Railway Magazine for Beginners

[Tiny Tim]

Not surprisingly, all the railway magazines are 'pro' railways in general. I read a selection of publications, it's interesting to see how each one covers the same subject differently or not at all. They're all biased in some way or another but that's the nature of any popular publication.

Incidentally, as I'm sure many of you have noticed, railway magazines are shelved in the 'Men's Interest' section of most newsagents, along with other material designed for, ahem, male enjoyment.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

the obsession with catering and obscure ticketing detail from Barry Doe ... The many mistakes - spelling ,grammar and fact .

That's the point of Barry Doe's column - he's called 'The Fare Dealer' for a reason He's there to talk tickets, times and onboard services, I'd expect his proses to reflect such.

Hmm, maybe you need to proofread your grammar too *Takes of Grammar Nazi hat*

 

[pitdiver]

I always thought GWR meant "Goes When Ready" not when the passengers wanted it to.
It's the LNER for me and Sir Nigel Gresley or God to give him his real title.

 

[DVD]

I subscribe to Modern Railways (authoritative but can get very technical), Rail a lighter read but too dwells too much on rolling stock) and Today's Railways UK.

I find Today's Railways UK a great read and would recommend it as the best rail mag for casual enthusiasts.

 

[Train jaune]

Not sure that "reading" H&E was the point actually Paul

 

[barnet_fair]

It surprises me just how many railway magazines there are available that basically rehash the same news content, probably the most useful of which you can get on here for free anyway! Personally I am more interested in features (or opinions, if well written) so generally thumb through the new issues in Smiths, and then pop them back on the shelves, keeping my 4 quid for a beer, or a 7" single (I am being serious here, sorry), or something, disappointed at the lack of meaty articles. I'll pick one up if I am desperate, Rail seems to the best of the bunch. Otherwise I tend to stick with Traction, which although covers an era that I have only vague memories of, at least it can tell me an interesting story that hopefully has a bit of personality in it rather than regurgitate facts and figures. Sure, it has it's fair share of dull articles (the recent features on 58s was possibly read by Rip van Winkle at some point) but on the whole, it gives me what I am looking for.

 

[YorkshireBear]

I like modern railways, i do find some of it a bit baffling (usually signalling & ticketing), but the odd google search and a re-read usually gets me through it. I find it fascinating and i enjoy the varience in each magazine. I am not too fussed about what locos/units are where so for me its perfect.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I gave up Railway Magazine when it mixed up the real railway with the heritage railway. Maybe it has changed.
I now get RAIL and Modern Railways.

RAIL is useful being fornightly, but is a bit "rip off and read" and very superficial at times. Trains in new liveries are not important in the long run.
I do value Wolmar and Doe but they are both highly personal views.
It is not the only magazine to spend too much time on the minority sport of on-train catering.
I also don't like covers which have an exclamation mark (most of them), and its production values are not very high.
But I like David Allen's historical items and details of signalling layouts.
I bin the last copy as the new one arrives.

Modern Railways, on the other hand, is a journal of record and I've kept many of them for decades.
Roger Ford knocks RAIL's "Industry Insider" into a cocked hat.
You begin to understand how a railway runs as a business from MR, and there's lots of input from railway professionals and across the industry.

Hopefully these mags will continue to be available, but the internet must be damaging their trade, as it is the newspapers.
I see MR is going to have an electronic version as well as print.

I used to get the US magazine Trains, after several trips over there and an interest particularly in the "intermountain west" (Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Arizona etc).
It shows a completely different world, both of operations and politics, and has high production values (good maps, for instance).
There was one fascinating article on Southern Pacific operating a daily iron ore train from Wisconsin 800-odd miles to Geneva Steel in Utah, returning with coal to the mid-west.
The scale of the operation (14x100-car trains carrying 10000 tonnes each, all in circuit simultaneously 24/7) showed how different rail operations are in the states.
(However the steel works and the rail operation are now both closed, thanks to cheap steel imports...).
I gave up Trains when its price doubled.