Occasionally, people ask why we don’t give it up and just focus on, say, HO scale. After all, it seems that about half of our content is HO scale, anyway, not by choice but by circumstance. It would be easy to just close out the other scales and only take HO stuff; we could probably fill our magazine with all-HO, from reviews to advertising. We’d only need one testing facility, and we wouldn’t have to adjust our thinking for the scale.

Currently, we run operations for Z, N, HO, S, O, and Garden Scales (#1, A, H, G, and F). We maintain track, power supplies, test equipment, and sufficient or more rolling stock to accurately test and evaluate a product in those scales. We also have to back ourselves up with research material for all of the roadnames we might encounter. Then it helps if we understand the history within a given scale. Each scale has its own story to tell, and every product is part of that changing perspective.

We are blessed to have specialists in all of our scales. I especially appreciate Associate Editors Dave Otte and Bill Cawthon. Dave can do any scale, and often does, but he brings special value in S and O scales, understanding the genesis of each. Bill Cawthon has brought a special focus on model highway vehicles, an area of growing interest in several scales. Contributing Editor Jeff Saxton has a special interest in logging and narrow gauges, plus a fantastic research library in that area.

Stuart Thayer is an acknowledged fine-scale maestro who lends a special authority to HO and HO narrow gauge. He is joined by Larry Smith, a Master Model Railroader. We have plenty of support for HO with Mike Acker, Alan Houtz, Vic Roseman, and Dave Carr, each of whom brings a specialized focus to model railroading’s most popular scale. However, Phil Scandura, Dave Otte, and our TAMR writer, Peter Maurath, tie down the N-scale world very well.

I have the very good fortune to be the editor of this menagerie, and I get to play in most of the scales, at one time or the other. I think of it as keeping my hand in, but it’s more than that. As much as I love HO, I’ve really never met a scale I didn’t like. If it has wheels and runs on tracks, I’ll like it. My hometown of Medford, Oregon has a very nice newspaper, The Medford Mail Tribune, that has a giant printing press in the basement, as most newspapers do. This one has little wheeled carts that bring enormous rolls of paper around to the back of the press on a little narrow gauge track. I’ll visit that train any chance I get!

However, running an all-scale publication is more than just a matter of having writers, resources, or the interest. We have found that our readers often choose our publication for just that reason. Even though they model one scale, they like seeing what else is available in other scales. When a model railroader decides to shift from one scale to another, we provide traveler’s aid along that journey. We aren’t trying to woo you to one or hold you in another because that way we get a new reader or hold onto an old one. Rather, you can go to any scale you want, and we’re still right there with you.

So stay with us and bring your friends. Let’s sit around the coal stove in the RPO car, feel the wheels rumbling beneath us, as we talk about our hobby. We’ll show you what we’ve found that’s new, help explain what has been around but is under appreciated, and listen to your concerns and interests. Despite all those scales, it really is only one hobby.