Which magazine?

[TrevL]

I'm thinking of dropping a few hints to family to get me a model railway magazine subsciption for Christmas.
Which one would you knowledgable people recommend please?

[Geoff]

Railway Moddeler has allways been a favourite of mine but I only buy it when there are N Gauge layouts inside, but also a good read.

[Tonye]

  I agree, the Railway Modeller is in my opinion the best, It lists nearly all the exhibitions and is printed on good quality paper.  

[railsquid]

How about an N Gauge Society subscription? OPMMV but I find it's worth it just for the magazine.

[Chris Morris]

How about an N Gauge Society subscription? OPMMV but I find it's worth it just for the magazine.

Hmm - I've just joined and had my first N gauge society magazine. IMHO it isn't great quality, especially the photos. Maybe less content but with better quality photos would an improvement from my point of view. Apologies to those who no doubt are working very hard to put it together, i'm just giving my first honest impression and I understand that you can't please everybody all the time. I also accept that I couldn't do a better job.

Railway modeller is still the best for my needs and it least it does have some N gauge content every month which is not always the case with the others. I find some of the other magazines talk down to me and insult my intelligence at times. I fully accept that others, especially less experienced modellers, would welcome these articles stating how to suck eggs.

I get irritated that many magazines incessantly push DCC almost every month. Yes we all know it exists and by now we have all made our choice.

Oh dear, I'm sounding a little grumpy today - didn't mean to.

[railsquid]

Indeed, the NGS Journal photos are generally user-supplied which makes the quality variable. Admittedly not every page of every journal has been of compelling interest to me, but personally I like it. There are other benefits to NGS membership as well. I pick up a Railway Modeller every time I'm in the UK but have never felt the urge to subscribe to it as I'm not interested in the mainly non-N gauge content, but that's just me

[Derwentbob]

I used to like Model Rail but to be honest it has gone downhill of late, the themed issues just don't often interest me. Railway Modeller is still solid, almost always an N gauge layout, useful adverts kept to separate sections and articles on prototype stuff (plan of the month, track etc.) means there is something there for me in every issue. The NGS Journal may lack the polish of the big monthlies but it is all N gauge and costs about half the price of any of them, with free NGS membership thrown in. What's not to like? The NGS Journal is the only one I read from cover to cover.

[TrevL]

Just signed up to NGS for three years, now all I have to do is shoe-horn the cash from one of my sons, some hope there

[Newportnobby]

Another one for 'Railway Modeller' here as even the larger scaled layouts have some ideas to steal and transfer to N gauge. I generally find there's nearly always at least 1 N gauge layout featured and many layouts of NGF members have been featured in the past and, no doubt, will continue to be.
The only trouble is what to do with any such mag once read? My poor little bungalow is gradually filling up with RMs and there's a limit as to how many doctor/dentist waiting rooms I can surreptiously 'dump' some in.

[railsquid]

Just wanted to add that from the mainstream general magazines I'd still go for Railway Modeller (and/or Continental Modeller) above the others that I've come across.

As for issues of space, I've dealt with that with other magazines by ruthlessly cutting out the bits which interest me, filing them and throwing the rest away. In this era of ominpresent internet I reckon that if I do chuck out something I'll later regret, it will be feasible to track it down without too much pain. (+1 for the NGS on that, there was one article in a back issue before I joined I was looking for, one email and I had a scanned copy).

[Steve.T]

Another one for 'Railway Modeler' here.
The only trouble is what to do with any such mag once read? My poor little bungalow is gradually filling up with RMs and there's a limit as to how many doctor/dentist waiting rooms I can surreptitiously 'dump' some in.

I seem to know where you are coming from here. 
When I got back into railway modelling I subscribed to nearly all the UK magazines going to try and get some ideas, and being a stereotypical Yorkshire-man I don't want to  just throw them away, my cupboards, shelves are just full of em 

But in answer to the O.P. I would also opt for "Railway Modeler".
When I was getting nearly everyone going I generally found once you had read one then in the same month the other were the same.
Same adverts, same reviews, same news. Sometimes even the same layouts were featured in some.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading them, and found some useful articles that did help me and did give me ideas. But after the year was up I cancelled all the subscriptions except "Railway Modeler".

Just one tip if you can be bothered. Just have a bit of a search on the web as you can sometimes find a cheaper deal than subscribing to the publisher.

A quick search you can get an extra 10% off "Railway Modeler" on the link below.
https://www.isubscribe.co.uk/Railway-Modeller-Magazine-Subscription.cfm?&affid=1820&gclid=Cj0KEQjwkdHABRCHiZ2gs6yGh50BEiQAA91WlhWtTzZgbakGsJTlViXMrz9TwS8zQZL0JTuEtEdMohAaAkBu8P8HAQ

Unless you want the special offers available in the magazine itself but usually they are more geared to OO gauge and usually something you don't really need.

Steve

[scottishlocos]

Guys

Agree with the comments above but I feel all the major magazines have a GWR bias as modern modeller this really doesn't appeal and I wish there was a modern modelling magazine

Dave

[PostModN66]

.......and I wish there was a modern modelling magazine

I agree - I'm actually more interested in Post-Privatisation (and to a lesser extent Modern Image) in other scales than steam-era  layouts in N.  IIRC Model Rail was post-steam oriented when it was part of "Rail", and Rail Express still has a post-steam pullout modelling section, but it would be great if there was a proper dedicated mag!

Cheers Jon 

[Topcat]

Given up RM due to consistent lack of n gauge now get BRM pics are excellent.

[Sprintex]

N Gauge Now

Might only be quarterly but it's 100% N gauge with some very informative articles


Paul