Sometimes enjoying the hobby doesn’t mean doing more than just sitting with a good book or magazine and discovering new knowledge you didn’t have before. In fact alot of people in the hobby do no more than watch youtube clips or read articles, for them that is the hobby. For me its an essential part of discovery and knowledge aquisition, the most important thing any of us can do in this hobby is sharing knowledge with others.

So on my flight down to Benson I had this years model railroad subscription, in 2018, it will be Model Railroad Hobbyist and the Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette. in 2017 it was NMRA Magazine, Model Railroader, MRVP & Railroad Model Craftsman, with the money I have saved from dropping some of these titles I have decided to fund 3 NMRA memberships for deserving people. I have already given 2 out and still have to find who will be the third recipient.

Anyway my flight down to Benson was made a whole lot better by taking along a Model Railroad Magazine, and what did I learn well.

• I was inspired by a great article about a Jail building and how it developed, possibly a future scratchbuilding project.
• An equally brilliant article by Bill Gould about building a O scale water tower will almost certainly lead to a project down the line.
• I read about three times a great how to article for making evergreen trees by Craig Symington MMR he has a few thousand to make and now I know why i don’t model the pacific northwest
• I made a huge list of manufacturers whose websites i wanted to visit, unfortunatley no wifi on British Airways.