Friday, May 26, 2017

Garden Rail and Engineering In Miniature


Readers of the current issue of BRM who make it to the back page will find out that I'm going to be picking up some new work in a couple of months.

In July, I take over as editor of both Garden Rail and Engineering In Miniature magazines.

As regular readers will know, I have a long background of messing about in the garden. Admittedly this is mostly at the home-spun make and do end of the hobby, but I'm sure I can understand the high-end live steam world too, especially once I get to have a go at it!

Engineering is a little different. My visits to marvel at the exhibits on show at various ME shows through the years are documented on here, but I can't claim to any skills at lathe work. Fortunately, my role is to assembled the content rather than machine a casting. Mind you, if anyone fancies showing me how, I'm definitely up for it.

I've some big boots to fill with all this and in many ways it's a new direction for me. You don't get rid of me from BRM, I'll still be spending plenty of time building away there and I'm expecting plenty of cross-over between the three publications as well.

Now if you are reading this and thinking, "I wonder if Phil would be interested in an article on...", the answer is yes. Drop me an e-mail and we'll talk about it. After all, I have a contributors budget to spend. You'll not get rich but it's very satisfying to see yourself in print and you can be sure of support from an editor who remembers how he was helped along the way.

This blog? Hopefully all will continue as before. Overall, I have a full-time job with all this stuff and should be able to do a few more projects to fill it. I've 2 lined up once I've finished the Wickham for a start. There will probably be a few more newsy posts and perhaps some talking about places I've been for work. A similar mix to what we've had recently. 

3 comments:

Nick Brad said...

I wish you the very best with these new endeavours and I am delighted to read that you will still be an ever present feature in BRM as well.

Andy in Germany said...

Congratulations Phil: you've earned this. All the best...

Huw Griffiths said...

I'd also like to add my congratulations.

To be honest, this doesn't come as too much of a surprise - I was expecting you to be installed as Editor of Garden Rail at some point or other.

Please don't get me wrong - Garden Rail and Engineering in Miniature are both excellent magazines, whose outgoing Editors have done a superb job.

However, all good things eventually come to an end - and the need has now arisen to find a new Editor, to build on your predecessors' excellent work.

I know that both magazines' future will be safe under your stewardship - and both magazines will continue to flourish, whilst continuing to evolve to reflect their respective subjects and readers' interests.


At this point, it's customary to wish you all the best in your new job(s) - and I certainly want and expect everything to go well. However, I'm wary about using words like "wish" and "hope" because, to some people, these words might also convey a nonexistent element of doubt, or unwarranted lack of confidence.

I don't like anything that might even resemble negative talk - especially when I know there's no call for it.

I know you'll do an excellent job of editing these magazines - and that they'll continue to go from strength to strength. For this reason, my hopes are quite straightforward - that you'll enjoy editing these magazines and learn more about their respective fields in the process.


All the best.