One of my other problems with Rail is the writing style - some of the writing comes across as very "noddy", almost simplistic.
There has always been that variety. Does anyone remember Modern Railways Pictorial, which later morphed into Motive Power Monthly? I found these much more accessible than MR when I was a kid, and it did a good job of highlighting interesting stuff I hadn't seen in person.Although that (perhaps unintentionally) does make it more accessible to a younger readership getting into specialist rail publications for the first time.
Yes, i remember that. I used buy it out of my pocket money as a kid. Good magazine was that.There has always been that variety. Does anyone remember Modern Railways Pictorial, which later morphed into Motive Power Monthly? I found these much more accessible than MR when I was a kid, and it did a good job of highlighting interesting stuff I hadn't seen in person.
If you wanted a feel for what was going on around the network, with some good photography, it was great. I only got into MR's quite lengthy articles later on.Yes, i remember that. I used buy it out of my pocket money as a kid. Good magazine was that.
I totally agree. Rail in it's current form for me just feels tired and in need of a re-fresh. Perhaps as a railway enthusiast, rather than someone working in the industry itself, I'm no longer the target demographic?I feel the only way of sorting the magazine out would be axing the editior. Get someone else in , Pip Dun perhaps, as others have mentioned, he wrote fairly interesting pieces.
And focus on the day to day, the opinions and experiences, and fleets.
Yes,have a full set of MRP in the loft. Still have a flick through them now and again when mooching around up there.There has always been that variety. Does anyone remember Modern Railways Pictorial, which later morphed into Motive Power Monthly? I found these much more accessible than MR when I was a kid, and it did a good job of highlighting interesting stuff I hadn't seen in person.
I work in the industry but feel the same. Maybe its only aimed at managers in the industry now....seriously reducing its target audience. I mean who on earth cares that Joe Bloggs has been appointed marketing manager for XYZ Rail. Rail is full of little snippets like this that are of zero interest to 99 percent of readers.I think another issue and a challenge for printed news media is the fact that some much information is available through the likes of twitter and of course forums such as this.
I totally agree. Rail in it's current form for me just feels tired and in need of a re-fresh. Perhaps as a railway enthusiast, rather than someone working in the industry itself, I'm no longer the target demographic?
I work in the industry but feel the same. Maybe its only aimed at managers in the industry now....seriously reducing its target audience. I mean who on earth cares that Joe Bloggs has been appointed marketing manager for XYZ Rail. Rail is full of little snippets like this that are of zero interest to 99 percent of readers.
I use the local council online library.I have god knows how many Rail magazines in the loft from when they first came out in 81 I think.. nowadays I’d highly recommend a subscription to Readly, £7.99 month..get absolutely loads of magazines on there to read digitally
I am glad I'm not the only one to be blocked by Mr Harris, in my case after I had the audacity to question one of his over optimistic claims on re-opening a rail link.I gave up about five years ago. Just became too clear that they were aiming to be the mouthpiece for the industry, I imagine their business model is now dependant upon industry funding, particularly when they were running the Rail business events. I think once you're in the industry you can see through the propaganda. Funnily enough, I was blocked by Mr Harris for suggesting that Rail was too on-message with the industry. The most amusing thing is when this subject comes up in messrooms amongst the enthusiast sect, it's amazing how many train crew Mr Harris has blocked from seeing his/Rail's tweets!
Modern Railways is far superior. Analysis that reflects what you can believe and understand from within the industry rather than what the industry is comfortable with the public seeing. Deeper news coverage. Plus, you can get great diagrams, maps and pictures.
There’s a lot of work goes into that. Very impressive. I may just join to read the archives from the 80sFor odds and ends of rail news, and some interesting pictures, you could try the Branch Line News https://www.branchline.uk/bln.php
There is a free sample issue at https://www.branchline.uk/general/docs/sample-e-BLN.pdf
YOU can accept ageism it seems. I don’t. So I don’t agree with you on your ageist comment.I can accept that diversity of age could be beneficial to try and prevent too much "what BR used to do" but I fail to see why gender or skin colour are being implied as negative attributes? These kind of sexist/racist comments shouldn't be tolerated here.
There has always been that variety. Does anyone remember Modern Railways Pictorial, which later morphed into Motive Power Monthly? I found these much more accessible than MR when I was a kid, and it did a good job of highlighting interesting stuff I hadn't seen in person.
But you'd think that managers in the rail industry would read Modern Railways as their "first choice". I am genuinely baffled as to who actually buys Rail.I work in the industry but feel the same. Maybe its only aimed at managers in the industry now....seriously reducing its target audience. I mean who on earth cares that Joe Bloggs has been appointed marketing manager for XYZ Rail. Rail is full of little snippets like this that are of zero interest to 99 percent of readers.
https://www.abc.org.uk/product/4484 says Rail sold an average of 17,876 copies per issue from January to December 2020, compared to 31,226 copies for Steam Railway https://www.abc.org.uk/product/2358What's Rail's circulation compared to the other magazines?
I always wondered about that. Does it make it more recyclable?That’s another thing. The front cover is the same as the inside pages, rather than thicker. Wonder if it’s a cost saving measure
it is a trade magazine devoted to trade news.
And I'm not sure it's doing a very good job of being that either...
Used to subscribe to "Modern Railways" many, many years ago and converted to "Rail Enthusiast" as MR had become to industry-centric and had dropped or condensed most of the enthusiast friendly information. At that time "Rail Enthusiast" was packed full of sightings, interesting data on stock etc, then it dropped "Enthusiast" and actually become more like "Modern Railways" so I stopped buying it around then.
It is interesting to go back and see it in its heyday, the online archive is here... Rail Enthusiast Scanned Archive beware, you might not get must done for the rest of the day!
With RAIL People need to remember that they aren't an enthusiasts magazine. If that is what you expect you will always be disappointed. it is a trade magazine devoted to trade news.
Great link to the online archive, thanks very much
It is interesting to go back and see it in its heyday, the online archive is here... Rail Enthusiast Scanned Archive beware, you might not get must done for the rest of the day!
That’s great, shall look forward to seeing themIt is interesting to go back and see it in its heyday, the online archive is here... Rail Enthusiast Scanned Archive beware, you might not get must done for the rest of the day!