The Railway Magazine

The Railway Magazine has been published since 1897 and is now the UK's best-selling general interest rail title. Every month, The RM provides enthusiasts and professionals with authoritative and informed news coverage of the following:<br><br> - Network Rail and the train operating companies<br>- Locomotives, multiple units, carriages and wagons<br>- Steam, heritage and the preservation world, inc narrow gauge<br>- Metro and underground systems<br>- In addition, the magazine carries frequent items of overseas interest.<br><br>The Railway Magazine is also renowned for its wide-ranging and innovative feature coverage, encompassing up-to-the-minute developments as well as historical, nostalgic and foreign subjects. The magazine is also renowned for its award-winning photographic content.

The Railway Magazine

Happy New Year!

GBRf donates Class 56 engines to diesel projects • Preservation groups benefit from the Class 69 conversion programme.

Trains halted after rolling stock owner Vivarail goes into administration • TfW and GWR Class 230 programmes on hold and Marston Vale services suspended amid uncertainty over future maintenance and technical support.

SIDELINES

SIDELINES

Obituary: Adrian Shooter • The former boss of Chiltern Railways and founder of Vivarail, Adrian Shooter CBE, died on December 13 aged 74 after a battle with motor neurone disease.

Rail gets CP7 funding boost • Funding for the five years from 2024-2029 has been announced and, while the Government continues to support rail, there is no commitment to further electrification.

Open access award for GWML • Grand Union Trains has won track access rights on the Great Western route from Carmarthen to Paddington from the end of 2024.

One down, one to go • As work gets underway on the second of the twin bores at Long Itchington Tunnel, the transport secretary makes a historic journey through the one already completed.

Ten sites now ‘diesel-free’

Operator Skills Hub opens

Spoil conveyor network starts rolling to Willesden

Railways in Parliament

10 MINUTES 10 QUESTIONS • For the latest quick-fire interview, Steven Knight puts North Yorkshire Moors Railway CEO Chris Price into the hot seat.

PIER REVIEW • Work is underway to upgrade Ryde Pier to make the Victorian structure good for another 60 years.

THE ‘BIG FOUR’ BEGINS • It is now 100 years since Britain’s railways were drawn together into the ‘Big Four’ and, in this extract from a new book entitled Remembering The Big Four, authors Paul Hurley and Jeremy Suter set the scene for this key moment in railway history.

THE RM’s ‘BIG FOUR’ • The Railway Magazine had been in existence for more than a quarter of a century by the time of the 1923 Grouping, and, as Britain’s leading railway journal, it fell to us to coin the term ‘The Big Four’. The following extracts show some of our coverage surrounding the launch day on January 1, 1923.

Pre-Grouping survivors • The ‘Big Four’ were responsible for some of our most iconic steam locomotives – think ‘King’, ‘Coronation’, ‘A4’ or ‘Merchant Navy’ classes – but we are also fortunate that a rich collection of pre-Grouping locos also made it into the preservation era. Chris Milner surveys the surviving standard gauge engines.

TUNNEL VISION • Following on from his account of Switzerland’s record-breaking 100-car passenger train last issue, this month John Heaton FCILT samples some of the country’s classic Alpine runs.

TRYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT • As part of his prize for the Railway Photographic Society Special Award in the 2022 Young Railway Photographer of the Year competition, Gwion Clark enjoyed a day’s tuition from one of the country’s leading professional photographers,...