I often read various railway magazines, most of which have a page or two dedicated to review recently-released railway books.
I've noticed though that many of them have a very 'old-fashioned' look to them, as if they could have been published 20-odd years ago or even before that; very few show characteristics of modern book cover design.
I'm interested to know if there's any particular reason for this?
Is it a deliberately 'vintage' design, is it because they're aimed at a particular demographic, is it simply because many of them are not that bothered about paying the money for any more complex design or is it jsut conforming to a long-standing tradition?
Please note this is not a criticism, simply an observation. Interested to hear any thoughts.
I don't own many railway books (unlike books on other public transport subjects!) but I have stocked a fair number in my two bookshops over a period of thirty years, and even sold a few too. I think I know the type of publication you refer to, and I would divide them into two groups.
The first type consists mainly of books containing old black and white photos, No attempt has been made to clean the photos up, which, combined with poor quality paper, makes the photos very 'flat' and uninviting. As the company has long gone, I shall name and shame Alan Sutton Publishing of Gloucestershire, who basically published books of old photos, often focussed on individual areas e.g Stroud. The eponymous Sutton later fell out with the company and established a separate company which he succeeded (after legal action) in calling Sutton. The joke in publishing circles was that 'every expense was spared' in the production of these, almost always paperback, books. Middleton Press also published (and still do) cased editions of books of old photos themed on different lines, but using better quality paper and reproduction is better than with Sutton. It's basically run by 'enthusiasts' but certainly their books have a very old-fashioned look about them and, personally, I find their layout to be quite off-putting.
The second type are books with some original text to go with the photos, or a history of a type of loco or a railway line/region, etc. Ian Allan were big on these for decades, but in the latter years of their existence rehashed a lot of stuff with new titles or covers, or allowed someone who was not an expert in the field to write them, with predictable results! On my chosen subject of omnibuses some real stinkers were published in the earlier years of this century. Again, layouts hardly changed over the years, and one just got the impression of an organisation trading on their past name. They also became too expensive for what they were imo.
Of present-day books and publishers I would heartily recommend Capital Transport who, despite their name, publish books on many aspects of public transport throughout the U.K. Their books look wonderful, are written by authors who know their onions and I say all this as someone who can't get the necessary discount from them to sell their books, so I pay full price myself to own their products!
I hope this has been of some use.
