overwhelming! Letters poured in. Article material arrived. The phone rang off the hook. The magazine became thicker and better. They love it! The first year went by and subscription renewals came back at 85%! More new subscribers. And more letters. 

New advertisers phoned and said they wanted space. New hobby shops called and said they wanted magazines. More car article. And your model and proto[1]space. More magazines. More of this. More of that. A distributor was lined to take care of some of the orders. A line of sweat shirts was introduced with the magazine logo on the front. All great and wonderful things happening the course of eighteen months. And a none-stuffy voice at the other end of the phone. Very approachable. 

So, what does this all boil down to? If all these great and wonderful things are happening, than why all of a sudden does the magazine loose a number of published pages and get later in its arrival? I wonder if there is something happening beneath the surface that we are not aware of? Come on Morgan, what gives? Really? 

Well, here it is folks. I avoided putting this into print a couple of issues ago, but enough is enough. I refuse to hide behind these problems because it’s not fair to those modellers that buy and support the magazine, either over hobby shop counter or by subscription. And it isn't fair to those that have backed us with article support, photographs, letters, material and encouragement. And most of all, it isn't fair to me!

Some hobby shops and advertisers do not play fair ball with us. They don't pay their bills on time! Canadian Railway Modeller is not a financial institution! We are very proud of the fact that our payables are current. 

Recently, however, it has been extremely difficult to proceed with business as usual due to the fact that many unnamed accounts don’t pay us on time. It’s difficult enough running a small business in this country without this kind of nonsense. We will produce a magazine that can be paid for and if that means less pages, less pages it will be! It's up to you, not the people who buy and contribute to CRM! 

Now that that's said, I feel much better. 

On to more positive things, our new series 'Paint it Canadian!' is a hit. Don Lewis tells me he has plenty of paint flowing in our air brushes. 'One Winters Eve' begins with this issue and it won't be long before we can read it ON a winter's eve! 

We have modelling articles on Canadian Pacific passenger cars, more on Canadian steam locomotives, kitbashing rolling stock and station building. And how about an N scale easy to scratchbuild comfort cab? More Prairie Perspective. A CP/CN silk car article. And your model and prototype photos keep coming in. 

I was very happy to receive a photo taken by a fine fellow modeller who used the Canadian the flags produced in Train 1, Track 6. Are there any more out there? And a request for articles to use in the 'Canadian Classic column is out. How about CN’s 6060 or a history lesson on an infamous Canadian Shield shay? Gotta be somebody interested in writing up a short article with photos on something unique to Canadian railroading. 

Our popularity has grown overseas as we welcome distributors in Australia and Switzerland. We've also noticed that there seems to be an increase in the number of models being produced in Canadian paint schemes by manufacturers as well as an increase in the number of parts available that are distinctly Canadian. All hidden benefits generated from the successful publishing efforts of Canadian Railway Modeller. 

It's on to the next track. Catch you in the next issue, eh?