Trackside Magazine

To be fair there hasn't been a lot happening to fill a magazine over the last 18 months. The Railway Mag has a lot of modern stuff that I have no interest in. There is possibly a need for a new mag but I'm not sure that Trackside is it.

 

What I don't understand is, over the pandemic period why could SR not ring up/zoom call a number of railways/loco groups and do an interview about their current offerings/future plans and ask the subject to send through some photos? I get very frustrated by SR doing articles on a small pool of railways and ignoring the rest or giving them a half page 'feature' while railway x gets a 4-5 page spread yet again.

 

They sort of did, we have an article about 60103 this month and a good feature on 35028 tge previoys month

 

Well I didn't manage to get a copy of issue 3 today. Still issue 2 on the shelves. Lots of empty spaces in the WHSmith magazine section today. The new issue of a film magazine I was also after had not appeared yet either and Cycling Weekly I was going to pick up for my Dad was also missing. Another casualty of a lack of delivery drivers I wonder?

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That sort of proves my point-how many dozens of articles have been in SR about 60103 over say the last 5 years. When did you last see an article about the B12 or D49 (just to keep it LNER).
As for 35028, while there are less articles about this loco, when did you see an article on 35006/9/10?

 

Possibly because they didn’t do as I did, contact the editor and suggest it.

 

I know what you're saying, but the writers of SR shouldn't just be rehashing the same stories about the same locos/railways just because no-one else contacts them. The phone works both ways!

 

I don’t see either of the stories as a rehash. The first was an update on the only 100% volunteer single loco owning group on the mainline and how it sees the future and how it’s got through the Covid lockdowns. It also raised a little bit of much needed cash for the Society. The second was on managing a loco that brings its own problems to main line running.

 

Issue 5 due to be out in the shops tomorrow (pictured below). Is the magazine selling very well? Issue 4 did not appear to sell very well at all in my local WHSmith. Loads of copies left. I was considering taking out a subscription to Trackside as my Steam Railway subscription is about to run out and I won't be renewing that. Bit paranoid about taking out subscriptions to freshly launched magazines after past experience. Two magazines (not railway titles) that had just started out some years ago ceased publishing just after I took out subscriptions


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I thought there was some talk of it being a bit less loco-centric than other publications earlier on, that front cover doesn't do much to engender that idea...!

 

I thought Trackside was supposed to be bi-monthly? Looks like it's gone monthly if October was issue 3 and December is issue 5 !!!
Saw and read the first 2 editions and thought it was OK, but wasn't that impressed with No.3, so didn't bother buying it.
Still not that impressed with SR, though I let it renew for the coming year, but I'm expecting that to be the last renewal I allow to go through....

 

The plan has always been to go monthly, although the initial ones were bi-monthly.

 

For what it is worth, I used to get Steam Railway, but became somewhat dis-illusioned about it. I think it started with them continually needing an 'Exclusive' - "Look, we've got something the other magazines haven't!"

Then there was the series of events organised by The Railway Magazine involving several steam locos taking trains over Shap (if I recall correctly) that SR barged into, and purely by publishing dates managed to get their issue out several days before RM did. Rather unprofessional, I thought, for a supposedly responsible magazine.

The last straw for me about SR was the highly aggressive interview David Wilcox had with Steve Davies, when he really laid into him over the situation he inherited over Flying Scotsman on becoming Director of the NRM. That finished SR for me.

Another thing has occurred to me in that, perhaps unintentially, is that they painted themselves in a corner right from the beginning with the title. Preservation lines may well have been 'steam railways' 40-odd years ago, but things have moved on since then with the number of Diesel locos entering preservation, even to the extent of Diesel events now taking place. To me SR just got left behind.

 

Horrified as I am to find myself in agreement I'm on record on this forum as saying steam railway missed a trick with the changes that have occurred in the heritage sector, hence Heritage Railway magazine and now Trackside.

 

At one time I used to think that heritage railways needed the press for publicity, but I gradually realised that it is actually the other way around. The railways can manage happily without the specialist press, especially since the Internet came along, but those magazine are entirely dependant on heritage railways. Probably local papers are more useful to heritage railways.
I also had the sad experience of representing a railway that one particular magazine seemed to delight in publishing letters trashing our efforts and generally misleading people about us. That almost certainly put off some potential members at a time when we were struggling to keep things going.

 

Perhaps your strong opinion about the specialist magazines lead to them "misrepresenting" your railway? There has to be some acceptance on both sides and you have to manage what they say about you by being proactive and approachable.

 

For whatever reason SR has gone to seed in the last 24 months, and the last 12 months just saw the decline further and the last couple of months just seem to be the death knell , it really has so little in it these months, the columnists see to say the same thing and push the same agenda month after month, we still have constant David Ward, most of the news just seems to be regurgitated press releases which were on the net 6 weeks previously.

I would agree (yeah I know! ) with @Eightpot that the obsession with the NRM left a very bad taste, there was a period when it appeared that said journalist was basically editing via the back seat and prejudices were constantly bubbling below the surface, likewise certain railways seem to get a very easy ride and others don't, when things were going bad at the WSR certain parties there would get quotes in their name about good things but when it was bad it was all 'a spokesman says' when the question beggars when you asked about 'nice' A, you could have asked about 'not so nice' B.

I know and accept that the paper press have struggled in recent times and COVID hasn't helped, but I also subscribe to other specialist media (Classic cars and cycling, not in the same publication!) and they have managed just fine keeping standards and extent of content up!

Not tried Trackside as not been anywhere near a decent newsagent in 12 months, will have a look and if looks Ok consider SR subscription.

 

I doubt they had any idea what I thought and I certainly had never published any such opinions at that time. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing in general against the magazines but just don't feel that 'we' owe them anything.
As for being pro-active and approachable, I sent them quite a few updates about the Epping Ongar Railway (of which I was the Publicity Officer at that time) but only about half made it into print and I never had any follow up (or even acknowledgement) from them. The only 'misrepresenting' originated from sour grapes from one individual, which the magazine published several times without any apparent attempt to contact anyone attached to the railway or otherwise correct what was very obviously misleading information.

 

I have also ditched my SR subscription for many of the reasons laid out above, now that Trackside offers far more engaging content, and an incomparable quality ‘feel’ - best paper quality I’ve ever come across. I was with SR from Issue 1.

For those who are finding it difficult to obtain, Trackside can be ordered from their website, post-free, which is how I got my first 3 copies, before taking the leap of faith (and cost saving) and taking out a subscription.


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