Re: 'Australian Railway Enthusiast"

[Greg Triplett <triplett@hotkey.net.au>]

Hi David,

> Have you noticed that in this age of electronic communications, a lot of the railway magazine editors (not Rail News Victoria, I hasten to add) ignore the advantage of email<<

I scoured the ARE mag for an email address but there was
none. I'm still pondering writing to the editor in an effort
to bring about a change without upsetting anybody. I'm not
now in a position to assist but when I was I put in 3 years
as editor of the magazine in question. I have done my bit.


>> The declining standards are possibly caused by the very few people who are actually willing to devote time to these mags. And time is a
> very precious commodity these days, there are many demands on our precious relaxation time. <<

Excellence is a scare commodity today. I don't think it
takes that much longer to do a good job. The editor in
question could have saved a lot of time ( and valuable space
) by deleting 10 pages of letters to the editor.

>> Also may authors are put of by the poor editing that is rife today. << 

Did you really mean to write that ? (g).

>> Errors are perpetuated for eternity, corrections published down the track are most likely ignored by the majority,and possibly because they do not understand the need for history to be as correct as we can make it.<<

My main concern is the presentation of the magazine. I'm not
particularly bothered if there is the odd date or boiler
pressure incorrect here and there. This is only a hobby
after all. I get annoyed when book reviews and technical
articles proceed to fill up the subsequent magazine issues
with esoteric correspondence. Does anybody really give a
rat's if a 9F could pull 2178 tons up a 1 in 132 grade 4
decades ago ? All this must be irrelevent to younger
readers.

This stuff is a long time ago in a galaxy far far way. (
that's a good line - thought of it all by myself (g)). It is
no wonder that there are not many young railfans coming up
through the ranks when this is the stuff which is served up.

A summary of the content:

Ads 3.5 pages
Poor Yuri's furry photo ( god knows what happned to it ) 1
page
Editorial page - actually talks about todays scene 1 page
Article about some decepit tourist railway 6 pages including
hideous picture on front cover.
Quality photo essay on Batman Avenue 3 pages (I'm not a tram
fan but this is probably the best part of the magazine)
Letters to the editor 11 pages - unbelievable !
Old story from 50's 1 page.
Book reviews 3 pages
Article about Kingston Flier including pictures of Brisbane
- 2.5 Pages

Total 32 pages.

The above magazine content is no way to attract people to
reading the magazine. At least some of the content needs to
be about the contemporary real rail scene and the photo
quality needs a big fix up.

Down from my soapbox (g).

Regards

GT