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Writing for MRH - 1
T
here are frequently
questions on the MRH
forum about submit-
ting an article to Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine.
I thought it might be helpful to see the process from the per-
spective of someone who recently put together an article.
This was my first attempt at writing an article for publication
in anything, and I had very little experience at taking digital
photographs.
Submitting an article
to MRH can be
rewarding and fun
Writing for MRH
– Tom Patterson
Photos by the author
1. II submitted the picture
of the bridge above to
verify depth of
field and acceptable
exposure levels.
So let me walk through what was involved in getting an article
on modifying a Central Valley bridge published in the Novem-
ber 2011 issue of MRH.
GETTING READY
The first step was to determine whether or not MRH would
have any interest in the article I had in mind. I sent the e-mail
below by clicking on the "Have an article idea" drop-down on
the Authors heading at the top of the MRH home page. In my
inquiry, I made sure to provide some background information
on the project along with a brief description of what the arti-
cle would include. This isn't cast in stone, and changes and or
modifications can be made as the article progress.
Joe/Charlie-
I'm getting ready to modify a Central Valley Pratt
truss bridge and wondered if this would be of
interest as a short how-to article. I built the
bridge shortly after the kit came out in the late
1980s and installed it on my first layout. I subsequently learned
that this specific design wouldn't be appropriate for a main line
coal-hauler set in the mid-'70's and I've been looking for ways
to modify it ever since. I recently came across a photo of an SP
train on a bridge at Winchester, OR on the CarrTracks website
and the inspiration hit. It also struck me that this is the same
bridge that Joe modeled on his Siskiyou line. I then checked
the MRH website and found the discussion regarding the CV
bridge, links to photos of Joe's bridge, and potential modifi-
cations to make it appear to be a heavier duty bridge. In any
event, here's the article outline:
1) Brief history of the bridge and the kit
MRH-Mar 2013
