A new editor for Model Engineer

[Julia]

Great neat that ME is improving but my problem is getting sight of a copy. I used to be able to buy the odd issue in WH Smiths. Even though it is a large Smiths it does not stock Model Engineer any more. Before subscribing it would be nice to try a few copies.

What is needed is the facility to buy the current issue via mail order at the cover price including delivery. Mortons Media due this for all there titles and is very useful for the odd issue. My Hobby Store offer back number with a delivery charge.

[spamcanman]

read my issue of ME today and a noticable improvement already, keep it up David

[miner]

O.K. I have read most of the above and get M.E. from a book store 2 hrs. drive from were I live. I drive thru there due to work.
From a Canadian pespective some issues have very little to offer, others do quite well. IF I require any accsess to old copy's of M.E. my only option is to review them at the Vancouver B.C. library.That is a 3 hr. drive one way and opposite than I travel for work. So how about some reprints in the magazine of some of the classic designs. For example the M.E. Beam Engine would greatly interest me, The Pansy locomotive, These are but two examples. Survey your advertizers of casting kits, Find out what sells on a consistant basis. Some designs ARE classic and never go out of demand. Yes new material is required every issue, But you could add two seperate sections one for stationary engines And one for locomotives dealing with reprints from yrs. ago.

The locomotive contests are rather usless to most readers other than the winners And some of the readers that know them. MOST readers want hard information, How to do or build whatever. M.E.W. does this very well, This hobby is based on information, I have been gathering information and skills for over 20 yrs. and still think I have a huge ammount to learn. Most if not all readers want to better their skills, Show them how to do this and they will buy your magazine.

It would be very sad to see M.E. die due to lack of readership but unless things improve I am sure that will happen in less than 10 yrs. time. Also what happened about old M.E. issues being put on a computer disc, I would buy every one I could get my hands on.

As a new editor I think you did the best thing possible by posting here, But if I were you I would go to every web site that deals with any form of model engineering and ask for input. Your advertizers pay for most of the bills and the readership very little.But without the readers you can't sell the magazine. No magazine, No advertizers. I wish you well in your new job.

Pete

[davidmew]

Hi There
I am trying to put decent articles into Model Engineer however, I can only work with what I have.
I had to put several pages of trade at the Model Engineer Exhibition into 4341 because I had nothing else I could put in.
I have been left with very few articles that are any good.
I am starting to generate new articles but it will take time.

I believe the locomotive contests are important to readers but will ask in a survey in the very near future.

Probably in mid to late February.
Rather than take up 4 pages of the magazine, I am going to combine the survey 4 pages with the index 4 pages as an extra 8 pages.
We can only put old ME's onto CD if very old due to copyright restrictions.
I do have permission to put many articles onto the web as soon as we have a web site.

As we have separated from Magicalia, we have to redo a web site and hopefully that will be available soon.

I would like to ask readers about Post bag. How many pages of post bag would you like to see? Would you prefer it in the front or the back of the magazine?
regards David

[houstonceng]

David

Three pages of Post-bag please and at the front as before.

Andy

[gwrfan]

Hi David,

I've never had any formal engineering training, and have picked up most of my knowledge over the years from the 'Model Engineer'. My interest is steam, and, of course, I love to see anything to do with steam locomotives in your pages. It's surprising what one can 'discover' when reading through the writings of others, such as Peter Rich and Keith Wilson, not to forget the late LBSC and Martin Evans. And I do look forward to the reports of the loco trials, etc.

However, I do find some of the issues rather boring if there's no topics of interest to me. Having said that, your magazine is aimed at model engineers right across the board, and it is obviously impossible to entertain all of us all of the time, so I still browse the ME from cover to cover, even if only reading the adverts, haha! ;D

I do wonder if the problems with ME readership over recent years might be to do with the creation of the 'MEW' magazine? I only say this because I can't afford both mags, and therefore do not buy the MEW. So I wonder if some of the content now in MEW may, in the past, have been in 'ME', therefore making the 'ME' rather more attractive to purchasers before the creation of 'MEW? It's just a thought, but I'm sure the 'ME' used to have more 'how to do it' articles than it does now. I may be wrong, and it's not a criticism in any way of the production team.

I've also noticed that the 'ME' lacks the number of private advertisers that it used to do. There's usually half a page or so of 'Sales and Wants', and in larger type, whereas years ago there used to be a couple of pages of private advertising.

And, of course, the real problems! Two of them I believe. The first is the cost of materials nowadays, but the second, and most important one is the lack of new comers to our hobby. I would think that the lucky clubs and societies in the South and Midlands, for instance, might have a strong Junior membership, whereas other clubs such as mine, have no junior members, and we are unlikely to get any, due to our geographical location (Cornwall/Devon). This may be another reason for a decline in the number of ME copies sold in the shops.

I do enjoy Post Bag, and think it is best placed where it currently is. Again, it's not always about steam, but the variety of subjects covered must surely be of interest to all of us.

I wish I could suggest ways of improving the magazine, but, as I have no technical know-how, I can't really even write an article or two for you At this time I have no intention to stop getting my copy, and I may even switch from Smiths to a subscription. Your current 'offer' sounds very attractive. ;D

Best wishes to you for the New Year.

Geoff

[gwrfan]

Just collected my copy of 'ME', and I was delighted to see the addition of photographs of the Staff and contributors. Some faces are totally different from what I had imagined . Nice 'new' start, David.

Geoff

[davidmew]

Hi There
Yes, MEW helped destroy ME but now it can help to rebuild it.
A small amount of tooling type articles will start to appear in Model Engineer, mainly written by contributors to MEW. Obviously, I would not use a MEW favourite author like Harold Hall in Model Engineer. More so the author who writes an occasional article.

I have been in contact with many people and articles are beginning to arrive and several new series are in the pipeline.

Four new steam locomotive series over the next 18 months or so, A portable engine fabricated without castings, a gas engine from Dave Fenner. It is starting to happen but will take time.

regards David

[pondok]

My tuppence worth. Having only been in the hobby for 10 years, I can't talk with authority about the apparent 'golden era' of the ME, but seems to be back then it was the "face", the "portal" and the mouthpiece of the whole hobby, without competition from so many other competing sources of info, especially the internet (like this very site). As such it was THE place to go to look, share, admire and communicate to fellow hobbyists aside from the clubs themselves.

Of course that's little consolation David, and no doubt your job would be a whole lot easier were it not for the internet. So I suppose you need to enable people to justify spending the money on the hard copy rather than turn on the PC, not an easy job.

Nevertheless, I still do buy the mag (am guilty of browsing it and putting it back occasionally) and consider it still to be the traditional visible "front end" of the hobby, ie, very exciting to have a pic of one's loco in it somewhere (fame!) or that of an acqaintance or fellow club member, or just of the event one has also been to.

I love the idea mentioned here of more detailed pieces on respective clubs, apart from the obvious excitement from members reading about their own club, we're all no doubt curious to see what's going on at others ("hmm, I must drop by there for a visit one of these days...").

I happen to think the coverage of efficiency competitions is very appealing, for eg the one on IMLEC 2008 was very well written, no doubt read with glee by those who participated and with interest and humour by everyone else. The trials and tribulations of each run, things going wrong or going well, how we no doubt relate well to that, anyone who's done passenger hauling. This allows us to share the experience, and enhances the hobby for all as a hobby's only half as much fun when done in isolation.

I suspect the tendency in the hobby is towards model steam locomotives so if most of the content is about that then that's probably ok, but I am biased. Only a wide survey will tell. I personally will be much more likely to buy a copy if it's got stuff on impressive model engines, with the builder describing the process and plenty of pics of various stages of construction. This latest one of the Dutchess is a good example. There must be so many wonderful scale models out there that get seen by a few. It's always nice to look at good photos of them, just as, say, car enthusiasts like to look at the "best of breed".

Hopefully you'll be able to help the mag back to it's old status of "official" front-end of the hobby. Good luck.

Merry Xmas and happy new year to all,

Andy

[davidmew]

Hi There
We will be doing a survey. It will be four pages and combined with the index at 4 pages. This will not come from the main magazine but will be an extra 8 pages inside the magazine.

We are going to feature clubs individually with a bias towards running events for youngsters with a view to attracting them into the hobby.

Not quite sure of the format yet but a trial meeting has been held and went well.

I have been promised several loco series over the next 18 months, a portable engine to be known as the Model Engineer Portable Engine and a new traction engine design is on the way for a 6in. scale Gold Medal engine that is a small engine and will be equal to a 4.5in. scale engine.
Model Engineer is starting to move but articles are still required.
Things are beginning to look good for the future.
regards David

[bobpendleton]

Dec 24, 2008 18:58:14 GMT pondok said:

As such it was THE place to go to look, share, admire and communicate to fellow hobbyists aside from the clubs themselves.

Of course that's little consolation David, and no doubt your job would be a whole lot easier were it not for the internet. So I suppose you need to enable people to justify spending the money on the hard copy rather than turn on the PC, not an easy job.

.

Yes. There's the rub. We want the mags to be "must have"
yet we don't want to wait weeks for queries to appear in print and longer to see the replies. 'Postbag' is invaluable for the unique personal knowledge that correspondents record.

Quote again:

very exciting to have a pic of one's loco in it somewhere (fame!) or that of an acqaintance or fellow club member, or just of the event one has also been to. [And again], I happen to think the coverage of efficiency competitions is very appealing, for eg the one on IMLEC 2008

... and an important historical record too

Two thoughts to add, David. Some illustrations have tended to look like space fillers rather than informative. We don't need pictures of empty sheds and 13amp double sockets! (Workshop number). On the positive side, the quality of reproduction is far and away better than some of the old grainy black and white pictures. Secondly (pedant!) do watch those 'grocer's apostrophes'. Editorials, contributors and advertisers are all guilty there.

Merry Christmas all,

Bob

[stantheman]

Apart from wishing every one a perhaps belated but happy Christmas a question, what are grocers apostrophes, are they similar to sprouts?

[houstonceng]

"Grocers apostrophe" is a "reverse grocer's - or grocers' - apostrophe". The usual "grocer's apostrophe" is "banana's (two for one)" instead of "bananas" as the plural

See www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/index.htm for some examples or read "Eats, Shoots and Leaves".

There are worse errors in many newspapers and some magazines like :-
"can not" instead of "cannot" (also seen on a disclaimer notice in a Tesco's car-park)
"in to" instead of "into"
"there" instead of "their"
"alright" instead of "all right"
"it's" used as a possessive instead of "its"
and confusions between "to", "too" and "two".

The one that really makes one cringe is "your", instead of "you're", in phrases like "your going to like this" (not if that's the standard of English I won't)

Yours pedanticaly
Andy

PS. Merry Christmas

[davidimurray]

Hello everyone and Merry Xmas

I haven't had much time to follow the forum in the past few weeks so I am now playing catch up.

Congratulations on the new position David - I wih you success and for the first time in a few years I will be heading out to pick up a copy of ME.

Based on the 'typical' profile of a model engineer I imagine I am probably one of the 'younger' generation at 27, although I started model engineering at 18 with a unimat.

Now, I must admit to having bought lots of old copies of ME and flicking through some the other day I noticed a few things that I would like to see in future. One noticeable thing is that the articles that interest me the most are those that either inspire or those that I will actually use.

How about having a short article each month about one persons particular project - a warts and all account. I always find it just as interesting to read about the mistakes as the successes - hopefully I incorporate these into my own model building. Of course there is no need for the model to be finished, it could follow part built locos. I have yet to finish any of my three (1" Minnie, 3 1/2" Conway and 4" Foster) but I could probably knock something up about Minnie if you'd like - it's by no means an exhibition model, being bought as a part built engine from ebay, it's been good fun.

To steal an idea from Old Glory, how about having a loco test drive section - a different loco, road steam vehicle or stationery engine is tested every month and its performance, operation etc reported on.

How about a good 1 page engineering basics/practices section. Cover simple subjects like choice of materials, heat treatment, annealing different materials, forming platework, TIG welding etc etc

How about giving each supplier a couple of pages each month to showcase their products/services - not just the normal ones but some of the smaller and newer suppliers.

There seems to be a much greater interest in road steam vehicles in the past few years and as such I think the magazine content should recognise this. ME often seemed to follow the trends (steam boats, locos, TE's etc etc) historically.

There are many many many fantastic blog sites across the internet, I've spent hours reading a lot of them! How about getting some of these fantastic stories into ME - Baggo and his winning loco, Julia and her Modelworks Burrell and Foden, Britannia builder, the shay posted a few days ago, an overview of Little Samson, the beautiful french loco posted a couple of weeks ago, Giles Favell and his large scale stuff - the list could go on and on...

The ME portable engine certainly sounds very interesting - what scale is the model to be in?

Hope that gives a few ideas

Cheers

Dave

[ilvaporista]

I'll add in my 2p (cents) worth as well. I have my collection of ME's going back to the 1940's and often use them as reference. In comparison I'm not so sure that the recent ME's would merit that type of consultation after 50 + years. I enjoy the diversity of articles and it was a great shame that the direction seemed to be lost to try to gain the readership of the B&Q Sunday DIY brigade.

It's a difficult balance to not get too technical but not too complicated. I like a good spread of subjects to keep up my interest.

Build series with photos I find are very interesting. Even following the build up of one of the commercial kits. Locos, clocks, traction engines etc. I am an avid visitor to Julia's site plus the Nelson Loco Works, there are many out there.

Also the work on club tracks both in the UK and abroad. Some of the civil engineering undertaken across the pond is awesome. Though ME is taken worldwide there is a very concentrated view reflecting UK practice only. I suppose I should write about ME activities in Italy, there is much going on but you need to scratch below the surface to find the real gems. The 7 1/4" rack railway alone would be a good start.

Then there is emerging ME technologies such as Stainless Steel boilers, the use of now commercially available components to spped up build times (I can now make a complete 7 1/4" tender in a weekend..) etc. There is great information out there which ME could bring to a wider readership.

Some other subjcet material.
Foundry work and casting.
The energy crisis and discussion on emerging technologies. In my day job I am now back in fashion with hot air engines and waste heat recovery through Rankine cycles.
Melting metals including iron with waste oil.
Innovative use of by products for ME purposes.

I do ready every issue of ME but only in 4 month chunks when I go back to the UK, so the issues sit there mostly unthumbed until a mammoth reading session.

[petercolman]

I have great sympathy for any magazine editor as you will never please all the people all the time, I have been a MEW reader from the start and I think it is now settled into a very good position with a combination of how to build tooling, machine reviews, instruction for new readers, cnc etc,.
I think ME has an identy problem, the wide reange of topics that the mag covered in the 'golden years' are all being coverd by their own specialist mags so it is left to seek out a market among scale steam and as that is not my particular interest I have become a newsagent browser waiting for more general content ie clocks and other model engineering projects,
Surely the magazine that suits us best is the one with at least on realy interersting (to us) article per issue and none that realy irritate us, I get this from MEW but not ME I thinks that David has the broad experience to bring new life to ME and I hope he has every success.
Peter

[John Wood]

Hi David
It was when you took over ME Workshop that I took out a regular subscription. You have improved it greatly and now takes me days to read properly. Not so with ME. I also take that regularly but it often takes just a single lunch break to absorb.

I have to generally agree with Myford Matt as well as many of the above contributers, it is surely time to stop those "padding" articles such as lengthy show reports and "Letters to a Grandson" which often gets so deep that many of us havn't a clue what it's all about.

Most of us have busy lives and limited spare time which, at least as far as I'm concerned has to be used in a way that provides progress and thus hobby satisfaction, time is rarely available to absorb the lengthy and deep technical theory which is often presented in ME. Of course those who are more expert ARE interested so there must be something for them but, if one needs to bone up on a certain subject there is after all plenty of information which is freely available.

So, to compliment MEW which shows us all about tools, materials and how to use them can we now have a ME magazine to give us more practical model engineering so we can put it all to good use?

I am delighted that you have taken over ME David and wish you the very best for the future

Regards John

[davidmew]

Hi There
Grandson is gone.
I am using articles that I have (very few) and articles I am generating by talking to people and asking readers. The situation is slowly improving.
I received 3 articles through the post yesterday, a couple more by email and offers of some more.

Readers do like show reports as some can no longer make the long trek. Yes, not too long though. The main exhibitions to report on are the Midlands and London exhibitions, the Model Engineer exhibition, Guildford, bristol and Harrogate. Maybe a page on some of the bigger local ones.

I will be doing a full reader survey in February. This will probably be in 4345 if I can get it completed in time and the same issue will also include the index. I will add an extra 8 pages so readers do not lose out 4 pages index and 4 pages survey.

The survey will ask all sorts of questions to attempt to find what readers really want to see in the pages of Model Engineer.

It seems that putting the Postbag at the back and limiting it to two pages has not gone down well with some readers.

I will move postbag back to the front again and also try to fit in 4 pages, letters allowing.

The really big question I will be asking is about tooling.

Do reader want tooling articles in Model Engineer or do they belong in Model Engineers' Workshop?
There is a reader overlap between the two magazines but it is only about 25% of subscriptions. This may be different for news sales. I feel another question is forming about subscriptions or shop bought.

I had better get on with the survey. It will be based on previous surveys but a bit more comprehensive.

regards David

[crashedagain]

I was a long term subscriber to both ME and MEW and was privileged to have been published in ME on two occasions, the last being approximately 2002.

In 2006 I submitted another article to the editor of ME. After several emails about file formats, etc., the article was accepted with a somewhat indifferent "we'll get it in when we can". I never heard anything further.

A year later, I submitted a new article, this time to MEW. As I had had some difficultly with file formats with the first submission, this article was sent by old-fashioned "hard copy" mail. Six months later I had nothing in reply so I sent an email to the then-new editor of MEW...you.

Again I received no reply.

When my subscriptions next came up for renewal, I let them both lapse.

Recently I submitted both articles to another publication. Both were accepted, as was a follow-up article just completed, so I have withdrawn those original submissions to ME and MEW. You may remember recent emails we had on this subject; apparently neither the "hard-copy" mail submission nor the follow-up email was ever received although it is hard to understand how this could happen.

The rival publication was able to give not only an estimate of when to expect publication but also assurances that I could inquire at any time to find the status of the articles....much better than the indifferent response from ME.

The advice coming from this is to take care of your contributers. It takes a lot of work to produce a good article complete with photos and drawings and they deserve better than an indifferent brush-off. While it may seem unfair to be critical of the second incident since it was apparently never received, someone somewhere did receive a big brown envelope with a manuscript, several pages of photos and drawings and a CD in it and whoever that person is, they did not do their job.

It may also be (in the first instance above), that the editor felt that the article needed improvement in some area or other. If that is the case, SAY SO. The contributor has a right to know if the contribution is lacking so that improvements can be made. No author can expect to be immune from editorial critique, even LBSC used to refer to his editor as "Sir Knight of the Blue Pen".

On the subject of magazine content, I found ME really lacking in content of interest of late. As an overseas reader, none of the club events or competitions are of any interest at all. Tony Griffiths series on machine tools is just filler containing no information which can be put to use. Exhibition reports are of some interest but a feature follow-up of some of the more interesting models would be far more valuable. I suppose you can be forgiven for not doing a feature on overseas exhibitions (NAMES and Cabin Fever in the US for instance) but you should not ignore your overseas readers completely. ME was once THE publication for our hobby here (Canada) but has now been eclipsed by several US publications.

I am curious just how large your overseas reader base is.

It is undoubtably true that MEW has taken away ME readership...both because some potential customers can only get one publication but also because MEW has taken most of the workshop content away from ME. When I look back though my collection of ME (dating back to the 1940's, although not complete) I am almost always looking for articles on how to do something ie workshop articles or perhaps plans if I was working on something similar to an old design. I would never look up the results of IMLEC 1984 or some club show in 1972...unless someone had displayed a model or tool of particular interest. In that case a feature (even a small one) on that particular item would be preferred. ME is suffering for lack of workshop articles and perhaps it would be better to have one magazine instead of two.

ME is also suffering from too much concentration on locomotives. Those of us whose primary interest is stationary engines (steam, stirling, ic or other) or who are looking for something unusual (ET Westbury's fabulous Aveling IC road roller from 1938 for instance) now have to look elsewhere.

Although I may be sounding excessively critical, I do hope for the success of ME and wish you the best during your term at the helm. I will send in a submission if I can come up with something appropriate.

[davebreeze]

Jan 4, 2009 20:20:08 GMT crashedagain said:

As an overseas reader, none of the club events or competitions are of any interest at all.

I guess it's a personal thing in the end, but I'm in the UK and I'm always interested to read about local events in the likes of Australian Model Engineer or an American magazine. I might never go to those places or meet the people but it's interesting to see how they do the hobby, and I often pick up ideas from the articles.