CLASSIC TRACTOR June 07

[An Interested Spectator]

Rory,

Thanks for another great issue. I echo all the praise above. I know the bit about the amount of model content has been 'done to death' before on here, but if you can find a way of increasing it, it would be greatfully received.

Can i be really cheeky and ask you to have a look at www.farmerservice.dk

I don't know if you have any contacts in Denmark, or are prepared to 'cold call' companies, but this contractor has a fleet to send classic M/F fans into orbit. They have previously sent pictures of their fleet to www.grostracteurspassion.com which suggests they are not adverse to a bit of publicity.

Please don't think i am trying to 'teach granny to suck eggs'.

[Deere-est]

Excellent edition for June and if you havn't got it yet may I advise doing so. A great write up on Spalding (Another page of pics still wouldn't do the show justice but would be nice,  ) with plenty of mentions for Paul PDC, Ian Agrium and even our boss, man at the top, father of the family. .. Andy. A pleasant read and some very useful info on this two page spread alone. Oh and the reason there were 1001 6600's is because the 1 on the end is for the GOLD ONE. .. .  have I mentioned I won this?  :)

Hopet o get a couple more hours to grab it back from Tracis confiscation tomorrow 

[rorsday]

Dear All,

Thank you once again for your most kind comments.

Tractorman810, regarding your question on the subject of feedback to the models page, I have been involved in two surveys in the past; one of them was in my days as a contributor to Tractor & Machinery in the mid-1990s, and a second was when we ran a survey in CLASSIC TRACTOR about 4+ years ago.

On both occasions I regret that the highest percentage of least-liked features were models and stories from overseas. I think around 55-60% of the readers thought the models and overseas stuff was OK, but a massive 40-45% could not really care less about this type of story. The next least-liked subject came in at something like 14%!

As many of you know, I am a keen model collector myself and tend to do the Collectors Corner features myself. I will certainly suggest that we do a supplement on farm models, although to be honest we have not actually done a seperate supplement for several years because it means bagging it on the newsgents shelves, which is an entirely different ball game and can actually put people off buying the magazine because they can't read what's inside it in the shop.

Please keep coming up with the suggestions, though, they are most appreciated.

Regards

Rory

[powerrabbit]

Thanks Rory, from myself anyway, for the comprehensive reply. If I may be so bold, would it be possible to produce a supplement on a 'mail order' basis, for example, announce in the mag that a suppliment will be available to those who wish to order one, say 3 months ahead and give a deadline date for orders. This way you could guage the interest and produce a limited amount and this way would be the best to be able to manage the costings and I am sure that if you had any over they could be offered at the various tractor and toy events that you attend. I for one would order my copy now, (through the Forum?)

wonder what the rest think? Just a suggestion. I know that this would mean extra work for an already buisy chap and would have to be worked into 'the sceme of things' but the material would already be there. Keep up the good work mate, like I've said before, were all right behind you! 

[Deere-est]

I'd like to express thanks as well. Some kind of supplement would be very nice indeed and would further add to the credibilty of our hobby coming from a magazine right at the top of the real world enthusiasts' pecking order.

Although only a couple of pages in each issue attract my immediate attention, it leads me on to reading about the golden olies and indeed the future classics with just as much interest these days. If it works that way round for me, it is bound to work the other way round for people with a primary interest in life size collectors pieces.

[Tractorman810]

thanks for the info rory, quite surpriseing results really ,

[CJ]

Dear All,

Thank you once again for your most kind comments.

Tractorman810, regarding your question on the subject of feedback to the models page, I have been involved in two surveys in the past; one of them was in my days as a contributor to Tractor & Machinery in the mid-1990s, and a second was when we ran a survey in CLASSIC TRACTOR about 4+ years ago.

On both occasions I regret that the highest percentage of least-liked features were models and stories from overseas. I think around 55-60% of the readers thought the models and overseas stuff was OK, but a massive 40-45% could not really care less about this type of story. The next least-liked subject came in at something like 14%!

As many of you know, I am a keen model collector myself and tend to do the Collectors Corner features myself. I will certainly suggest that we do a supplement on farm models, although to be honest we have not actually done a seperate supplement for several years because it means bagging it on the newsgents shelves, which is an entirely different ball game and can actually put people off buying the magazine because they can't read what's inside it in the shop.

Please keep coming up with the suggestions, though, they are most appreciated.

Regards

Rory

that is surpriseing i really like reading about fleet profiles from other countries like germany france and the states its always interesting to read about other countrys ways of farming and working with machinery, and im really surprised that people dont like model features 

[TS135A DRIVER]

I can't believe the models page is in the most disliked category from poll results  It's usually the first part I head for when starting to read the new issue on its arrival  Who did you ask in the survey to give their views ? They are not true tractor fans then  as I am sure everyone has a passion to own a few models if they have a connection to tractors

[MDFord]

Thanks for the information Rory. I too find it very surprising that the model pages are so disliked by the readership. For a lot of people it's the alternative to owning the real thing for financial, lack of space etc type reasons. As TS135A Driver says, who with a tractor interest cannot fail to be impressed with the high quality models/conversions available these days.

Anyway keep up the good work. Mark.

[MJB1]

i don't think rory said the model pages were disliked , more of the fact they didn't need to have extra pages printed to this particular section .

i would think the majority of readers see the collection of toys or models as a sideline as to which has no bearing on the collection ,care & refurbishment of the real thing of which CT is orientated towards, in many ways to have a speial section for us farm & site magazine was available to which has all but dissapeared. this can only really be put down to either very poor circulation or an interest to a smaller audience to what we here think is actually out there.

there are 1093 registered users on ftf & less than 2/3 actually post , as opposed to 3438 on tts who do have their own national magazine, for us we will have to wait for  the time to come when a magazine for farm toys has enough interest which is financialy viable to produce. untill then rory has to keep the interst of the majority of readers . if indeed rorys poll was taken as a 'should we shouldn't we' vote, then from the results he'd be well within reason not to include a models page at all, at this moment in time i think we're very lucky to have the two page spread   

[IH885XLMAN]

I aggree marcus  as for supliments maybee a anual  supliment toward christmass ,CT does a brill job in all it features yes the model page should be bigger but that would mean sacrificing part of the mag rory can only

put so much model news in

so i think we are luck to have 2 or 3 pages of farm models  ;)

as a genral reader of CT i would have to say

               

                if it aint broken dont try and fix it ;)

[rorsday]

Dear MJB1,

You summed it up in one when you said this:

'i would think the majority of readers see the collection of toys or models as a sideline as to which has no bearing on the collection ,care & refurbishment of the real thing of which CT is orientated towards'.

A lot of people just don't relate to models for this reason.

Regards

Rory

[powerrabbit]

Rory is perfectly correct in his comments on this subject and as being 'the man' as it were is in the best position to guage the readerships requirement of content and interest. Other members on the magazines staff have their roles in researching, photographing and constructing articles that have to be, to an extent, sure bets as to what the majority of readers require and expect bearing in mind at the same time that there are other publications running similar content. A poll as it were could be done in the magazine asking the question "what would you like to see more of" but I believe that the majority of 'replys' would only come from those who subscribe to the mag as the ones that 'pick it off the shelf' and would not be an accurate enough guage. I may be totally wrong but that's how I see things.

[MJB1]

although the space given to models in CT is a 2 page spread, why do we really need more ?

CT gives a good summary to whats going on , but we get just as much if not more information on new models & releases here on the forum, there are very few releases we don't know about before CT gets to print an article about them , after all many of the conversion / scratch builders mentioned in the mag are members here, as are the likes of texas, who knows whats in the pipeline for general release.

The members we have from the continent also give much valued input to what the model scene is like abroad ,

'GreenSheet&YellowRims' has done some cracking scratchbuilds the like we wouldn't get to see in CT,

'kolpen' with his enthusiasm for all things remote control,

& of course there's 'bennyv78' who trys to fit either duals or trelleborgs to anything that moves & of course anything that doesn't  \ indeed it will only be a matter of time before we see his wheelbarrow fitted out with dual trelleborgs

& 'mattias' with his cracking ford tractor conversions.

The forum magazine 'Model Farmer' is still in it's creational stage & will have what you want covered from new releases to convo's ,collections & scratchbuilds.

I personally think we at FTF are ahead of the game anyway

[FB]

although the space given to models in CT is a 2 page spread, why do we really need more ?

CT gives a good summary to whats going on , but we get just as much if not more information on new models & releases here on the forum, there are very few releases we don't know about before CT gets to print an article about them , after all many of the conversion / scratch builders mentioned in the mag are members here, as are the likes of texas, who knows whats in the pipeline for general release.

The members we have from the continent also give much valued input to what the model scene is like abroad ,

'GreenSheet&YellowRims' has done some cracking scratchbuilds the like we wouldn't get to see in CT,

'kolpen' with his enthusiasm for all things remote control,

& of course there's 'bennyv78' who trys to fit either duals or trelleborgs to anything that moves & of course anything that doesn't   indeed it will only be a matter of time before we see his wheelbarrow fitted out with dual trelleborgs 

& 'mattias' with his cracking ford tractor conversions.

The forum magazine 'Model Farmer' is still in it's creational stage & will have what you want covered from new releases to convo's ,collections & scratchbuilds.

I personally think we at FTF are ahead of the game anyway

indeed we are Marcus, we can find about about something and within minutes its on here and around the world....magazines will always be delayed in sharing the information i guess due to the time it takes to issue :)

[Deere-est]

Some great replies in this Topic. Some switched on people and some sensible thinking has lead to some brilliantly written pieces.

The Lord Chief Justice Barrett has it in a nut shell.

[MJB1]

Some great replies in this Topic. Some switched on people and some sensible thinking has lead to some brilliantly written pieces.

The Lord Chief Justice Barrett has it in a nut shell.

thank you sir tristopher , but marcus / mate will do :D & now my good man go find me some young strumpet .....i'm feeling saucy ....................... :D :D

[MDFord]

Apologies for the Comments about having a bit more model content - I only meant another page or so

Didn't mean for others to get annoyed about it. I like reading all of Classic Tractor (not Classic Model Tractor) and get it every month. I realise that it must be a lot harder than we think for Rory + co to keep the perfect balance of topics that keep the circulation levels as high as possible in what is a niche market.As the saying goes you can please some of the people all of the time?? etc etc

You are also quite right in saying that ftf has all the information you could want on models and of course is bang up to date.

[MJB1]

no need to appologise MDFord , this is one of those topics that rears it's head time & time again . in a few months time , 'classic tractor topic will come round again & a newer member who hasn't read this will ask the same question ,rory will again say his bit as will the rest of us 

[MDFord]

Ahhh I must check old topics then before opening my mouth in future I spose this must happen a lot

[MJB1]

Ahhh I must check old topics then before opening my mouth in future I spose this must happen a lot

no not really

:D

[ford/nh fan]

hi rory is there any chance of you publishing little whispers/rumours  about future models in the collectors corner like you do for the real machines? or would this ruin the relationship with the oems? just a thought but  i think its a great read thankyou .

Daz  p

[rorsday]

Dear Ford/nh fan,

It's a nice thought, but you're right, it may break a confidence or two with the OEMs. Plus the fact that FTF usually hears about things before I do, apart from the odd Britains project or two that I help out with in a pretty low-key way.

Am really interested to read all the superb comments about our model section. I should perhaps let on that, for model collectors at least, the next 'Collectors' section is going to be a bit of a disappointment as it focuses on a collector of Claas models and memorabilia, and most of the story is on literature, etc, not models. The person is a bit different as she is early 50s and a woman!

Sod's law the Collectors section in the next issue is three pages, not two! This is mainly because I trekked across to Hereford from Lincs and had to justify the trip, plus the fact that the collection was pretty unusual.

Regards

Rory

[james f]

That's OK Rory, its always nice to see the literature and other knick-knacks that companies produced over the years

[nashmach]

Excellent more brochures and I can compare to see if I have them already