The magazine claims a record for the longest unbroken published series, begun under the title "British locomotive practice and performance" in 1901, characterised by detailed logs giving the timings of notable trips, recorded by observers with a stopwatch. (The September 1930 column was 'pulled' by the editor as being too critical of Nigel Gresley's London and North Eastern Railway steam locomotives.) Its first writer was the New Zealand-born Charles Rous-Marten (1844-1908). One of those who shared authorship of the series after his death was the Great Eastern Railway engineer Cecil J. Allen (1886-1973) who became sole author from 1911 until succeeded by O. S. Nock in 1958, when Cecil J. Allen moved his performance column to "Trains Illustrated" (later renamed "Modern Railways"), edited by his son, G. Freeman Allen. From 1981 to 2004 the performance series was written by Peter W. B. Semmens (1927-2007), who also served as chief correspondent from 1990, notably reporting on the Channel Tunnel construction. Authorship of the series, now called just "Practice & performance", has subsequently been shared by Keith Farr and John Heaton.