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Post by santafe49 on Oct 3, 2015 8:34:29 GMT -8
Just posted on the MR Facebook and Website at 11:00 today. cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/250743.aspxI knew he was having medical problem, but this was surprising. Condolences to his family. |
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Post by carrman on Oct 3, 2015 8:36:34 GMT -8
With a heavy heart, I’m sad to report that Andy Sperandeo, who has been a part of our lives at Model Railroader magazine for more than 30 years, has died.
As some of you know, Andy had been fighting cancer and other ailments, and the combination finally caught up with him earlier today.
Andy started work at Model Railroader in 1979, becoming editor in 1993. In time he became executive editor and upon retirement a few years ago became a contributing editor. Readers today are most familiar with Andy through his monthly The Operators column. He has also edited our Great Model Railroads annual since its inception.
Information on services or memorials remains pending at this time.
Neil Besougloff
editor
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Post by riogrande on Oct 3, 2015 8:50:41 GMT -8
Posted on Model Railroaders forum general page by Neil B. Neil reported he had cancer and other problems and sucumbed to it earlier today.
Condolences to his family.
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Post by atsfan on Oct 3, 2015 9:58:28 GMT -8
Santa Fe modeler also.
RIP
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Post by calzephyr on Oct 3, 2015 14:55:22 GMT -8
With a heavy heart, I’m sad to report that Andy Sperandeo, who has been a part of our lives at Model Railroader magazine for more than 30 years, has died. As some of you know, Andy had been fighting cancer and other ailments, and the combination finally caught up with him earlier today. Andy started work at Model Railroader in 1979, becoming editor in 1993. In time he became executive editor and upon retirement a few years ago became a contributing editor. Readers today are most familiar with Andy through his monthly The Operators column. He has also edited our Great Model Railroads annual since its inception. Information on services or memorials remains pending at this time. Neil Besougloff editor Sorry to hear that Neil. Thanks for letting us know. He will be missed for sure. Larry |
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Post by mlehman on Oct 3, 2015 18:40:00 GMT -8
Apparently, we've already seen the last Operators column, too, per a reminisce by Steve Otte. Andy will be missed. He was a giant of the hobby. RIP.
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Post by kcjones on Oct 3, 2015 19:34:31 GMT -8
It was posted earlier today on MR's facebook page that Andy Sperandeo has passed away. A long time friend, he will be missed.
JL
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Post by MONSTERRAILROAD on Oct 3, 2015 20:08:02 GMT -8
Who was that dude? Was he a member here, MR or on both forums?
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Post by WP 257 on Oct 3, 2015 20:10:07 GMT -8
My sincere condolences to Andy's family and friends.
At times I was a fellow Santa Fe modeler. Never met him in person.
John
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Post by antoniofp45 on Oct 3, 2015 20:38:45 GMT -8
Hi Al,
Andy's been very involved in the hobby for a long time. Editor at MRR magazine, wrote a lot of helpful tips and articles for modelers, involved with manufacturers, and made a number of appearances on the web and tv. He was a "Who's who" in model railroad circles. Cool thing about Andy was that he was down to earth, cool headed, and was always glad to talk to modelers whether it was casual conversation or troubleshooting related questions.
Here's a video clip with Andy from a few years back. The sound/motion are out of sync for some reason, but the video is still understandable:
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Post by fr8kar on Oct 3, 2015 21:48:36 GMT -8
I'm sorry to hear this. Andy was a big hero of mine growing up. I cut my teeth on his Washita & Santa Fe series.
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Oct 4, 2015 7:24:48 GMT -8
Andy was also involved in MR's first website in the early- to mid-1990's, posting a monthly question and then asking for comments in a guestbook-like format. AFAIK, it was the first model railroading web-based "forum" of any kind (as compared to usenet).
I'll miss Andy. His columns on Operations were always a must-read for me.
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Post by theengineshed on Oct 4, 2015 8:27:16 GMT -8
RIP. Started my MR subscription back in 1978 and kept it current for years, Andy penned many fine articles. Every time I decide to get rid of the stack of old MRs, I end of reading them (again) and it just doesn't happen. Was going to make another attempt to wean out some back issues, but I can tell now that isn't going to happen anytime soon...
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Post by Christian on Oct 4, 2015 8:27:57 GMT -8
Andy was also involved in MR's first website in the early- to mid-1990's, posting a monthly question and then asking for comments in a guestbook-like format. AFAIK, it was the first model railroading web-based "forum" of any kind (as compared to usenet). Atlas and it's server mate "Train-Line" were earlier. Before Kalmbach had an online presence. Andy Sperandeo was fairly active on rec.models.rail in regards to passenger car modeling. The Atlas website as well as the Atlas Forum were mentioned in MR as a look into the future. Early days of MR's forum(s) were a lesson in draconian control under several leaders. Neil Besougloff was the staffer who took charge and grew the MR forum into a two way interchange and encouraged useful information. Sperandeo was a pioneer in computer based publishing along with Paul Larson. Because Sperandeo wasn't much on bragging on himself there is a lot of modeling and magazine history that just isn't known. I think Sperandeo was as important to this century's railroad modeling as Lynn Wescott was to the last part of the 20th. He left us way too soon. |
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Post by valenciajim on Oct 4, 2015 23:51:35 GMT -8
Andy will be remembered for his many accomplishments in the hobby. May he rest in peace. Very sorry to hear this.
The last time I saw Andy was at an NMRA convention a few years back. I spoke with him briefly. It was clear that he had health issues back then.
He will be missed.
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Oct 5, 2015 7:02:18 GMT -8
Christian,
I thought the Atlas Forum was later than 1994-ish? Guess not. I was a sophomore in college in '94-'95, taking my intro to programming class (in QBasic!) when I started goofing off in class by going online and reading the MR guestbook. I don't remember finding the Atlas Forum until later (it had a black background back then, didn't it?). I didn't get home internet until 1996 with my 33.6K modem (woohoo!).
I do remember reading Andy S. on r.m.r., too. Those were the good ol' days.
As for the original MR Forum, it was actually the Wild West. It was completely unmoderated, and a pain to read. You had to click on every reply to read them, which was a bear in those dial-up days (especially considering how many ads there were on the MR website...that all had to load every time you clicked on a post). The posters there at the time...well, let's just say that they were pretty bad. It wasn't until Kalmbach hired "Trains.com" (who were not Kalmbach employees) to manage their website that the modern forum came to be.
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Post by Christian on Oct 5, 2015 8:57:05 GMT -8
Christian, I thought the Atlas Forum was later than 1994-ish? dial-up days (especially considering how many ads there were on the MR website...that all had to load every time you clicked on a post). The posters there at the time...well, let's just say that they were pretty bad. It wasn't until Kalmbach hired "Trains.com" (who were not Kalmbach employees) to manage their website that the modern forum came to be. Atlas was 1994. Having slept over night on this I'm pretty sure I didn't know about the MR format you described. So it did lead the way of a corporate owned internet forum. Yes, the first Atlas forum software was all but unusable. So was everything else that was internet based at that time. I did have the advantage of a fast for the time university connection. r.m.r. was far more efficient back then and had a large following. One List was becoming important. (Or it's predecessor what ever it was named!) It seems like yesterday MR has hiring a grad student from the University of Texas who had an interest in the Santa Fe. This is a Santa Fe flat scratched from one of Andy's modeling articles.  |
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Post by Spikre on Oct 13, 2015 9:46:54 GMT -8
 sad to read of this,being in the same age bracket. had started tuning out of MR about when Andy took over. was more of intrest in PTM,MM,and later RMJ. that wasn't Andy's fault,just wasn't interested in the direction MR was heading. did get issues with torn off covers free,so did read some of the issues,but as MR moved more into Electronics, and less into Prototype Modeling,they lost me. but Andy did some nice Santa Fe articles,but since EL was gone by then,didnt really read deep into Santa Fe-CR articles. Andy did leave a Mark at Kalmbach. Spikre 
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