Japanese Railway Publications

[Guest ___]

Which way do you prefer your Japanese train publications presented in?

[bikkuri bahn]

I'm a traditionalist- Magazines for news items, new rolling stock reports, and topical (5-6 page) profiles.  Magazines are high quality (albeit high priced) in Japan and packed with info and pictures- not the flimsy rags you find in Anglophone nations.  Books for stock lists, monographs (i.e. a particular type of rolling stock), and historical stuff. One thing the U.S. publishers do better are all-color hardcover books on vintage railroads.  The UK is tops for historical books and the high standard of b/w pictures of steam age trains- I reckon nearly every passenger line in the UK has been documented in published form.

[Guest ___]

To be honest in my opinion most Japanese photography and railroading magazines could be called books by the own rights. I have about 5 issues of Japan Railfan and fifteen of it's arch rival, and they take up more space on my bookshelf than my hardbacks do.