''Modern Railways'' is a monthly British

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

covering the

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

industry, which was published by Ian Allan until March 2012 and

Key Publishing Key Publishing is a magazine publishing company specialising in aviation titles, based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. History ''Airliner World'' was launched in 1999. In 2005 it launched ''Airports of the World'', and in the same year it ...

since then. It has been published since 1962. The magazine was based originally in

Shepperton Shepperton is a village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Spelthorne district, in north Surrey, England, around south west of central London. The settlement is on the north bank of the River Thames, between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Tha ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, and

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone ...

subsequently. The magazine has always been targeted at both railway professionals and serious amateurs, an aim which derives from its origins as an amalgamation of the enthusiast magazine '' Trains Illustrated'' and the industry journal ''The Locomotive'' in the hands of its first editor Geoffrey Freeman Allen. It is currently edited by Richard Clinnick. Regular contributors include Roger Ford, Ian Walmsley, Alan Williams and Tony Miles. ''Informed Sources'' is a large section written regularly by Roger Ford and ''Pan Up'' is written by Ian Walmsley.

Trains Illustrated

The first edition of '' Trains Illustrated'' was published at the beginning of 1946. Due to post-war paper shortages, issues 1 to 8 appeared at varied intervals in 1946 and 1947. From issue 9 (April 1948) it was published quarterly, from issue 14 (August–September 1949) it became bi-monthly, and from issue 17 (February 1950) it became a monthly publication. The final issue under that title was volume XIV, no.159 (December 1961), after which the sequence continued under the ''Modern Railways'' title. Early issues were edited by Ian Allan and O. J. Morris, with Cecil J. Allen taking over from issue 5 and G. Freeman Allen from issue 20; he remained editor until December 1961.

First edition

The first edition of ''Modern Railways'' was published in January 1962 as Volume XV, no. 160 in a sequence continuing from '' Trains Illustrated''.''Modern Railways'' pub. Ian Allan, 1962 It featured a preface letter from Dr

Richard Beeching Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the ...

, then Chairman of the British Transport Commission, who wrote: A feature article in the edition analysed peak traffic operations at Reading railway station in the days leading up to Christmas 1960, stating:

Gallery

References

Bibliography

* * {{cite book, author=Ian Allan Ltd, title=Twenty-five years, 1942-1967, publisher=Ian Allan, year=1967

External links