Magazine Review: 'Backtrack'

Time for the first magazine review featured here!

In Australia, our railway magazines from overseas are usually two or even three months behind everyone else's, which is bad for current news magazines like the wonderful Steam Railway or Heritage Railway, but doesn't really matter for historical ones like Steam World, Railway Bylines (personal favourite!) and the subject of today's review, Backtrack.

(note: the above image is a cover from about a 10 year old issue- the new ones look much spiffier!)

When it comes to historical railway magazines, none of them, I repeat, NONE of them, have for me been able to match the professionalism of 'Backtrack'. Rather than simply feature articles on events, closures, locomotives and flashbacks, as seen in 'British Railways Illustrated' and 'Steam World' (both of which are great mags too!), Backtrack also analyses personalities, policies, equipment performance, myths, accident investigations and quirky articles that you won't find being dealt with by anyone else (for example, one highly interesting article was the origins of the names for the 'King Arthur' class 4-6-0s of the Southern- a most delightful piece of prose!)

Each article also references outside sources, whether they be anecdotes, articles or books, so you really do get a sense that each article has been throughly investigated for facts. However, like many written pieces dealing with often controversial issues, you will on occasion detect a hint of author's bias. One article I found to be so was one dealing with locomotive performance and merit as viewed from the shareholder's view: for example, the A4s and GWR 'Kings' were right on the money, yet Bulleid's Merchant Navy pacifics were not due to their many problems- which ignores their unorthodoxy being partially Bulleid's labour saving attempts in the days of the war, a noble attempt to save the fitter's time and money which didn't quite work out. The 'Leader' project was also savaged, where its 'lack' of benefits for shareholders and its relative low use possibilty (size and weight) were discussed, ignoring the fact Bulleid was attempting to save on turntable costs, add the convience of cab-forward diesels and proves that steam could have a future in a different form- in his case chain driven drives and diesel style cabs. The article failed to mention that the project, despite promise, was given quick disposal (and possible sabotage-see my earlier post about 'Leader:Fiasco or Triumph') by BR, and the similar engine built in Ireland did work. As Sir Winston Churchill said of Gallipoli: "The terrible ifs accumulate!"
Before this post turns into anther rant on the 'Leader' let me continue.

What also broadens 'Backtrack's appeal is the variety of era in which the magazine covers: pre-grouping companies, always getting the short end of the stick in other texts, get a surprisingly decent amount of articles on them, as do the more unsual small companies you might have not heard of before. Its not just lines or locomotives for these groups either, I have seen recently articles on the LNWR's American Publicity materials, and the Southern Railways Electrification advertisement and efforts.

A nice touch also is the dedicated effort to each month show a new and unseen group of photographs in colour on one subject: the month I'm looking at (March '09) has LBSCR Tanks in colour, a previous issue has one of my favourites, the Wainwright 'H' Class Tanks in colour!

However, for those not interested in reading a lot of writing or essays on various subjects, Backtrack might not be your cup of tea. Probably a better choice (although more expensive and rarer here) is Steam Days, which is similar but focusing on more general subjects rather than the niche of Backtrack.

So, what's my conclusion?
8/10

Pros: PROFESSIONAL! Niche market subjects, analyses of everything concieable, pre-grouping railways, not just more Black-5/Standard class colour pictures.

Cons:More expensive than some of the other magazines, pre-grouping/niche articles might not be to some liking, occasional bias against certain issues, too much writing for some?

Happily, Pendragon Publishing has a sample issue online for perusual, although its an old one it is very similar to the modern format bar the new one's more spiffy appearance.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SAMPLE BACKTRACK ISSUE