The Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette Disc Review

In model railroading, particularly if you are modeling something that's a niche interest, you're well advised to get it while the getting is good.  Much of the "product" is made in small runs by individual craftsmen, and you never know from one year to the next whether the guy who's making it will be there to run another batch: this is a low-margin, high-risk business, after all.

One guy to whom those particular laws of gravity have never seemed to apply is Bob Brown, publisher of the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette.  I was five when he transformed his previous newsletter efforts into the Gazette, and ten when I saw my first copies - a pair that my parents picked up for me to keep me occupied on a trip.  Even allowing for the fact that the Gazette's style is highly serial (which gives the odd picked-up issue an in medias rex kind of feeling), it was one of those "wild-eyed on a peak in Darien" moments that mark every modeler's life: I had found some people who were doing something inspirational and wonderful, and knew it at a glance.  That was in 1982; he's still at it today, and still producing a great product.

In a world where most periodicals are surviving by turning themselves into a multimedia experience, the Gazette has been stubbornly resistant to change: it still publishes on a bi-monthly basis, and its website is frustratingly minimalist.  On the other hand, if you call or email, Bob usually answers himself, which is a lot coming from a guy who's publishing a magazine that plays the same role of the hobby's fans of the light, narrow, and obsolete that Vogue once played for fashionistas.

He did hint to me in an email last year, when I was looking for a back issue, that something was coming, and with the help of Bob Hayden, it's here: the whole kit and caboodle on DVD: not only the Gazette, but its predecessors, in a simple and easily usable format, downloadable and printable as a PDF.  It's worth every penny.  If you're unfamiliar with the Gazette, there's a wonderful index hosted by Wiseman Model Services at this website, which will give you an excellent idea of the talent and the topics that the magazine has covered over the years.  If you like it, you can reward Bob Brown by ordering a copy, and reward yourself by enjoying it.