Out of print back issues to appear on web site
Dec. 17, 2011
Hobby magazines thought lost to the sands of time have been digitized and will be made available for free to small-scale live steamers starting Jan. 1, 2012.
A trove of back issues of Steam in the Garden magazine was discovered earlier in 2011 and has been turned into digital files by Scott McDonald, since early 2011 a co-owner of the magazine. The management of Steam in the Garden has determined that these back issues — long unavailable because they were out of print — should be shared with the entire small-scale live steam hobby.
Longtime Steam in the Garden subscriber Ken Parkinson of Rensselaer, N.Y., turned over his full collection of all the back issues of the magazine to the new owners last fall. McDonald diligently scanned each and every page of issues Nos. 1-12, from Spring 1991 to April/May 1992, which totaled more than 320 pages of content.
Steam in the Garden management then had the files converted to its standard e-edition, flipping-book technology, which allows for on-screen, page-by-page reading as well as the download of PDF files. E-edition subscribers have access to current issues back to No. 108, November/December 2009, in the technology, which is now includes 15 issues.
The out-of-print magazines include contributions from many famous authors and small-scale live steam experts: Peter Jones, Larry Lindsay, Marc Horovitz, Fred Kuehl and, of course, the late Ron Brown, founder and first editor of Steam in the Garden.
The issues will be placed one at a time on the magazine’s web site, Steamup.com, over the coming weeks, starting with Issue No. 12, April/May 1992, and work backward toward the first three issues, which Parkinson’s collection only contained as a reprinted, combined 48-page magazine.
As the magazine’s management clears rights with the original authors, photographers and illustrators, individual stories from older issues are being added to the web site on a one-by-one basis. These too are freely available for reading and downloading.
Print back issues of Steam in the Garden are available for purchase on Steamup.com, by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by calling (607) 642-8119.
