Modern Railways

Modern Railways is a monthly British magazine covering the rail transport industry. It was first published in 1962 by Ian Allan and by Key Publishing since March 2012. The magazine was based originally in Shepperton, Surrey, and Tunbridge Wells, in Kent, subsequently.
The magazine has always been targeted at both railway professionals and serious amateurs; this aim derives from its origins as an amalgamation of the enthusiast magazine Trains Illustrated and the industry journal The Locomotive, in the hands of its first editor Geoffrey Freeman Allen.
As of July 2025, it is edited by Richard Clinnick. Regular contributors include Roger Ford, Ian Walmsley, Alan Williams and Tony Miles. Informed Sources is a large section written regularly by Ford and Pan Up is written by Walmsley.

Trains Illustrated

The first edition was published at the beginning of 1946. Due to post-war paper shortages, issues 1 to 8 appeared at varied intervals in 1946 and 1947. From issue 9, it was published quarterly; from issue 14, it became bi-monthly; and from issue 17 it became a monthly publication. The final issue under that title was volume XIV, no.159, after which the sequence continued under the Modern Railways title.
Early issues were edited by Ian Allan and O.J. Morris, with Cecil J. Allen taking over from issue 5 and Geoffrey Freeman Allen from issue 20; he remained editor until December 1961.

First edition

The first edition of Modern Railways was published in January 1962 as volume XV, no. 160 in a sequence continuing from Trains Illustrated. It featured a preface letter from Dr Richard Beeching, then Chairman of the British Transport Commission, who wrote:
A feature article in the edition analysed peak traffic operations at in the days leading up to Christmas 1960, stating: