The editor of Modern Locomotives Illustrated is always pleased to receive contributions in respect of illustrations for possible use in forthcoming issues of the magazine. Material in the form of black and white prints, colour prints, colour slides (any format) and digital files are accepted.

Please only submit material for the classes advertised as 'forthcoming issues', neither Modern Locomotives Illustrated or The Railway Centre are able to store large amounts of material for future use.

Print submissions:
These should be clean, undamaged images, sharp and either of a good monochrome tone range or good colour rendition. Prints must be larger than 90 x 140mm (3.5 x 5.5in) and not larger than 255 x 205mm (10 x 8in). For the best possible reproduction prints should be on gloss paper. Each image must have a full caption on the back and the photographers name and address, without this information we are unable to pay reproduction fees.

Colour Transparencies (slide) submissions:
We are able to accept colour slides from 35mm up to and including 5in x 4in plate or cut film. Caption details and the photographers name and address must be attached to the image mount or bag, again without this information we are unable to pay reproduction fees. All transparency submissions must be 100 per cent sharp, of good colour and composition.

Digital image submissions:
With the growing number of photographers now submitting digital photographic material, we have produced some detailed guidelines. These will hopefully ensure that you do not waste your time in submitting material that we cannot handle, while at the same time helping us to ensure your pictures, caption details and personal information is retained with the original work.

We are only able to use high-resolution digital images, this means four megapixel images or above, or images with a pixel size of 2500 x 1700 or thereabouts.

All high-resolution photographic submissions supplied on a CD, DVD or by e-mail attachment must include full details of the subject, including the subject location, the date taken, the loco or unit number and any special information, plus of course the photographer’s name and address. These should be stored in the <File Info> section of the image file.
<File Info> is a text panel that is embedded within the photographic image and allows the text information to remain with the image for all time.

If Modern Locomotives Illustrated retains illustrations for potential future use, the editorial team might well not have the original letter or e-mail sent with the submission. Therefore provision of this information is essential to keep the correct details with images and most importantly credit and pay the photographer for the work.

These days, the vast majority of submissions are processed using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements and the <File Info> panel is reached via the <File> command on the main menu bar and by selecting the <File Info> option.  All you need to do is key in your information and caption details and then save the file. Other photographic editing programmes have similar information storage sections.

Images can be sent on either a CD or a DVD and ideally should be in the .tif format as this retains the best possible level of image data.

High-resolution files for publication should be re-sized to a minimum of 26cm wide at 300dpi with no sharpening. It is best left to our studio to assess and then carry out the degree of ‘sharpening’ or other correction that is required for each individual image, this gives the best possible publishing results.

Files can either be saved or sent in a .jpg or .tif format. To avoid the editorial team having to spend a disproportionate amount of time looking through images, we ask contributors to limit the number of images per submission to around 25.  Due to the complexity of software programmes we are unable to accept RAW files – unless this has been agreed in advance with the editorial team. If you are taking images in a RAW format you should have the software to convert the files to either .jpg or .tif formats.  As a general rule we do not return CD/DVDs unless specifically requested, in which case sufficient postage must be supplied.

Sending images by E-Mail
Digital files can be sent as e-mail attachments to editor@modern-locoillustrated.com images should be processed to a max of 26cm wide and saved as a .jpg at 300dpi. This should give a file size of around 4 to 8mb. Please do not send files in excess of 10mb. If sending a multiple number of images attached to one e-mail make sure the total of the images do not exceed 10mb.

Image file naming
Digital cameras by design allocate their own file names to each image taken. Recently, as digital submissions have increased, we have encountered a number of cases of duplicated file names. This can be very problematic and could see a wrong image used. Some photographers have initiated their own file naming systems. This is fine but we would ask photographers to consider using their initials as the first two characters of the file name, followed by an underscore preceding the individual file name, this will enable us to locate the picture easily. Please make sure you do not remove the file type suffix.

Image Processing
We ask that photographers indicate whether their digital submissions have received any processing or editing adjustments, especially to colour levels and balance. This can often make computer screen images look excellent, but can have drastic effects on the reproduced work.

We do not encourage photographers to remove or add items to illustrations as in the main we view our product as a work of record and in years to come we would hope readers will be able to look with confidence at images that truly reflect the railway scene of days past.

Modern Locomotives Illustrated strives to publish the best in railway photography. We are only able to retain and use a small fraction of those submitted and we hope contributors will understand if they consider the rejection rate to be high. We do not usually retain material on a long term basis, but do keep a small digital photographic library, but generally seek illustrations as they are needed. A list of forthcoming issues is available on the website.

As a general guide, we do not require images which have items ‘growing’ out of the main subject, obstructions in the way of the train, pictures that are unsharp or have poor colour. Pictures that show the train in a setting have a far greater chance of acceptance than a buffer-to-buffer view.

Generally we are unable to use ‘home scanned’ prints, negatives or slides, as the quality is not sufficient to allow high quality reproduction. There are some exceptions, however, where high-end scanners such as the Nikon Coolscan 9000 or the like are used.

Copyright of material
Pictures, slides and digital images, submitted either freely or by request of the editorial team, remain the Copyright of the photographer, reproduction fees are paid for a 'one off use'. Photographs taken on special assignments organised by Modern Locomotives Illustrated or TheRailwayCentre.Com Ltd, remain the copyright of TheRailwayCentre.Com Ltd.

* Images reproduced in issues of Modern Locomotives Illustrated may be used in advertising and promotional literature, displaying covers and spreads of the magazine pages. Covers and pages may also be reproduced on the Modern Locomotives Illustrated, TheRailwayCentre.Com or Ian Allan website.

We would also remind photographers that they MUST be the copyright holder of material submitted for reproduction, submitting of illustrations which are not the copyright of the photographer or person submitting the image may be an offence under law and could see the person submitting the image or claiming its copyright prosecuted by the lawful copyright holder. If the Editor has reason to believe that images may have copyright vested in other persons he may request the supplier to sign a declaration of copyright ownership releasing the Editor and publisher from claims of copyright infringement.

Material sent to the Editor, either commissioned or freely submitted is provided at the contributor’s own risk.
Neither Modern Locomotives Illustrated or TheRailwayCentre.Com Ltd cannot be held responsible for loss or damage however caused.