Sharing of articles between heritage railway and Railway Magazine

Bought Heritage Railway yesterday, and noticed it was running the same article about the A4 repatriation by Steve Davies that Railway Magazine has also printed this month. They've got a cheek printing the same copy in each, there's no point buying both if this is going to happen.

Plus I see Robin Jones has done a complete about-turn with his stance on the Olympics - having spent the last four years whining about them in editorials, this month he writes a huge (positive) piece about the torch relay's involvement with several preservation centres. Make your mind up, Robin!

 

There is no policy of story sharing between the two magazines. The situation is that Mortons is the official media partner for the repatriation of the two A4s, and Steve Davies submitted one article to the company. We decided to share it on a one-off occasion, and while we are aware many readers buy both magazines, some buy only one. We hoped that in this one-off instance, readers might give us some slack.

Regarding the Olympics, I have not changed my stance that it was wrong of the last Labour government to mislead the public about the true cost of holding the Games and then raid the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has over the past 15 years saved many key pieces of railway heritage from scrapping - the North Norfolk Railway's Quad Art set, for example. I believe that the funding should have come from elsewhere, such as the setting up of a Lottery expressly for the purpose, a local or temporary tax on something maybe, or harder efforts to attract sponsorship, or whatever, but Peter should not have been robbed to pay Paul.

Having said that, it would be wrong to take a dog in the manger attitude about the benefits which the torch relay brought to our sector. Neither do I wish to decry the brilliant achievement of our athletes. However, I remember many Olympics whereby Britain's medal tally was so miniscule that we might not as well have turned up. For me, the money should have come from elsewhere, and I will always fight the railway sector to the last on this.

 

Always been a fan and reader of Heritage Railways one of reasons is because you seem to get an unbiased detail about disputes within different preservation railways and groups where the other railway seem afraid of getting their fingers burnt.