Starlight on the Rails

Rating:
Summary: superbly produced, beautiful photographs
Review: There are two types of books concerned with railway photographs. The first consists of photographs of trains taken by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts. These generally have little aesthetic value, and consequently a low shelf life.

The second type is concerned with the context and atmosphere of the railway scene, and reaches its most supreme expression with scenes taken in rain, snow, fog, and after dark. This splendidly produced and presented (and most reasonably priced) book falls into this category most firmly. The range of images are stunning, as is the quality of reproduction. Particularly noteworthy are the inclusion of (far too few) photographs from Japan, to compliment the broadly American coverage.

My personal view is that some of the over descriptive captions could have been edited - the photographs speak for themselves quite easily. Also, Brouws' turgid and portentous prose really does take up too much space, I would happily forsake this in favour of having some of the postage stamp sized images reproduced at a decent size.