This might be a little bit off topic, so feel free to delete, Mods., if you feel it dosen't fit in.

I'm trying to find any reading info about Freeman Hubbard, the man who, for so many years, was the editor of Railroad Magazine from it's pulp days all the way to the end of the line in 1979.

I have plenty of issues of RR from the 1960's and 70's, and it seems that a steady, slow, gradual slide of quality can be seen in the mag, which by it's last issue (Jan. '79) seemed nothing more than old reprinted railroad fiction stories, a mix of rail pics and rail/girl pics, and VERY few ads.

What ever became of Hubbard? I notice that after Railfan Magazine took over RR, that they listed Hubbard as "Editor Emeritus" (sp?) for a few issues, but I really have no idea how long this lasted.

I can't seem to find any biographical info on Hubbard at all. This isn't for some article or official write-up.....merely for my own personal knowledge.

Based on what I've read in RR, I get the impression that he was quite a character. Any info would be more than welcomed.

Mr. Hubbard passed away in the early 80s.

From looking at "Railroad Avenue" for a few minutes I see that his father worked for the Pennsy for more than forty years, and he grew up in Philadelphia. I believe the book has more bits of biographical information in odd places if you were to read through the whole thing.

Ah, here. His wife's name was Rita. Hope that helps. :)

Railroad magazine was certainly an enigma at the end. Even the loss of a glossy paper made it extremely evident that things were going downhill. I also recall in a later Railfan/Railroad where an old Faux-paux was revealed when a writer asked about submitting a question to the " Ask Barbara" column. The R/F editor(s) had to reveal that during the last few years of Railroad, the questions were basically re-hashed ones from earlier editions and that "Barbara" had been gone for some time.

But despite that, there were some very interesting articles, especially the " interesting Railroaders" or whatever that column was named. I happened to come upon a good lot of these recently and found great pleasure in the persons portrayed there, many of whom have gone to the " great high-iron above", and some that are still here. ( C&O 614, did you get a turn there???)

Hubbard also was a kind of benefactor in his own right. I remember one issue in which he took personal affront to the fact that Casey Jones grave had no marker, and personally saw that one was provided.

It was actually worse than that. The questions were very seldom even actually questions that were submitted--those were usually relegated to the list of queries printed for other folks to answer. The questions and answers were almost always fabricated from random factoids gleaned from railroad books and the like.

Railroad Magazine was something of a mystery to me. When I was evolving into a hard-core railfan, there were basically two types of fans: those who loved Railroad and hated Trains, and vice versa. To this day, I believe I could still pick out the two types of past readers, or the "type" that would read the same type of magazines today.

I believe Railroad magazine, toward the end, was mostly a one-man operation, a dying magazine about what was then considered a dying industry. Freeman Hubbard was probably lucky to keep it going as long as he did. Some of the best years were earlier, when the magazine was edited by Henry Comstock, who later went on to either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics (or perhaps both); he included many rail-oriented articles there. Comstock had a good mix of photographic articles, rosters, fiction and technical articles, explaining both steam and diesel theory and maintenance.

Railroad magazine began as Railroad Man's Magazine in 1906. Until the use of the internet and video, it and Trains were about the only source of information we had for railways outside the areas where we lived. I bought my first issue of Railroad in 1952 and still have the tattered copy. As a railroader, I've always appreciated the magazine's pro-labor slant, just the opposite of Trains.

Folks,

I just read a Harry Bedwell story in the September 1954 issue of Railroad Magazine. It is the first of the non-pulp, larger size magazines.

It still has the painted cover, which shows a retired 4-4-0 sitting in the front yard of a train station with a streamlined train on the tracks.

The Along The Iron Pike page is still there and I have always enjoyed
those pages.

By the way, was there ever a 117 preserved anywhere? The artist was
Herb Mott; who I have not heard of before.

Almost like a "Ginger & Mary-Ann" debate, eh? :)

I do, however, see your point.

When you put issues of Trains and RR from the same vintage side by side, Trains comes across as a serious "news" magazine, while RR seems sort of "fluff" like. That's not to say I didn't/don't enjoy BOTH, but they seemed to go in entirely different directions sometimes.

It's interesting to read some of the "Letters to The Editor" sections in the old RR mags. Half of the time through the 70's, it seemed like the readers were doing nothing but debating about seeing more or less "Rail/Girl" pics. Of course, there was always something interesting in RR, but it seemed that the "pin-up" pics started to run rampant for awhile.

One of the BEST things about RR were those endless rosters by Sy Reich. Even today, they make for a great reference to look back upon. I wonder if Carstens ever thought about doing some book based on some of these lists?

A friend of mine collects the small-form pulp issues of RR, and reading them is really great, although you have to be careful, as they weren't meant to be read, let alone SAVED, 60+ years later. He has one copy of it's original incarnation of "Railroad Man's Magazine" from 1912, IIRC, and the focus was more of a magazine FOR actual railroaders instead of being ABOUT actual railroaders. About 1/3rd of the mag isn't even railroad related!

Oh, and BTW....the column in question in an above post was Hubbard's "Interesting Railfans" series. I seem to recall that the first couple of issues of the merged RF&RR still carried this feature, but I have no idea how long it lasted.

Wayner did publish "Diesel Locomotive Rosters - The Railroad Magazine Series" in the early 1970's. You might find one at a train show or through a dealer.

Alan Maples

Another feature of the late 1950's early 1960's Railroad Magazine was the lists of displayed Steam Locomotives and Interurban/Streetcars. The Interurban/Streetcar one came out in either late 1959 or early 1960. As a 10-year old, I looked up in the atlas the location of every large collection and every location in California. I had already seen the collection at Travel Town in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. So I talked the folks into an 11th birthday treat trip to see the collection located at Perris, California -- it was about a 75 mile drive each way -- so I first saw Orange Empire in June of 1960. These lists became a guide for stops and detours during other family trips.



I recall hearing that Virigl Staff kept submitting the Rail/Girl pics because Freeman Hubbard liked them. In fact he went out of his way to take these photos.

An extensive article on Hubbard by the late Tom Jacklin appeared in "Railroad History #185" (Autumn 2001). ("RR History" is the twice-a-year Journal of the Ry. & Locomotive Historical Society.)

Herb Harwood