Further market research - TRACTION magazine

[Andy Y]

Further to Steve's earlier question we'd like to get some more input as to what people do or don't want within the magazine as per the poll questions.

[Paul W]

All of the above is of interest to me...but please, please, please ditch the international stuff......can just about stomach the Irish scene but anything else other than UK, no thanks...

 

And please try and make it monthly again if possible as 2 months between issues is tooooo damn long to wait for a heritage fix on how the railways used to be.

 

I have subscribed since issue no. 1 so have seen changes to the magazine over the years and don't particularly want to see a wholesale change of format, and leave the title alone, as with the cover usually emblazoned with different classes of locomotive traction you don't have to be a genius to know what the magazine is all about.

 

Another thing I miss is a centrefold photograph of something big in a great location, something which used to take the breath away when you turned the page. If not a centrefold then perhaps a full page or 2 could have the same effect.

 

My pennies worth...for what it's worth, maybe not even a penny.

 

Paul

[russ p]

As for overseas stuff, I do find it quite interesting to rad about British built/ designed loco's abroad but that about it.

One magazine that could be a possible template other than a D&E backtrack could be the American classic trains although steam does feature in that there is a lot of diesels which is what I buy it for.

As I've said before the problem is going to be finding enough people to write about their railway careers

I would love to see traction refreshed I wish you the best of luck with it

[BrushVeteran]

I've had Traction from issue 1 and stopped my subscription over a year ago. I'm afraid the quality of the photo reproduction has never improved very much over the years, despite newer digital photography, and there isn't really an excuse for this in this day and age.

 

Some of the articles are also a bit long winded and loose momentum for me. A bit of classic black & white stuff in similar fashion to BRILL could do wonders to lift the content into a 'worth waiting for' magazine. If it were to improve I would seriously consider carrying on with it.

[russ p]

I wouldn't want it just to become a magazine of pictures, I for one and I'm sure I'm not alone tend to flick through the picture collection magazines in the newsagents only buying them if there is a picture collection I really like.

With backtrack and classic trains I buy every issue as the amount of reading is longer term quality entertainment

[Legend]

Something like the old Rail Enthusiast would suit me before it became the more serious Rail

[russ p]

Something like the old Rail Enthusiast would suit me before it became the more serious Rail

Railways illustrated and rail express aren't too far from that format. And remember the very poor quality of the paper of early rail enthusiast magazine especially the yellow section

[Legend]

Railways illustrated and rail express aren't too far from that format. And remember the very poor quality of the paper of early rail enthusiast magazine especially the yellow section

Yes very true I remember the poor paper. But i did enjoy the articles on cab rides and the more enthusiast approach, rather than business approach taken by Rail. I'm not sure Rail Express is quite the same , but it's probably the closest. It may just be a factor of the railways being more interesting back then. When Rail Enthusiast came out HSTs were still new, in fact still coming off production line, the Deltics were bowing out, 37s were getting transferred to the Highlands and Large Logo livery was being applied to 47/7s and the first versions to 37s . The modern scene just isn't that interesting and so I suppose the same format wouldn't work. Something that takes us back to the 80s would be good, but how big a market is there?

[Nearholmer]

Does bring up the question of whether it aims to be ephemeral, or something to be kept for reference and re-reading, like Backtrack.

 

Personally, I prefer the latter sort of magazine, partly because the sort of newsy, chatty material is pretty well served on-line these days, through places such as this, and partly because I actually enjoy reading and learning (I was brought-up on a mag called "Look and Learn", which seems to have had a lasting impact!).

 

Page-after-page of big colour, front three-quarter photos I think are largely a waste of space, but the idea of a bit of loco-porn, in a centre-spread sounds pretty good ........ One really quality image per edition, with images on the other pages used to properly illustrate articles, not gratuitously.

 

The 'foreign' thing needs a bit of thought, especially if history and technical matters are going to be treated properly, because (whisper it quietly, so as not to offend) neither dynamo-electric nor internal-combustion rail traction was originated in GB, most of the technical and operational innovations occurred outside of GB, and, in all honesty, GB was a tiny bit slow-on-the-uptake at times.

 

That doesn't imply a need for wall-to-wall overseas-stuff, but it does imply the need not to be parochial, if anything other than a biased impression is to be conveyed.

 

Kevin

[dj_crisp]

I enjoy most of the issues tbh.

 

The human side to the railway is interesting as it's something I don't tend to find in books.

 

I'm a fan of the modelling section too which is always good to get new ideas.

 

As I tend to model late 80s and early 90s I'm always interested in a photos from that period... especially just soaking in the atmosphere. I've kept my old copies of Rail just for that!

 

As a modeller any features on DMUs/wagons/coaches and their history is welcome. Its probably not what traction is really about though.... Back in the day the departmental corner in Rail usually had something obscure which always produced interesting things.

 

I will admit that the international stuff rarely interests me.

 

Please keep up the good work though... it's a magazine I always look for

Cheers

Will

[jjb1970]

Does bring up the question of whether it aims to be ephemeral, or something to be kept for reference and re-reading, like Backtrack.

 

Personally, I prefer the latter sort of magazine, partly because the sort of newsy, chatty material is pretty well served on-line these days, through places such as this, and partly because I actually enjoy reading and learning (I was brought-up on a mag called "Look and Learn", which seems to have had a lasting impact!).

 

Page-after-page of big colour, front three-quarter photos I think are largely a waste of space, but the idea of a bit of loco-porn, in a centre-spread sounds pretty good ........ One really quality image per edition, with images on the other pages used to properly illustrate articles, not gratuitously.

 

The 'foreign' thing needs a bit of thought, especially if history and technical matters are going to be treated properly, because (whisper it quietly, so as not to offend) neither dynamo-electric nor internal-combustion rail traction was originated in GB, most of the technical and operational innovations occurred outside of GB, and, in all honesty, GB was a tiny bit slow-on-the-uptake at times.

 

That doesn't imply a need for wall-to-wall overseas-stuff, but it does imply the need not to be parochial, if anything other than a biased impression is to be conveyed.

 

Kevin

 

I'd agree with that but take it further as I don't find articles about locomotives being allocated to A and working trains X, Y, Z etc interesting when they're about UK prototypes either. My interest is more about the technical side of the railways and how railways work. For all I love trains I'm really not that interested in numbers, what liveries a train wore and when etc.

[ColinK]

Difficult one; as a non reader it would need to offer something different from other magazines. For example, no reviews of new models as these are already over done in the modelling magazines.

 

I would be happy with artices from people who worked on the railway, articles on specific loco types and dmu types, articles on things like major engineering jobs or upgrades (last night I watched a film on building the bridge over the M60 in the 70s and another on the south Manchester upgrades), operations (compiling timetables, drivers roster etc), developing waggon and coaches. I am also interested in European Railways.

 

As for modelling, I would be interested in articles on how to produce specific trains from the 1970s and 1980s. This could be linked to artices about the prototype. Examples being Glasgow - Edinburgh class 27 push pul sets, ICI hopper trains, Llanwern iron ore trains etc.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Heritage? No thanks.

Foreign stuff? I'll pass on that.

Modelling? Won't miss that either.

[steverabone]

I've had Traction from issue 1 and stopped my subscription over a year ago. I'm afraid the quality of the photo reproduction has never improved very much over the years, despite newer digital photography, and there isn't really an excuse for this in this day and age.

 

 

This is an interesting comment and one that deserves clarification.

 

Nowadays we are so used to the superb quality of modern digital photography that it is easy to forget that, until recently, most photographs were taken on film and when scanned from negatives, prints or transparencies (even on good equipment) often cannot give images as good as ones taken today. Remember that many photos taken in the past were also taken on quite basic cameras.

 

If magazines are to use what are now "historical photographs" to illustrate articles, which in TRACTION's case is almost always the case, we have to accept that sometimes they are not of the quality we would expect if taken on a digital camera in 2016.

 

Rest assured we do take great care to get the best possible results.

 

Stephen Rabone editor

[BrushVeteran]

This is an interesting comment and one that deserves clarification.

 

Nowadays we are so used to the superb quality of modern digital photography that it is easy to forget that, until recently, most photographs were taken on film and when scanned from negatives, prints or transparencies (even on good equipment) often cannot give images as good as ones taken today. Remember that many photos taken in the past were also taken on quite basic cameras.

 

If magazines are to use what are now "historical photographs" to illustrate articles, which in TRACTION's case is almost always the case, we have to accept that sometimes they are not of the quality we would expect if taken on a digital camera in 2016.

 

Rest assured we do take great care to get the best possible results.

 

Stephen Rabone editor

I Steve, I'm sorry I don't mean to be critical but in this case I'm afraid I have to disagree with what you are trying to point out.

 

I have a flickr website in which the majority of the images were taken in the late sixties and early seventies. Most of these pictures were taken on a Kodak Instamatic 200 camera and the contrast quality of some were particularly dark and flat. Using Adobe Photoshop has been a great asset in enabling me to put these photographs on a site for all to see and they are also available on RM Web. You would not want to see some of the originals!

 

I have also had several of these images used in Strathwood and similar good quality publications where they have been reproduced to the highest quality during the printing process. I'm afraid many of the images taken on digital camera equipment and appeared in recent editions of Traction have not, in my opinion, come anywhere near the reproduction quality one would expect in this day and age. I have BFMP qualifications in printing and I know processes and paper have got better.

 

The main point in my original comment was that the printing and reproduction has not really improved that much from Issue No. 1, and with today's more modern methods of photo image manipulation and printing processes I feel it should match those of other similar periodicals. This is my personal opinion Steve and the sole reason why I stopped my subscription.