offthetracksmagazine

Take a quick look through some of the pages in our latest issue and then download and read the issue. It's the creation of train fans from around the world (not a commercial magazine). We love trains and train related subject matter and contributed to producing this great content!

It's taking a little longer that imagined but issue 3 of the instagram sourced, social media train magazine will be with you soon. It's a hobby project for a couple of guys and editor John, so it's a case of having to fit it in around normal work and life commitments. This issue will again stretch to 100 pages plus and there are articles on Australian steam preservation, modelling German railways and even a poem. That Railway Girl also writes on riding the reunification line in - a 1,072-mile journey that at times proved more than a test!
There's even a poem in the issue and a great story about how trains and train travel can bring parents and their children closer together. Jack's Train Guide is just that a journey through the US (west Coast) taking in heritage lines and museums. We're excited and we know what's in the issue. And it's interactive with video links to stories. Check out some of the spreads below and do like us on facebook and instagram. Search Off the Tracks Magazine!

We recently visited the Nene Valley Railway in Peterborough, England. The line provides great entertainment for enthusiasts and people looking to have a great day out.
You can find out more by watching our video and just what 007 was doing on the line! 
​NVG.ORG.UK

  
Above pic: Nancy Station under a beautiful sunset

As a train fan we're always looking forward to hopping on a train, whether it be a commute, or something much longer, like a hop across the channel on the Eurostar and onto the north-east/east region of France.

​If you've been following our instagram page, you'll have seen that we posted some pics of our journey and asked a few questions along the way. The shots were candid i.e. of the roof at St Pancras and an exit (depart) sigh, in the facade at Gare du Nord (congrats to instagrammer Fw.Kelly who somehow got that one). Boarding our train on Sunday morning meant that it was not too busy a journey, but the Eurostar was packed.
It was a speedy and uneventful sprint into the 50-odd km tunnel and then onto Paris. A quick 10-minute left-right walk then got us to Gare d'Lest, for about a 90-min trip to Nancy by TGV. Relatively flat and not that inspiring countryside flashed past on what looked like to relatively new line.
Nancy is a large-ish station with connecting services to Metz, Stasbourg and Luxembourg for example. We took the 30-min service to Metz a day or so after our arrival. Well, 30 minutes on the way there as we took the stopper on the way back which took an extra 20-min and was air-conditioned by opening the windows. Still this enabled us to see more of the sights, such as they were. The views of forested hill-tops and rivers were much appreciated and there were quite a few industries along the line with plenty of trackage and what looked like a coaling facility for coal trains (Mrs OfftheTracks was less impressed with the latter).
Nancy is worth a visit for the Place Stansislas - a UNESCO world heritage site. It is stunning and construction began in 1752.(more on this in a planned in-depth article in Off the Tracks (autumn issue). With easy connection from the UK and other points across mainline Europe we'd say go there!
Oh, there's also a model train shop just across from the station called Nancy Train... yep, we did go there too...
For more great travel, and railway related content - including art, jazz and people check out our Click here LATEST ISSUE,  
Off the Tracks is created through social media for train fans, train travellers. Over fifty percent of our readers are under 40 and it's an equal male/female split by train fans.. .in case you are interested!

In issue 2 of Off the Tracks Marco Sossio and Francesco Bocchiccio show us how to model the Orient Express in HO-scale. Now to save up for a complete rake and a journey on the real train...

​Off the Tracks contributor Doug Wallace took a walk around San Francisco to shoot these vintage trolley cars... see more of his work in our issue 2.
"I popped down to San Francisco this weekend and visited the Cablecar museum (www.cablecarmuseum.org). The museum is a bit of misnomer as there are actual cables powering the four cable lines."