Kalmbach Publishing

The company's first publication was The Model Railroader, which began publication in the summer of 1933 at 545 S. 84th Street in Milwaukee (now site of a car wash), with a cover date of January 1934. A press release announcing the magazine appeared in August 1933, but did not receive much interest.

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.

Kalmbach became exclusively a publisher when it discontinued its printing operations in 1973, opting to contract production from other printers, that spot (on the 3rd floor) would later be home to the Milwaukee Racine & Troy model railroad, which would be torn down in 1989

In 1985, Kalmbach purchased AstroMedia Corporation, adding its four magazines: Astronomy, Deep Sky, the children's science magazine Odyssey and Telescope Making.

In 1989, they moved out of their office at 1027 N. 7th Street of Milwaukee (now part of Milwaukee Area Technical College and Milwaukee PBS) to their location in Waukesha. Their first location was at 545 S. 84th Street is now a car wash.

Kalmbach began publishing its annual Great Model Railroads in November 1990.

In 1991, Kalmbach purchased Greenberg Publishing of Sykesville, Maryland. Also included in the purchase was Greenberg Shows, which sponsored nearly two dozen combined model railroad and doll house shows on the East Coast. Intending to focus on the adult hobby and leisure market, Kalmbach sold the publication rights of the children's science magazine Odyssey to Cobblestone Publishing of Peterborough, New Hampshire in September 1991.

In January 1992, Kalmbach began publishing Earth magazine.