On Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:25:32 -0700, Lew Hodgett wrote:

It had a graphic panel complete with zone control and indicating lights,
all built essentially from left overs from other jobs except for the bat
handled toggle switches.

Don't the mags have projects like that any more?

I'm certain with Westcott's passing, there have been some major changes
in the mags covering model railroading.

The percentage of modelers in model rr'ing seems to be very small any
more. The operators have taken over. Seems they'd prefer to buy rather
than build so they can get operating sooner - some even dispense with
scenery altogether. Of course the industry, including the magazines, is
happy to support the "buy, don't build" trend.

I like building models. I have a collection of MR back to 1959. I find
almost all the interesting projects are in the ones prior to 1980. I've
even built a simple throttle from an article.

Woodworking/turning/carving seems to one of the few hobby areas that are
bucking the trend. Anyone built their own computer anymore? I doubt
it :-).

As far as automation goes, I retired about the time customers wanted to
build real time control systems with Windoze :-).

--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw