NEW JULY 2025. 'Trains Illustrated' was a magazine issued by Ian Allen.  The first one came out in 1946, amid all the shortages caused by the recent War. Subsequent ones appeared at irregular intervals, whenever enough of the poor-quality paper became available.

Eventually it became a monthly publication on glossy paper. In 1960 it incorporated into its pages the erstwhile 'Locomotive Magazine'. The final issue appeared in December 1961 (after which it lost all historical content and was rebranded as 'Modern Railways').

It included regular updates on news concerning British Railways and its locomotive stock, arranged by Region. There were also plenty of articles, mostly illustrated with photographs - you can see a list of the main ones HERE.

You get every issue produced. Their word-searchable files, assembled into yearly volumes, are derived from scans by our member David Allen who readily agreed that we might make them available to others.

Some extra bonus files are also provided. The main ones are the four Trains Illustrated Annuals (scanned for us by Bill King), a couple of Trains Illustrated Rail-Photo albums, both issues of a short-lived contemporary called 'The Railway Photographer', and the January 1962 first issue of 'Modern Railways'. You gain well over nine thousand pages of interesting reading in total.

Anyone who has already spent £2.40 on our previous file MG016 of the first sixteen issues of 'Trains Illustrated' is invited to claim that amount as a deduction off the price of this new venture.

If you purchase this item, you download a link. This in turn enables you to download all the files. They occupy nearly 1.8 GB, so the process will take you a while, depending on the speed of your connection.

These same files are also available on a DVD.  It costs £10, however, including an extra amount which reflects what we have to pay for the disc - and of course postage (to UK addresses only) must be added.

The files are word-searchable and have bookmarks to the separate issues. A link to them will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.