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About Al C. Kalmbach
- Al C.
- Kalmbach (June 25, 1910–October 14, 1981) was the founder of Kalmbach Publishing, a publisher of magazines and books geared towards enthusiasts of several different hobbies. Albert Carpenter Kalmbach was born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
- He grew up in Milwaukee, not far from the shops of the Milwaukee Road. He was ambitious from an early age.
- At 12 he spent some of his savings to buy a small hand-operated printing press.
- He would publish the Milwaukee Sun, a neighbourhood paper, until he enrolled in Marquette University.
- In 1932, after graduation, he had a job offer working on the Pennsylvania Railroad's electrification project, but the job fell through due to the Great Depression.
- He started a new printing company, The Milwaukee Commercial Press, which specialized in church newspapers, besides commercial job printing. His interest in railroads began during his early life in Sturgeon Bay.
- The rail line that served his relative's business (Fidler-Skilling Fuel & Dock) was the Ahnapee and Western Railway.
- His interest in model railroads came from helping his friend Frank P.
- Zeidler (later mayor of Milwaukee) with electrical problems on the O Scale layout Zeidler was building.
- Al was hooked and began construction in 1928 of his own layout, the Great Gulch, Yahoo Valley & Northern, in his parents' attic.
- In the winter of 1932-33 he helped to organize the Model Railroad Club of Milwaukee. Kalmbach, seeing the interest people had in the operating O Scale layouts at the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, turned to one of his lifelong loves — railroads — for the topic of his first magazine.
- The Model Railroader began publication in the summer of 1933, the first issue dated January 1934.
- A press release announcing the magazine appeared in August 1933, but did not receive much interest.
- The bank refused to loan Kalmbach any money, many felt sorry for him, and a few told him he was crazy. His first wife, Bernice, herself a journalist, encouraged and helped Al put The Model Railroader together.
- They figured it would be a sideline business from their commercial printing operations.
- Soon they were devoted seven days a week to the venture. The magazine was well-received by model railroaders, and the young publisher carried the entire press run (272 copies) by streetcar to be mailed.
- By July paid circulation exceeded a thousand copies.
- Growth continued, but the magazine was not a big success.
- Model Railroader (Kalmbach eventually dropped its definite article) became profitable after three years.
- It took Kalmbach seven years to pay off the loans used to launch the magazine. Al Kalmbach did much to popularize the hobby.
- His main interest was operation.
- He enjoyed being the dispatcher at the Model Railroad Club of Milwaukee, and published many articles on operation.
- He also wrote a book, How to Run a Model Railroad, under the name Boomer Pete. Kalmbach was a driving force in bringing model railroaders from across the US and Canada to Milwaukee for the founding convention of the National Model Railroad Association in September 1935.
- Model Railroader (MR) would serve as the official publication of the NMRA in the early years.
- For his efforts he was awarded Honorary Life Member No.
- 1, and received the NMRA's 30th anniversary award. In 1940, business was good enough for Kalmbach to launch another magazine about railroads in general with the simple title of Trains Magazine.
- From its first issue dated November 1940, it grew quickly from an initial circulation of just over 5,000.
- Trains reflected Kalmbach's interest in prototype railroading.
- Both magazines remain the flagships of the company, which has since expanded to include a portfolio of more than a dozen magazines, hundreds of books, and many videos. The Second World War introduced paper rationing, which impacted the growth of the Kalmbach Publishing Company.
- At the end of the war, MR circulation was about 20,000. By 1950, MR circulation had grown to more than 100,000, thanks in part to a boom in interest in model railroading. Kalmbach was a tireless promoter of the hobby of model railroading.
- In 1949 Kalmbach Publishing launched a national ad campaign promoting the hobby to the general public.
- Ads were placed in major publications, with a circulation of 42 million.
- During 1952-53, Kalmbach was president of the Hobby Industry Association of America. Kalmbach was an early booster and benefactor of the National Model Railroad Association.
- His legacy today is the Al C.
- Kalmbach Memorial Library, located in the NMRA headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kalmbach died in 1981 of Parkinson's disease. (Some information taken in part from "A.
- C.
- Kalmbach, 1910-1981", Model Railroader Magazine, January 1982, P80-81.)
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