New Issue (No. 101).

Arrived today and it looks like another good read. There is some more Southern Region stuff with a 12 page feature on the End of SR Steam events and an article on Bournemouth Shed at the End of Steam. Also an article on the SVR floods with some fascinating pictures.

 

Yes I received mine today... However I was wondering exactly how old Michael Mensing actually is? On page 106 it states ...." Michael Mensing wasted precious little time on the beach during holidays in Cornwall in 1856 and 1959". That must make him at least 160 years old! I shall look forward to seeing his pioneering photos from Fox Talbot's era.

 

We forgot to mention that Michael was a leap year baby therefore only has a birthday every 4 years !

 

Had a quick flick through in Smiths - see that the shots of Bittern have altered using Photoshop!

 

Yup - they asked my permission to do it to my one, which was nice of them!

 

Hmmm I thought there was a policy of pointing out when photoshopping was done.....

Anyway, yet another poor print job the cover. IT IS APPALLING for £3.50 one would hope that the cover and perhaps the centre spread would be the best quality available, yet ever since the issue with 71000 at Padd, all I have seen is grany out of focus poor quality reproductions, of what I am sure are excellent originals.

I'm going to stick my neck out but HR really is starting to feel like 'modern steam for old enthusiasts' I Will be giving serious consideration to whether I continue buying both this and SR especially as it is becoming more and more steam only and what diesel coverage there is, I am finding far too basic brushed over, and the money could be spent on a decent steam mag and a decent diesel mag every month instead

 

Have to agree the quality of the cover shots repro has been poor. Hopefully they will have seen your comments and something will be done about this. However, you shouldn't judge a book/magazine by it's cover!

I noticed the cunning removal of the headboard on the Bittern Shots. I can understand why they did it though.

Anybody noticed the picture they've printed back to front? Try looking at Pages 22-3. #-o

Regarding the diesel coverage; this is catered for well with specialist titles. I expect the The editor includes mostly steam as this is what attracts people to Heritage Railways.

If you want more diesel coverage I can recommend The Railway Magazine which has pretty even coverage of the whole Railway scene.

 

Don't worry, I read it as well, in fact its sat here on the table, we take a few mags in our house having killed off all emap titles except SR, this is looking to be the next economy drive........

 

As a Chinnor volunteer, this annoyed me when I saw it. No story either, just the caption. Both the other mags managed a story. Oh well.

 

Emap do appear to be going down the pan from what I have read in the business pages.

 

Emap do appear to be going down the pan from what I have read in the business pages.[/quote:bebd2]

Just to clarify, I was referring to what we spend money on, i.e. we have dropped rail and Model Rail, and am seriously considering the same for HR.

Which would leave me SR, TRM, and Rail Express as and when, and whatever it is that my Dad buys and sends my way after he's done with it.

 

I have dropped all railway mags, can't afford them any more and don't keep many of them either, Embsay have had boxloads of my stuff for their fund shop. Borrowed a few HRs and SRs a few weeks ago and gave up, they just made me cross!

HR started out bravely, and had some good backwater stuff (places that are still out there, and more have come along); nostalgia stuff is great, but that's catered for with Steam World, Steam Days, Backtrack etc; I hoped HR would cover all the Heritage Scene, which it did until a few years ago. Oh well, back to Waterways World.

 

ahh so its yors im reading at the moment timothy hackworth where are you hailing from

 

Is it actually the print job? Having just got my copy (Smiths seem to be getting highly erratic with their distribution) it looks to me as though the track, ballast and weeds are in focus, but not the front of the locomotive. Which makes me think that it is the original at fault (not to mention the mag for picking it, if that was the case!).

Surprisingly, none of the shots in SR were head on so the headboard which they'd sponsored didn't show up particularly well! Unlike the pictures in HR which were all from an angle where the headboard would have been seen very prominently had they not photoshopped it out. Curious.

 

I cancelled my order for HR around a year ago. Poor photo selection, cropping and awful reproduction at times, plus some articles with far too much padding just there to fill a space. A shame as it started so well.

 

I agree with the above comments. I don't know whether it's down to HR's printing techniques or the actual quality of the photos but a lot of the pics in the magazine are blurred and in some cases very pixelated. I certainly wouldn't want to see a blurred pic on the front of my magazine if I was the editor yet this has happened on numerous occations lately. #-o

Also I know Brian Sharpe is the associated editor of the HR but some issues it's almost 80% of the pics in the mag are his and I do wonder whether it's ever worth sending up any pics for publication when they seem to use his pics all the time. To a certain extent some issues of HR mag is almost being promoted as the Brian Sharpe gallery.

 

Have to say it was once bitten twice shy for me. I told them I had Baie de Somme pics four years ago - they bit my hand off. I sent them the pic as requested, told I'd get a repro fee but despite many e-mails never got anything. Their loss in the long run!

 

Well said David Haggar with regards the Brain Sharpe gallery. I also got fed up with seeing just his pics on every page and some were not that good. Stopped buying both HR & SR sometime ago just now buy Steam Days & Back Track both excellent read. I get all my information I need to know about locos,whats running etc from the Nat Pres and UK Steam web pages.

http://simon582.fotopic.net/

 

Agree with all the above comments and is it me, or does Robin Jones seem to go into dreamland from time to time recently.

His wish list of re-instatements of abandoned railways grows with every issue, most of wich are based on rumour or hearsay.

Take Meldon to Bere Alston, Exe Valley and others as examples.

Next he will probably be championing the re-instatement of Alton to Wickham via Droxford!

 

His comments regarding Brian Wilson's influence on Sgt Peppers certainly pushed credibility (I'd dig the A level essays out on the origins and influences on the album but really can't be bothered to think where they are) and I'm not sure what relevance they had to the end of southern steam either..... Just some need get the Beach Boys in every issue?

Bit like T***** and Th**** on here