This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2010) |
Founded | 1942 |
---|---|
Founder | Ian Allan |
Defunct | 2020 |
Country of origin | England |
Headquarters location | Shepperton |
Publication types | Books |
Nonfiction topics | Transport, freemasonry |
Revenue | £631,000 (2020) |
Official website | www.ianallanpublishing.com |
Ian Allan Publishing was an English publisher, established in 1942, which specialised in transport books. [1] It was founded by Ian Allan.
In 1942, Ian Allan, then working in the public relations department for the Southern Railway at Waterloo station, decided he could deal with many of the requests he received about rolling stock by collecting the information into a book. [2] The result was his first book, ABC of Southern Locomotives. This proved to be a success, contributing to the emergence of trainspotting as a popular hobby in the UK, and leading to the formation of the company. [3] [4]
The company grew from a small producer of books for train enthusiasts and spotters to a large transport publisher. Each year it published books covering subjects such as military and civil aviation, naval and maritime topics, buses, trams, trolleybuses and steam railways, including history, preservation and modern operations. The headquarters was at the western end of Shepperton railway station in Surrey. [3]
At the end of 2016, the company announced that it was withdrawing from railway publishing. Crécy Publishing acquired these titles, including the Oxford and ABC imprints. [5] It continued to operate bookshops until the last was closed in October 2020. [6]
Ian Allan Publishing acquired several companies and imprints.
Ian Allan Publishing's trade representation is provided by Amalgamated Book Services for its own imprints and a growing list of associated publishers. Midland Counties Publications, acquired by Ian Allan Publishing at the same time as Midland Publishing, was established in the 1970s with the objective of selling books at aviation events and by mail order to a growing number of enthusiasts who could not always find the publications they wanted to read on the shelves of their local bookshop.
In addition to the above, Ian Allan also owns the imprint Lewis Masonic. Lewis Masonic produces the ritual books used by lodges and chapters under the United Grand Lodge of England. Ian Allan Publishing also published an extensive catalogue of general Masonic publications, but from the 1990s these were also transferred to the Lewis Masonic imprint, alongside the ritual books.
The company formerly had stores at Cardiff (closed 2015), [8] Manchester Piccadilly (closed 2016), Birmingham (closed 2019) [9] and London at Lower Marsh (closed 2020). [6] [10]
Ian Allan Publishing was well known for its range of enthusiast-based magazines, including the following titles:
A history of the company and of its publications down to 1967 appeared in the November 1967 edition of its magazine Railway World .
Those magazines still in print were acquired by Key Publishing in March 2012. [11] [12]
Through the Lewis Masonic imprint, the company also published the quarterly masonic magazine The Square, the longest running masonic periodical in the United Kingdom.
From 1962 to 2007, Ian Allan also published, jointly with the Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), the monthly magazine Modern Tramway, later as Light Rail and Modern Tramway and currently as Tramways & Urban Transit (TAUT), and continues to handle printing and some distribution of TAUT, as well as printing of the LRTA's quarterly historical journal, Tramway Review. [13]
The company was also responsible for producing a number of videos for sale in the shops on the themes of railway lines and military history, latterly under the name of Ian Allen SBS Video. [14] A number of the titles such as Then and Now [15] were picked up from the archive for broadcast on That's TV in 2024. [16]
A railfan, rail buff or train buff, railway enthusiast,railway buff or trainspotter, or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems.
The British Rail Class 40 is a type of British railway diesel electric locomotive. A total of 200 were built by English Electric between 1958 and 1962. They were numbered D200-D399. They were, for a time, the pride of British Rail's early diesel fleet. However, despite their initial success, by the time the last examples were entering service they were already being replaced on some top-level duties by more powerful locomotives. As they were slowly relegated from express passenger uses, the type found work on secondary passenger and freight services where they worked for many years. The final locomotives ended regular service in 1985. The locomotives were commonly known as "Whistlers" because of the distinctive noise made by their turbochargers.
Brush Traction was a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives in Loughborough, England whose operations have now been merged into the Wabtec company's Doncaster UK operations.
The Blue Pullmans were luxury trains used from 1960 to 1973 by British Rail. They were the first Pullman diesel multiple units, incorporating several novel features.
Modern Railways is a monthly British magazine covering the rail transport industry, which was published by Ian Allan until March 2012 and Key Publishing since then. It has been published since 1962. The magazine was based originally in Shepperton, Surrey.
National Express Midland Metro operated the Midland Metro tram system between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England from May 1999 until June 2018. It was a subsidiary of National Express, who also owned the local bus company National Express West Midlands. The National Express Midland Metro brand name and logo were not carried on trams and on most publicity, just 'The Metro' branding with the exception of printed timetables.
The Fort Smith Trolley Museum is a streetcar and railroad museum in Fort Smith, in the U.S. state of Arkansas, which includes an operating heritage streetcar line. The museum opened in 1985, and operation of its streetcar line began in 1991. Four vehicles in its collection, a streetcar and three steam locomotives, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The now approximately three-quarters-mile-long (1.2 km) streetcar line also passes four NRHP-listed sites, including the Fort Smith National Historic Site, the Fort Smith National Cemetery, the West Garrison Avenue Historic District and the 1907 Atkinson-Williams Warehouse Building, which now houses the Fort Smith Museum of History.
Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, and was built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 in. It was the fourth largest tramway network in the UK behind London, Glasgow and Manchester.
The Ritten Railway is an electric light railway which originally connected Bolzano with the Ritten plateau and today continues to operate on the plateau, connecting the villages located there.
The "Big Four" was a name used to describe the four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923–1947. The name was coined by The Railway Magazine in its issue of February 1923: "The Big Four of the New Railway Era".
The Clogher Valley Railway was a 37-mile-long (60 km), 3 ft narrow gauge railway in County Tyrone and County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It opened in May 1887 and closed on 1 January 1942.
Key Publishing is a magazine publishing company specialising in aviation titles, based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England.
Tramways & Urban Transit(TAUT or T&UT), also known as Modern Tramway, is a British monthly magazine about tramways and light rail transport, published continuously since 1938. Its content is orientated both to tramway enthusiasts and to persons working in the tram transport field or studying tramways. It has been issued monthly from the beginning. Although published in Britain, the magazine's coverage is international, and its regular "World News" column includes detailed news on electric trams and light rail worldwide.
Railways Illustrated is a British monthly railway magazine. Inside there is detail of news, stock changes, tours, and more. It is aimed at railway enthusiasts.
Tramway Review, initially known as The Tramway Review, is a British quarterly magazine about the history of tramways in Great Britain and, to a lesser extent, neighbouring countries, published since 1950. Its content is intended for tramway enthusiasts interested in the history of the town tramway systems of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Modern Locomotives Illustrated is a British bi-monthly railway publication.
Ian Allan, OBE was a publisher who specialised in transport titles through his company Ian Allan Publishing.
Locomotive, Railway Carriage & Wagon Review was a British monthly magazine covering the rail transport industry. It was first published in 1896 as Moore's Monthly Magazine. After 65 years and 807 issues, it ceased in November 1959 being incorporated into sister Ian Allan Publishing publication Trains Illustrated in January 1960 which in turn became Modern Railways in January 1962.
A trainspotter, also known as a locospotter or gricer, is a member of a British subculture that was popularised in the 1940s. Based around the spotting of locomotives and recording of their numbers the subculture gained a notorious reputation in British popular culture during the twentieth century.