Narrow Gauge World

The first edition of the revamped "Narrow Gauge World" is now on sale. Very well worth buying!

 

Totally agree that it is well worth the money with more pics and pages. Looks a little like RI now. For me they should drop the modelling section although it obviously brings in plenty of advertising so might be essential financially.

 

I subscribed to it for a year, but did not renew said subscription as so much of the magazine was about modelling which interests me not one jot.

 

I would agree with this. However the "new look" magazine is more like a UK version of the French "Voie Etroite" publication although the latter belies it's name by having some standard gauge content and does not have the same design standards as the revamped NGW. There are some particularly good articles in the new NGW which, if the standard can be maintained, promise very well.

 

Many thanks for the kind comments. I'm the newly appointed Managing Editor of Narrow Gauge World (some of you may know me principally from my Welshpool & Llanfair involvement), David Joy, who founded the magazine in 1999, remains as Features Editor.

I hope our moderators won't mind me briefly outlining my thoughts as to where we are going with the magazine. The aim is to make NGW a more relevant publication in today's narrow gauge environment, a standard-bearer for narrow gauge both at home and abroad, placing narrow gauge centre-stage - today's narrow gauge is a highly important part of the heritage scene and deserves its own dedicated title.

While the historical and archive features will remain and be a very important part of the magazine, we will be keen to reflect in-depth all that is happening on the narrow gauge today and tomorrow - but we can't do this on our own. We need all those involved to be talking to us, telling us what's going on so that we can report it in our pages. Therefore if you do have anything from your line, your project that will be of interest to us, please let me know! I'm on AndrewC@atlanticpublishers.com

With regard to the modelling pages, they will remain (they are an important element to the title), but will certainly not, as suggested in one post fill "too much" of the magazine. This section will, however, be revamped in time for the next issue - time did not allow for this one!

Thanks and regards

Andrew Charman
Managing Editor
Narrow Gauge World

 

Andrew - I still think that modelling is best left to those mags which specialise in that. NGW should concentrate on being just that and cornering the niche market interested in the narrow gauge.

 

Everyone's a publisher

And if the mag did this and lost the ad revenue from the modelling section, would you be prepared to pay two to three times as much to buy each issue?

 

Andrew, sounds like you know your media!

Cheers

Andrew C

 

Andrew - I browsed in WHS in Worcester today - WHS in Droitwich Spa does not stock it.

I thought the appearance content had improved and on the basis that I particularly liked the article on 778 I bought it.

Have to say however, that I am not interested in modelling, and will not be a subscriber/automatic buyer so long as a third of the mag is devoted to modelling - I will look at every issue in WHS and decide whether to purchase said mag on it's individual merits.

Have to say though that I believe modelling stuff belongs in modelling mags, and you should focus your market better!

 

Well I think that Andrew has again worked his magic (after improving SMT beyond recognition), and that NGW is now excellent. Michaelh seems not to have taken on board the comments about advertising revenue....
Anyway - even tho I don't model narrow gauge (16mm in the garden is somewhat different!), I do like to see a few pages devoted to that topic - many of the models are very fine. Also Michaelh's maths is a bit out; most recent issue: 37 pages of real railways, 6 pages of models, 2 pages of book reviews, 2 pages of diary dates, a contents page, a front cover picture of a real railway and seven pages of ads (not all model ads!). This doesn't make "a third" devoted to models, about 11% actually.

Keep up the good work - with both mags (and the WLLR!!!)

 

It was an estimate - I'm neither a rivet counter or a page-counter. I'm not even counting the amount of WLLR material in this mag.

 

Well if you want to persuade me not to bother to buy future copies, you're doing a pretty good job here. Does Andrew support your efforts to reduce his sales by denigrating his customers?

 

Michael -
no intention to denigrate you - honest.
I just thought that the valid points about the advertising were not addressed?
Also - not a rivet counter but there is a major difference between 33% and 11%, I think anyone would admit.

Apologies if you took this the wrong way, it's always easy on these forums to misinterpret genuine comments as personal criticism, I find.

P.S. I love your photo site - great pics

 

Thanks - Glad you liked it

 

Not being a modeller I agree with your sentiments but without the ads that the modelling features brings to the mag I guess there wouldn't be a mag.

 

Thanks for that Peter, yes you're pretty much right – as things stand, and as I've stated before, the modelling does bring in advertising revenue which is vital for a niche magazine, and let's face it Narrow Gauge World is a very niche magazine, though I'll be putting all my effort into making it "less niche" if you know what I mean.

Basically the way I can do that is to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. That includes for the foreseeable future at least the modellers, and I will be working hard to make the modelling pages as generally interesting as I can.

On which note, I check Nat Pres every day and I would welcome forum members' thoughts on what they would like to see in Narrow Gauge World. I won't necessarily do it all (or at present, be able to do it all), but it will give me food for thought!

Regards

Andrew C
Managing Editor - Narrow Gauge World.

 

Afternoon all,

Yesterday I picked up my copy of the Jan/Feb issue.

The good work has continued inside and the cover is fantastic (well done Mr Rogers!).

A few comments on the content:

Excellent article on Darjeeling although I would have liked to see a picture of one of the new coaches. They sound a bit too modern to me...certainly glass roofs will look horrible (please don't get any ideas Boston Lodge!).

Centre spread is lovely!

Nice photo section of the S&KLR and the ever present late Tony James was in a number of shots.

Lots of non-British stuff which is always welcome. Gives good ideas for holidays!

The modelling section has certainly improved IMHO. I haven't modelled for over 20 years but still have a passing interest and appreciate pictures of good quality layouts. These are of far more interest than detailed articles on ''how I kit bashed this into something else''. There is plenty of space for these specialist articles in the mainstream modelling press. Also more SM32 content is welcomed - proper NG modelling and it might get me back into the garden where a ng line is waiting restoration...

There were seven pages out of the 41 on real railways dedicated to minatures. IMHO I think this is too much and more than in the past. The only 15'' and below I would like to see is minimum gauge stuff like Heywood and the pleasure railways covered in a minature corner section as before. I recogonise that the magazine has to cover a wide range of interests so perhaps some minature articles need to be included but not so much in one issue? For me the guys at Bolton Fell Mill have the best ng job in Cumbria assuming it is still going!

The plan of the Moseley Museum has not reproduced very well and doesn't add much. Perhaps some pictures or two maps of the Penrhyn and Moseley schemes would have been more useful? From the descriptions these two schemes have a lot of potential and the development of traditional style industrial lines has got to be welcomed. Certainly will try to visit both next year. Perhaps it is about time Charles had a trip out!

Please don't take any of the above as criticisms but just observations. I think the magazine is excellent and will continue to buy it every month.

Best regards,

David

 

Not at all David, all feedback is very welcome especially as I am still new in post and I thank you for taking the time to write.

To comment further on a couple of your points, yes I admit there is more than usual of the narrower gauges in this issue, but it is not a new policy - I'm still working through what I have available in the way of feature material and interestingly obtaining good UK feature material appears more challenging than getting the international stuff. I'm actioning some feature ideas but these will take a little time to work through - more ideas are always welcome! The Ravenglass feature was chosen more for its inside view of a volunteer's working day than the fact it was a narrower gauge. These and miniature will continue to feature in future issues but no more so than traditional narrow gauge.

Unfortunately the drawing of the new Moseley museum suffered in the printing process, a problem that annoyed me as much as you - it looked fine on the final proof! We'll take steps to prevent this happening again. Rest assured we will be following the new schemes, including Penrhyn and Moseley, in detail.

Your comments on showing such things as maps of the Penrhyn scheme and pictures of the new Darjeeling coach chime exactly with my views, the problem right now is getting said material! Again it's something I'm working on.

Finally I'm delighted to hear you'll continue to buy the magazine but perhaps not every month as we are of course a bi-monthly! Would I like it to be monthly? One can dream!

all the best and thanks again.

Andrew C
Managing Editor, Narrow Gauge World

 

Do you have any way of listing retail outlets that stock it ? I know that subscribing is the preferred option but sometimes I prefer to have a look before buying. Some of the places that used to stock it a year or two back seem to have given up, and with Borders/Books Etc going belly-up it makes finding copies harder than ever.

Richard

 

I don't off the top of my head - I'll ask the question of those who know but I think they'll mention the S word! I do know that for the first three issues of my editorship there is a promotion on which has placed the magazine in several Smiths that it hasn't been before.

Cheers

Andrew C