Hobby Mags Go Video

In case you've missed it, in the last few years several of the major model railroading magazine publishes have started going the "wave of digital".  Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, and Model Railroad Hobbyist all have online/digital versions.  For me that's a little bit of a yawn because if I wanted good train information on my computer, I would just go to other model railroaders' blogs or forums.

However, what I do like is it seems that Model Railroader and Model Railroad Hobbyist now both getting into video.  Unlike making a digital version of their print magazine, video provides the extra dimension of time that text and pages can only struggle to portray.  I've been buying more instructional DVD's in the past few years and I've found it really helps in me being able to visualize how I'm supposed to do something.

Video +

http://mrv.trains.com

Model Railroader's offering "Model Railroader Video Plus" has been around for about a year now.  Their videos mainly fall into three groups, videos around a project layout, product reviews, and overall "beginner" level videos.

It doesn't say anywhere on their site, but I would guess they have around 150-200 videos in their library, maybe more.  Video+ costs $4.95/month or $44.95 a year.  You can upgrade to include the magazine in either print or digital for $62.95 a year total.  I seem to remember getting promotional offer emails in the past with a cheaper price, so perhaps waiting for an opportunity will make it a better price.

They sent out an email today about a new project layout they are starting, an On30 logging layout.  It's nice to see narrow gauge and logging getting some attention from MR.

TrainMasters TV

http://www.trainmasters.tv/

Model Railroad Hobbyist's offerings is newer with less videos.  They have 82 at the time I wrote this.  Many of them look like sections of the Siskyou Line DVD series.

A TrainMasters subscription is a stand-alone subscription at $5.99/month or $55.95 annually.

Subscribing

I have not yet subscribed to either, but I've been considering subscribing to one of them.  Right now I'm leaning towards Video+ which despite being Model Railroader and becoming unpopular with the old guard modelers, still seems to have more interesting content and at a cheaper price.

The downside to the "video subscription" model is that as far as I understand, these videos cannot be downloaded.  That is, once the subscription expires you have access to none of the content.  At $5 for the month though what's there to loose in trying it for a month?