Jim Martin Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Picked up at WH Smiths at Lime Street station a couple of days ago (as an aside, REx does seem to have overcome the habitual late publication that was once such a feature of its existence). Contents: News pages Life after Speedlink: article by Paul Shannon on wagonload freight in the 2000s. 8 pages, plenty of photos, informative captions. Very interesting. Preservation (2 pages) Time Traveller (10, 20 etc years ago this month). Much as it always is. I quite like this feature, although I had a major existential crisis the first time I read something in the "30 years ago" column and actually remembered it happening. I'm now dreading the day that the 40-year column has the same effect. Photo feature on DRS's customer-liveried class 66s (2 pages) Railtours (2 pages + 2 more of photos) Rolling stock news (22 pages). I've been doing some research into the Northern DMU fleet recently which has involved going back through old issues looking at these pages. As a result, I'm looking at them through new eyes, and generally finding them a lot more interesting than I used to. On the other hand, this issue - for the first time that I can recall - has no wagon page at all. Irish rails (2 pages) Modelling bit A lengthy editorial by Gareth Bayer on the appeal of non-British railways (in fairness, not just a hymn of praise to the quality of US models: it's a rather more discursive than that) Additional train formations for 2011 railhead treatment trains (3 formations with class 20s and 1 with class 37s) Assorted product news Reviews: Murphy Models 201 Class (generally positive); Farish class 03 (glowing); Hornby "Trout" ballast hopper (very positive with some issues about the livery selection); various new liveries and reissues of existing models (Farish 3-car class 101, Hornby 4-VEP in plain BR blue, Hornby class 31 as Network Rail 31233, several others) Elcot Road project: introduction to wiring Sort-of-a-review of the Heljan O-gauge Deltic (by Brian Daniels - the low-level photo is extremely convincing) Competition to win a Farish class 14 colliery train set. I have one MAJOR issue with this. It's a nice prize (loco in NCB blue livery plus three 16-tonners in NCB grey, all packaged with an oval of track and a controller) but the terms & conditions state "every entry must be submitted on original Rail Express forms". Now, there are 12 full pages of adverts in the modelling section, not counting the covers or the reverse of the covers (on the basis that they have some special status, although if you don't feel that they do you could say 15 pages). If you're running a competition where I have to cut out a half-page entry form, I'd rather that it backed onto one of those rather than onto an article (the Elcot Road page). Maybe I'd see if this differently if I was an advertiser myself, but I'm not and this just seems shoddy to me. I don't know about this one. the feature article is excellent, but the issue as a whole just seems to be lacking substance. Bolstered by my new-found enthusiasm for the rolling stock news, I got a solid evening's reading out of it. Not the best issue though, IMHO. Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahame Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Not the best issue though, IMHO. Yeah, possibly a bit going through the motions. And there seems to be more adverts at the start of the magazine as well as a sequence of five pages of ads before the modelling section. G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
westie7 Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Yeah, possibly a bit going through the motions. And there seems to be more adverts at the start of the magazine as well as a sequence of five pages of ads before the modelling section. G. I have one more to go on my Zinio electronic subscription..... its not looking good based on this Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swisspeat Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Must confess I did not buy this issue. The modelling section just seemed to be just a mix of new items etc. To me it needs at least one decent length modelling article for me to buy the mag. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Steven B Posted October 23, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 23, 2011 Just to clarify, the Farish class 101 is a completely new model rather than a re-issue of the very old Poole era model. Happy modelling, Steven B Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdseyecircus Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 i thought the editorial was a rambling waste of space. Why does the modelling section have an editorial when the main mag does not?! Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold tractionman Posted October 23, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 23, 2011 I too wondered why there was an editorial piece in the Modelling section but not at the start of the main section, though I was happy enough reading Gareth Bayer's musing on "foreign stuff" and its (growing?) attraction to (some of) us in the UK! I tend to buy RE for the T&RS section mainly, as well as any nostalgia coverage and the pictorial content, the latter I felt being back up to scratch in terms of reproduction quality in this issue - but yes, lots and lots of adverts, I guess helping to keep the cover price reasonably competitive. Thumbs up from me. cheers, Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Martin Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 Just to clarify, the Farish class 101 is a completely new model rather than a re-issue of the very old Poole era model. Happy modelling, Steven B Yes. I meant it was an existing model in the sense that the 2-car version was reviewed (very favourably) in the last couple of issues. Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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