Some market research - TRACTION

[SteveCole]

Hi all,

We're doing a bit of research into Traction magazine and wanted to get some views from people who either never read Traction, or only read it occasionally. We'll be posting a few of these questions over the next weeks to help us further improve the magazine.

Question 1: From the magazine title alone 'Traction' what would you expect the content to be?

Steve

 

[The Stationmaster]

I've never read it - to me the title implies it's about contemporary locos/units and nothing else (so it wouldn't even tempt me to pick it up and see if my understanding of the content is right).

[sdw7300]

From someone who's never read the magazine: Traction engines / vintage tractors / vintage or steam lorries

 

<edit> - probably nothing railway related

[big jim]

as a non reader of said publication but going on what i see on the cover in smiths etc, the name suggests 1980s nostalga to me

[SteveCole]

as a non reader of said publication but going on what i see on the cover in smiths etc, the name suggests 1980s nostalga to me

 

Forget the cover imagery if you can, I'm more interested in what you'd expect from a magazine with the name 'Traction'

[asmay2002]

We're doing a bit of research into Traction magazine and wanted to get some views from people who either never read Traction, or only read it occasionally. We'll be posting a few of these questions over the next weeks to help us further improve the magazine.

 

Question 1: From the magazine title alone 'Traction' what would you expect the content to be?

 

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Traction/Pages/Introduction.aspx

[big jim]

Forget the cover imagery if you can, I'm more interested in what you'd expect from a magazine with the name 'Traction'

 

its difficult to separate the 2 when you have seen it on the shelf and know its about trains but still i'd railway wise it still suggests nostalga, to a non railway enthusiast it could suggest as others have put traction engines or even something for chiropractors or rehabilitation workers!

[Stevelewis]

Non  Reader  ,  would  expect  the  content  to  be  either  Modern  Image ( ie the current  scene )  or  Traction  engines  and associated  items ( more unlikely  i suppose)

[t8hants]

Never heard of it before, and as it is not about the noble world of steam road locomotion & vintage lorries etc,  of no interest what so ever.

 

Also the title's art work is a suggestion of a cast brass name plate which to me implies the steam era, if I am supposed to think modern non steam 'traction' surely a cast aluminum name plate look alike of silver and blue would be  more up to date.

[ColinK]

Traction is the use of weights, ropes and pulleys to apply force to tissues surrounding a broken bone.

It's sometimes used to keep a broken leg in the correct position during the early stages of healing, or to ease the pain of a fracture while a person is waiting for surgery.

 

Ouch!

[Legend]

Post steam age British Railways

[The Nth Degree]

From the brand terminology and the nameplate style of the masthead shown, it appears to be aimed at steam enthusiasts.

[Jim Martin]

I read it occasionally. Purely from the title, I'd expect it to be about traction engines and that sort of thing. Maybe steam road vehicles generally.

 

Jim

[cravensdmufan]

If I'd never seen it I'd assume traction engines. It needs a more specific title.

[PM47079]

Without knowing what I know now from reading the thread. I was assuming something along the lines of traction engines steam lorries and classic tractors etc

[Kelly]

Like others I'd assume steam or something similar.

 

I rarely give it a look tbh.

[MRDBLUE17]

If I'd not seen it Traction engines would be my thoughts if it was just a written word.

 

Mark

[griffgriff]

This thread proves that if you ask a silly question then you should expect a silly answer

 

Anyone growing up in the 1970/80s would know that 'Traction' refers to the big blue thing at the front pulling the train

 

Griff

[Huw Griffiths]

If I didn't already know otherwise, I suspect that I would have made similar assumptions to those above:

 

• Medical traction - been there, got the badge (as a 2 year old - in the, since demolished, Prince of Wales Orthopaedic Hospital at Rhydlafar for the last few months of 1967) - I was too young to remember any of it long term, but I've been reliably informed that I made it clear that I didn't exactly enjoy the experience.
   
• Traction engines - I've always liked them - but I'm not sure I'd actively choose to buy a magazine about them every month.
   
• Trams (or trolleys) , interurbans and overhead powered electric locos - I believe that, in the US, the word "traction" is routinely used to describe these. Although I've never seen any of these up close (and certainly not in the US), I've always been fascinated by these - and, if I came across an affordable magazine about these which also included drawings that could be used to build models, I'd be tempted. If the drawings were on a cover disk, I'd be very tempted.

 

 

If I'd never seen it I'd assume traction engines. It needs a more specific title.

 

How about something along the lines of: "Motive Power Journal"?

 

 

Huw.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Just from the name I'd expect something on:

 

Modern image (ie post 1970s) diesel and electric locomotives.

Just locos, not DMUs/EMUs or rolling stock.

Class histories.

Up-to-date allocation/livery changes.

Railwaymen's experiences of driving/servicing/building/designing the locos.

Not necessarily just British.

 

With the name in the style of font, looking like a nameplate, I'd expect:

Just British locos.

As the nameplate background is red, something more of the 1980s/90s.

The font is confusing as it's neither in the BR 1970s form (with capital and lower case lettering), or the earlier style

used on, say, Westerns, Warships and WR-named Brush 4s.

[royaloak]

When the title was launched it was fairly obviously about what was on the front of the train, nowadays that is no longer true because the railways have gone for multiple units on nearly all trains with obvious exceptions.

 

Basically the title has been left behind by modernisation.

[Nearholmer]

The title alone has the ring of "traction Bashers" about it, so, to me, the title alone suggests:

 

- lots about post 1960s, pre-2000s diesel locos;

 

- a load of gricers writing articles about exciting things that happened between them and a Class 37.

 

As others have said, the masthead is actually very confusing, because the nameplate isn't distinctively "railway" let alone distinctively BR.

 

I've never bought it, despite or because I've looked inside it. The layout and a brief glimpse at articles suggest that it hasn't got much depth.

 

Kevin

 

PS: Gissa Job - if handled well, the topic of non-steam traction, and the post-steam railway, could be made seriously interesting to a wide audience, and I rather fancy a crack at editing it to that place!

[griffgriff]

When the title was launched it was fairly obviously about what was on the front of the train, nowadays that is no longer true because the railways have gone for multiple units on nearly all trains with obvious exceptions.

 

Basically the title has been left behind by modernisation.

Perhaps it's a term left with Modernisation? A time associated with the BTC, Rail House, the Corperate Image' electrification schemes built with robust infrastructure, computers the size of an office block, bad hair cuts and awful cars. Photocopied football fanzines, the pools, the sporting green. Idle banter about Keagan, Best, Francis, the next home international.

 

Thin sliced white jam sandwiches, warm pop, and Combined Volume. Sat with a platform ticket watching blue and grey or just blue. Slow freights squealing around curves, over crossings. 16Ton grey a' plenty. Bell codes and telephone bells alerting a possible movement. Conversation and plans on our next adventure to see London termini and the riches they possessed and joking if we might find an old army surplus respirator to fend off the smog we would inevitably splutter on in the Liverpool Stree tube.

 

Then heading home to our model, our pride and joy. Triang trains and perhaps an Italian interloper. It was the time before the Palitoy Peak and the Airfix Ped, System 6 track (perhaps even Super 4) on a sheet of hardboard under the bed. That was fine scale to us. What little we knew.

 

To me this is the time of Traction.

 

Griff (apologies for my nostalgia)

[Nearholmer]

One big question that the title, and indeed the contents (I had another squint on the new stand just now) raise, is whether it's meant to be narrowly about motive power, specifically about diesels, or about the post-steam railway in a broader sense.

 

And, it seems notably weak on both electric traction, and non-steam traction before BR. These points could cause it to miss out on about 70 years of pre-BR history of both electric and internal combustion traction.

 

So, is it "Diesel Railways"? Or, "non-steam traction" (not a very catchy title!)? Or, "diesel & electric railways?" Or ??????

 

Is it an era-focused, or a tech-type-focused, publication?

 

And, where does it "sit on the shelf", in relation to several other titles, which also cover or touch-upon non-steam traction? Does it have a clear USP?

 

Ripe for a revamp! (Which I guess is why the questions arise)

 

Kevin

[Guest bri.s]

The name makes me think it's possibly a magazine for tyre enthusiasts

 

Never read it but thought it was all modern image stuff