 Boy, summertime's here and I've got a really special guest tonight that I want to introduce and it's somebody that's extremely influential in the hobby. This is somebody that every manufacturer and every other publication in the print form, they're always watching to see what Joe Fugate at Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine is doing. He's on the cutting edge with the first internet publication that's really taken it off, has proven to be a success, lots of advertisers and great quality content every single month, Model Railroad Hobbyist. So with that, let me introduce to you, I've got Joe Fugate here in the studio with me. Joe, are you there? Well, hi Ken. Yeah. Hello Joe Fugate. I think you might have heard that introduction and you are the man that is behind the revolution that is the Model Railroad Internet Magazine, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine. Well, what's about you and what's going on Joe with Joe? Well, you know, just thinking we've been publishing MRH for six years now, that's pretty amazing to think that started all the way back in 2009 and you know, here it is 2015. The big thing that I'm looking forward to right now though is actually the NMRI convention this August. I'm going to have my layout on display. I'm going to have an op session where people that are guests from out of town can come and run trains on the Siski line. So I've been working on my layout a lot lately. So you'd say you're in the trenches, you're not only just an editor of a magazine but you're actually in the trenches modeling with your fingers. Yeah? Yeah? One of the things that I always have wanted to do with the staff of MRH is to not just have journalists who do model railroading but to actually have model railroaders who are passionate about the hobby and who can also write and take good photos and that sort of thing. So, but number one is I want people that are passionate about the hobby. So yeah, we all are in the trenches, we're doing the hobby and a lot of people know me prior to MRH from my Siski line layout that I started in 1991 actually. So that's coming up on 25 years, believe it or not, 25th anniversary here in 2016. I've seen a lot of videos that you've made on that layout, that's a beautiful layout and that would be really something great to see if you're going to the NMRI national out in Portland, Oregon where Joe lives. So tell me Joe, how many people, subscribers, readers do we have now? Well, it's a number of different categories of readers. We know we have about 50,000 downloads give or take. We also know that there are maybe 20,000 people give or take the read our magazine strictly online. So we estimate there's about 70,000 readers in that ballpark to read the magazine. We also have 30, at this moment, 32,000 subscribers and since the magazine is free, all that subscribing means is that you give us your email so that we can send you an update every week with some of the interesting posts that are on the website, maybe some interesting announcements from advertisers and also very importantly when a new issue is released to let you know. That subscriber number is actually very important. So every once in a while I get people that say, gee, the magazine's free, would you ever let me pay you some money for this? And what I tell people is subscribe. If we get a good, strong subscriber number and 32,000 is pretty good for a model train magazine these days, you get a good, strong subscriber number that helps us get advertisers. Just to kind of put it in perspective, RMC, Roamall Craftsman, as most people know, they kind of went through a bit of a trauma last year where Carstens folded but then White River picked them up but in the process they're down to about 16,000 subscribers now at this point. Then of course we have Combok and Model Railroad and they're sitting at about 90,000 subscribers. So we're kind of in the middle but we're definitely number two as far as a general model roberting magazine. Yeah, really hats off to Kevin U. Daly and Stephen Priest, they've done a magnificent job with Model Railroad Craftsman since that magazine's gone through its transition. It's really nice to look at so and we really kind of hope that all the magazines survive in the industry because the industry needs all of the magazines to help perpetrate and help everybody continue to be profitable in the industry. So it's not that we're on everybody's side and that's a great position to be in. Now something else you've got that's really cutting edge that's absolutely new is Train Masters TV, the new monthly television show, the subscription based show. He's got a great professional editor and cameraman by the name of Barry Silverthorn who used to work for the BBC Broadcasting Network so it's really first great quality production but other than I've just said that, tell us about Train Masters TV. Well yeah, we started Train Masters TV in November of 2013 and the goal was to have Model Railroading TV, Discovery Channel quality television for Model Railroaders and by having that level of quality not only does it make the content really enjoyable and really good just as a modeler to watch but it's something you can show your family and friends too. One of the things that we've said is we want to make the hobby respectable again to the general public and one of the ways to do that is to make really good network TV quality production with model train or railroad related topics and so when I look back since November 2013 we've now got almost a hundred segments that we've produced since that time and that's all new Train Masters custom produced content, all network TV level quality production and a lot of really fun stuff. So I'm pretty thrilled with what we're doing there and we have a lot of great plans of things coming up. By the way one thing that's true with Train Masters 2 is that it's started out it's streaming over the internet and we did a survey last summer and had a number of people that said well I don't have really good fast internet connection I'd like to watch this instead of on my computer screen I'd like to watch this on my big screen TV are you ever going to do DVDs or downloads and so yes we're going to take all of that content that's on Train Masters and if you don't do streaming but you like DVDs or downloadable videos it'll be coming this summer the first year of content which is over 70 segments and it'll be in a number of different DVDs and you can get it different ways you can get a best of if you want to just get some of the highlights we're going to put all the layout tours on a separate set if you want to just get just layout tours we also have some prototype segments that we've done we did a really nice segment on Streamliners and Spencer which was a big event last last summer and then we also have some how-to segments we're going to put on DVDs so we've got a nice segment on painting a backdrop and we've got a really good set of videos on weathering rolling stock so and so you can kind of pick and choose and if you want to get everything too we're going to do all all the months from November 2013 until December 2014 so that's like 13 videos 14 videos so we'll put all the monthly shows on separate DVDs too so if you want to get just like a six DVD set so if you want to get that set and get all of the segments you can get those two well that's a lot of work Joe you're doing an awful lot of good stuff for the industry it's all gonna help promote the hobby one way or another you know another great show you've got is What's Neat but with Ken Patterson that's a great show I kind of like watching that a little bit every month you think you're just a little bit biased there's a lot of neat stuff coming up I'm telling you what we're working on June right now just trying to finish things I've fallen behind you always want to be to stay four months ahead and right now I'm about 30 days ahead I've been building a lot of laser kits two stall engine houses single stall engine houses Durango station and what's wonderful about laser kits these days is the fact that they go together so easy the computer aided CAD work that went into the design and planning of these kits it just makes them a joy to build so I can have some pretty quick segments on how to build these kits as I progress through this but you know great job with the magazine you've got a lot of great guys helping you a lot of separate authors with their little segments that they write every month DCC my most favorite subject that you do is the photography there is this real segment just quality stuff so what I can say yes yes man thank you very much for all of that that's that's just great stuff is there any any future plans in the magazine before we let you go that you might want to cover well the big thing coming up that we were talking about is actually my 25th anniversary the Cisculine so the January issue January 2016 will be a celebration of my 25th anniversary of my Cisculine also you know I did these videos on the Cisculine and some how-to stuff and so on but some of that's getting kind of old it's like 2004 to 2007 it's a time period some of it's timeless a lot of the scenery stuff is pretty timeless but things like the DCC stuff that's almost totally obsolete at this point plus there's excuse me there's changes to the layout updates to the layout new new stuff on the layout especially as I'm marching toward the having the layout ready to show this August so Barry and I are talking about doing a train master's segment on the Cisculine and plus I have some other new video titles planned for next year and then some ebooks around different things happening on the Cisculine too so next year will be in it's a 25th anniversary year there'll be a little more Cisculine stuff in the magazine and available from MRH as well I've tried not to overexpose my own layout in the magazine but given it's 25 years and it's been a while since I've really done much in the magazine with this good Cisculine I thought well you know we'll we'll do some more stuff this next year man Ed looks that sounds fantastic I seriously look forward to everything else that we can see from Joe and all the gentlemen that work with him he's got a good team a good magazine a really cool thing going and I can't see what the wait to see what the future brings for this online format this new medium that we've got we can all interconnect with each other talk in chats and stay directly connected to our editor on a daily basis Joe listen thank you very much for taking the time to help me produce a segment of what's neat and we look forward to anything else that you've got coming up okay can well it's always a thrill to talk with you and to you know because I can remember Ken Patterson back from the 90s when I first learned about you and saw all your covers and everything and so now you're a part of the Emirates family and I'm I'm think it's a privilege so thanks Ken all right Joe well thank you very much have a good evening Jeff Meyer Jeff Meyer what are you shooting this afternoon on this beautiful afternoon another freight car for Penn Central covered hopper it's actually it's going to be patched for Conrail eventually it's one of the athron ps 2893s but I figured I'd stop where it's at right now since it's still in the Penn Central and then here after I get these pictures I'm gonna go back and then patch it out for Conrail most all the lettering the number will stay the same but boarding mark all the perils don't be patched out and get Conrail data and logo on it's a lot of work man thing looks really neat it's a pretty neat technique on that car thanks well thanks a lot for sharing that with us Jeff we love your work every time you come by June segment of what's neat this week we've got Michael buddy auto rack automobile extraordinaire and with us today he's got something just a little bit different we're used to seeing auto racks and automobile loads from Mike but this time he's got something pretty special so let me hand it over to Mike it's automobile frames on Accurail flat cars the frame loads are made by JJM you can still find them on eBay or at train shows but I basically just stacked the frames and made the styrene supports for the frames glued them on to the Accurail flat car made the n-boxes and top frames and the side restraining devices are from the inner mountain it's pretty nice model Mike now you've done a lot of scratch building and parts on that and that's inspiring for the rest of us that want to make auto rack frame loads like that thank you very much for sharing that with us Mike all right and we got a beautiful day today to do a photo shoot and today I'm shooting something really special Milwaukee Road Hiawatha what I'm doing here this is a class a 442 locomotive that in 1935 really sparked and started the speed race from Chicago to the Twin Cities this 411 mile run that they they wanted to conquer in in X amount of hours and this turned out to be one of the first premier trains at the Milwaukee Road used Fox Valley creates this model in HO scale and end scale and coming this summer these things are going to come available with sound which will be a real treat they run super well I tested this consist I put it through the paces on the layout I let it run around the room a few times not at a hundred miles an hour but just as at a surprisingly wonderful speed that looked good on film and this train really performed well she pulled all of her cars very well it's got rubber tires on it so pulling is not a problem for this small locomotive but if you're looking for some historical model even just to put on a shelf and look at this is an exquisite model the Milwaukee Road Hiawatha from Fox Valley modelers it's just it's just a beautiful model and today I'm shooting it and it looks good I go talking about great stuff pro again and all the uses that I keep finding for this material now you know on the shows I've used this already for filling gaps in the layout underneath track work which I'm gonna follow up on a little bit more today we've also used it in the glue test and this came out to be the strongest glue for bonding foam together also further in a show you saw me do a segment where I was filling up with a wires go underneath the layout with this material to fill up a routered out gap which acted as his channel for the wires last month and that worked out really really good so today I want to talk about something unusual I took a can of this stuff and I threw it in the trash and what I came up with what happened the next afternoon was I had this sculpture growing in the trash can I actually pulled it out and it continued to grow and form its own pipeline its own channel and work its way all the way up kind of neat and it brings me to another point that I wanted to discuss a lot of times we always seal our foam with foam I'm sorry with latex paint in order to seal our foam and a great a great feature of the orange pro foam is that this material doesn't get dissolved by spray paint you know when you're spraying regular foam the paint immediately starts to eat into the foam and it starts making holes in the scenery material I've actually found great ways to create roadbed that way by applying a piece of masking tape on the foam and then spray painting over the top of that masking tape the sides of the foam that are exposed or eaten the spot with the tape is not eaten so it gives you a real nice gradually melted away roadbed that actually has worked really well I've done articles on that but as you look here at this sculpture this piece of trash it's turned into a piece of art it's not being dissolved by the spray paint it's it's just wonderful and so the reason that I found that I want to do it this way is because when I use this to fill track work areas where the foams got holes cheesecake and small Swiss cheese type holes in the material by spraying it with the paint in other words by taking the holes filling it with the orange foam as I've done in this segment of the layout look at this section of the layout this is some of the narrow gauge trackage that I was laying and the track work had holes underneath it and so I took the orange foam right out of the can used the nozzle and pointed it directly between the railroad ties and filled in the areas underneath the track work and then came back the next morning to find that it all expanded so simply take a knife or razor blade clean it off then go over it with this Rust-Oleum camouflage paint and then work over the whole area so that I can then cover it with dirt and weather the scene and then grow really tall static grass in the area and literally make the narrow gauge track just simply disappear in the scene that's the plan in this area and I think it's gonna come out pretty good simply by the fact that I can use the foam to fill the potholes underneath the layout and in the in the roadbed using this great stuff foam pro again that's not eaten by spray paint so that's what I want to talk about on this segment of what's neat and show you the section the layout that I've been working on here and so far it's coming out pretty good segment of what's neat I want to discuss foam shrinkage and I've actually talked to the manufacturer of the pink foam and they've told me that their foam doesn't shrink and that's all good I've got a section of the bluff here as you know that I've modeled where I live and today is the day that I'm gonna take it down I'm gonna take it apart and put it up in the garage and do some future modeling here but there's this is the one section that's never been cut apart since I built it when I built this I built it into two sections and I laid the track right here and what I did was if you look at this joint right here that crack right up the middle of the scene I cut that crack with the saw and I came through there one time and I cut the saws width the blade of the width the saw and what has happened in the last I want to say seven seven to ten years is the foam in this area has shrank and you can see the crack that I've got that's much wider now than the blade of the old wooden hand saw so this is the only area on my layout that hasn't been touched and literally between seven and ten years however long it's been now since I built this the rails have never been cut apart but you can see that this crack that was simply the width of a saw blade has in fact opened up to the point where I can actually see light all the way through it and this diorama is wrapped in plywood on the backside so interesting that it hasn't affected the track work ever but this is an area where I can quantify the amount of foam shrinkage and how much the diorama has gotten a little bit shorter over its lifetime of its existence so with that I'm gonna get out the cutters and start cutting this apart and build something new and exciting here the next year and that's what I wanted to discuss about foam shrinkage close out another great what's neat for the month of June a couple things I wanted to bring up here before we left the show and that is I've got confirmation on my electric bill that I have in fact saved 20% this year from last year on my electric and that's all due to the fact that I've switched over these LED bulbs that I burn all day long in the studio every single day of the week and when you quantify 20% on a usual spending of $3,000 a year for electricity that's $50 a month I'm saving so I'm gonna take it it was well worth the investment it's been a year now and it's paying off another thing that I want to talk about is we've got the prototype modelers meet coming up here in St. Louis in August August 7th and 8th of 2015 if you can come to that show please be sure to attend there's gonna be a lot of manufacturers there the show keeps getting bigger and bigger every year it's gonna be a center point show at some point where I can see a lot of the manufacturers attending that show and I may be on an open house for that so if that's the case and that all works out scheduling wise I would certainly look forward to seeing the viewers of the show it'd be great to meet with you another thing I want to talk about is be sure to check out Ken Patterson dot com I've got to get that in there because I've got a lot of new material that I'm working on I've done some narrow gauge engine houses some scenes unto themselves a 1 foot by 8 foot diorama that represents its own town just a lot of different projects that I'm working on so new videos are coming there and we're gonna close out the show with a little bit of large scale live steam a friend of mine skip came by and ransom just beautiful 120.3 locomotives on the garden railroad so with that let's close out the June what's neat with Ken Patterson and enjoy this live steam footage