Putting out the GAZETTE is not a one man effort; it takes a lot of people and I want to thank all of you in this, our 50th Anniversary issue. The publishers, Kevin and Nadean Eudaly, owners of White River Productions, make it happen. Shelly, Liza, Jean, Chris, Dan, Terry, Melissa, and Pam are the folks in Bucklin, Mo., who keep things running. If you have a subscription problem, or a change of address please contact them, but editorial problems, errors in the magazine, letters to the editor and article submissions come to me at P.O. Box 26, Los Altos, CA 94024.
Corralling the advertisers is done by Mike Lindsay and until recently, his daughter Jennifer. You can contact Mike at 541-955-1096 and he will take care of you. Mike handles all the ads for all the White River Production magazines—quite a job.
Sharon Olsen of Just SO Graphic Design has made the magazine beautiful for over 40 years. I don’t remember her ever getting ruffled. I select and prepare the articles, Pigeon Hole, Ramblings, and Reviews, put everything in pocketed folders and she comes over the coast range from Santa Cruz and picks everything up. Then she puts the magazine together, drives back over the “hill” and gives me color pages of the issue. I proof it, make changes and corrections and she comes back over the mountain and picks it up again. Then she makes the changes, brings them back to be checked and I call any changes to her, and she makes them on her computer. I suppose it could all be handled by computers, but both of us like to work with hard copy and it seems to work. Besides she almost always brings me goodies.
The columnists keep coming up with interesting material and I thank them for helping me fill the magazine. So, thanks to Charlie Getz (in every issue but one), Craig Symington MMR, and Gregg Condon MMR for your unending supply of material. I know how much time it takes to prepare articles time after time.
Plans are one of the most valuable features readers get from the magazine. I often hear that a reader has used a GAZETTE plan to build a model. Sometimes the plan was published years ago, but was stored away for that future project. Gary Caviglia has been with us since the early days. David Fletcher has been providing his beautiful plans since 2012, and Robert Stears continues to fill the center spread. Herman Darr has opened his collection of western narrow gauge drawings adding to the value of the magazine. Alas, we lost Neil Pfafman in August 2024. He did all those Bodie, Calif., plans.
I mentioned Mike handling the ads, but what about the advertisers? Many go back to the early days of the GAZETTE. I appreciate their support since it costs money to print a 100 page, full color magazine and mail it. Coronado Scale Models goes back all the way to Finelines, and the GAZETTE has one of the best back covers in the hobby thanks to Bill Peter and the folks at P-B-L. Ron’s Books has been with us on the inside front cover for years. A good place to go for out-of-print books. I just listed the long term advertisers from the ad index and there are way too many to list here. But you know how much I appreciate your support.
Bless the authors. When we started the GAZETTE, Irene asked me if I could get enough material to fill it. I said yes and have never had a problem. Modelers seem to want to be part of the GAZETTE and share their work. Please keep it coming. I know it can take a while to get your article published and I appreciate your patience.
I have always been proud of our covers. I try and use paintings and have been privileged to use paintings from some of the best railroad artists. Jan Rons has provided the November/December cover for years. John Coker has done many covers as has Gil Bennett, Bruce Treloar, Larry Fisher, and Patrick Karnahan.
And of course we would be nowhere without you the reader. Many of you have emailed to say you have been reading the GAZETTE since Finelines days. Several have mentioned you were a teenager when you discovered the magazine and have saved every issue since. That’s what I had in mind with the GAZETTE, a source of information modelers would save and reference often to help build their models and layouts.
So, you can see a lot of folks are involved in producing the GAZETTE. We have been at it for 50 years (me 60 years if you count Finelines). I am proud of the magazine and never fail to marvel at the mass of information, techniques, plans, and inspiration contained within its pages.
Thanks to you all.
—Bob Brown, Editor
