Eastern Railroad Discussion > Sad day for railroad news preservation

The new Trains website is missing thousands of old News Wire stories. They still claim their coverage goes back to 2006 as before, but that's because they've randomly kept a few stories from each of the early years. For a publication that's done a good job making its print archive available this is a disgrace. They could have included this archive with the new print archive on their website. They have customers willing to pay to read their old content. Where was the business sense?

I've emailed Trains and didn't get a straight answer from Steve Sweeney on whether the missing stories were preserved or not so I fear the worst.
Editor Jim Wrinn's email is jwrinn@kalmbach.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/21 21:30 by m7rail.

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Subscribe to something and everything will be all well!! Their newsline was already looking like "Transit Daily" and to me
the mag doesn't seem to understand today's railfans.

Out 

Trains will be the next subscription that I fail to renew. Been a subscriber since the 70's...

I bought the January issue for a multi-page Amtrak article. I tore it out and threw out the rest. They seem obsessed with steam locomotives, which belongs in Classic Trains. It was also a rather thin issue.

Kalmbach has lost its way. Perhaps they should sell it to White River Productions.

Posted from Android

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Subscribe to something and everything will be all
> well!! Their newsline was already looking like
> "Transit Daily" and to me
> the mag doesn't seem to understand today's
> railfans.
>
> Out 

Not true - as a Train Subscriber, all you have to do is "sign in" n, but it is not as eas to use!

I never thought i would post anything negative about Kalmbach. However after several decades, like 4, of subscribing to multiple Kalmbach publications, and buying from hobby shops and news stands for years, tonight I was totally repulsed by trying to login to my Trains magazine account to see if my recent payment was received. I had reason to doubt that it wasn't. The site refused my login as invalid? So, OK, I haven't logged in for couple years, but I do  keep impeccable records as to logins and passwords? So I went to change my password and I believe it took me to the new Trains.com website? Why? I have no interest in that website whatsoever.
Whatever, I clicked on the "contact us" link, filled out the form and asked my question. A couple hours later I received a bounced email telling me the site I sent to doesn't exist. If this is what Kalmbach has to offer I may as well cancel all my subscriptions, they apparently don't care to provide decent online service to subscribers. After championing Kalmbach for years, after reading anti-Kalmbach posts, I feel totally abused. This is apallinglingy poor service. 
I only wanted to know if they received my money and it went to the correct subscription.
To say I am disappointed in this result is a very, very, mild statement.
Gonut
 

I agree the new website sucks!  The big problem is trying to identify which stories belong to today, yesterday, the day before, etc.   It seems pretty well jumbled together and unless I recall having seen (not necessarily read) an item, I'll be sucked into it again...making the 'click counters' happy.  Apparently, it's designed for cell phone users that now get one big blob for a story per screen.  I certainly will NOT be going to that site with my cell phone!

RayH Wrote:
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> Trains will be the next subscription that I fail
> to renew. Been a subscriber since the 70's...
I have one year left on Trains and it will lapse.  MRR lapsed 2 years ago.  Subscribed to MRR since about 1968 and trains in 1967. 

A response to this same message posted on the Western Board, states that Jim Wrinn has pancreatic cancer, which probably has his attention right now.

Our local library has digital copies of Model Railroader & Trains. Dropped my subscription years ago. (St. Charles City-County Library in St. Charles County MO, a tad west of St. Louis).
 

I've been reading Trains and MR for over 60 years but don't plan to renew.  I'll check them out at Barnes and Noble to see if they have anything of interest.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

Just curious,

   For everyone complaining on this forum, have you bothered to contact the Trains with your issues? The thread in their complaint forum has 46. You can contact the Editor (jim Wrinn) or Digital Editor (Steve Sweeney) and unload your complaints and why you are dropping subscriptions. That might have more impact than complaining on Trainorders.

John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/21 08:52 by VaCentralRy.

Did you miss the part about Jim Wrinn's health situation?  He has just a little more to be concerned with than a bunch of complaints about the publication.  Might want to leave him off the list and let him focus on life...