Klaus Eckert

A full-colour, large-format album of photographs, mainly of trains, in the landscape of the Austrian and Italian Tyrol. Photographs are all new to this album and are of high quality. They cover the entire period from the 1980s to the date of publication. Closed railways are not covered; neither are the Stubaitalbahn and the Mittelgebirgbahn, which although they are now integrated into Innsbruck's tramway network, are strictly speaking narrow-gauge lines in their own right.

The text is fairly show more lightweight and doesn't go into detail about the railways, their history or the history of the region; the post-WWI division of the Tyrol with the south being ceded to Italy is touched on obliquely. Photo captions veer between the highly detailed (though often not giving details that many readers would want) and the superficial. The typeface (Mixage Book Gotthard) has some odd kerning effects, especially following lower-case 'f's. The publisher's logo on the front cover (top right) always makes me think it's a self-adhesive price label.

Nonetheless, it's an attractive book which lovers of the railways of the region will appreciate. It's also interesting to note that the publisher is based in Bozen (Bolzano) in the Südtirol itself. show less