Railway Herald is the UK's only complimentary, weekly railway magazine available to all free of charge. Its circulation has steadily grown over the four years of publishing and is now read by more than 30,000 people each week (on average) in over 70 different countries*.

The magazine was first published in February 2005, by its creator Richard Tuplin. Issue one, originally intended as a 'one-off' to show how modern technology could transform the railway media in terms of speed of news, was distributed to just 18 friends. It was more of a concept than a magazine and nothing that was originally intended to become the weekly publication that it has!

The first 'key' date in the magazine's history, after its launch with Issue 2, was 10th June 2005, when Issue 11 hit subscribers inbox's and really started to develope a magazine, rather than newsletter, style. From that date on, Railway Herald has become firmly established as one of the respected railway enthusiast titles in the United Kingdom. The magazine underwent a revamp with its 100th issue on 14th September 2008, with a change in the general house style.

However, the biggest change in its history to date, came with the first issue of 2009, when following numerous suggestions and comments, Railway Herald adopted a landscape style. As a digital magazine with its sights firmly fixed in the 21st century, the landscape format not only offered a style more suited to a computer monitor, but also presented yet another difference, aside from speed, between the printed and digital media.

While not everyone has been a supporter of digital magazines, the advent and continuing advance of Railway Herald to adapt to the wishes and requirements of its readers have allowed us to push numerous boundries where they haven't been pushed before. For the enthusiast, Railway Herald brought a major advance in that the 'key' news and pictorial content of a magazine was at most only seven days out-of-date, rather than several weeks as in some cases with printed publications.

From the basic website provided when the magazine started to gain popularity in early 2005, a in-depth redesign took place during late 2007, bringing with it new features and sections when it launched in January 2008, such as our hughly popular Imaging Centre. Towards the end of the year, thoughts turned once again towards a full refresh, making sections easier to use and providing a better inter-operability between the site and its users. After almost tweleve months of design, planning and coding, the new Railway Herald side was launched in mid-October 2009, and it is hoped that it will provide as much of a hit with users as the previous launch did, just under two years previously.

March 2009, also saw Railway Herald expand its operations with the development of Railway Herald Publishing. This move took the company into a new marketplace with the development of both print and digital media. Our first two books proved highly successful and thanks to the co-operation of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, 'The Tornado Story' DVD has sold thousands of copies and further titles are planned for release during 2010.

Statistic correct as of October 2009.