Model Railroad Hobbyist | February 2016 | #72 STAFF NOTES the MRH Media story ... and more It all started in 2004 with Model-trains-video.com. After Joe Fugate’s tenure as editor of the Layout Design Special Interest Group (LD SIG) Layout Journal publication, Joe found modelers had some interest in how he designed and built his home layout, the Siskiyou Line. Digital video had hit the scene and Joe elected to produce a DVD series about his layout. Many LD SIG regulars supported the idea and Joe founded Model Trains Video to produce and sell his videos. In 2005, Joe did an article for Model Railroader on ballasting track and included a video segment along with the article. MR liked the video and offered Joe a contract to produce video segments for them. The Model Railroader staff noted that PDFs allowed video content embedded in them, and they asked Joe to format his videos as video step-by-steps inside a PDF. From 2005 to 2008, Joe pro- duced video PDFs for Model Railroader. However, Joe kept watching technology developments and ideas like The Power of Free by Wired Magazine got Joe thinking that a free model railroading magazine offered via the Internet could inject new life into hobby publishing for the 21st century. Joe • INDEX • TABLE OF CONTENTS