In England, they call them trainspotters; in North America, they’re known as railfans. Their passion? Taking cameras to nearby (and not so nearby) train tracks and snapping photos of passing locomotives. Winnipeg’s Morgan Turney, longtime publisher and editor Canadian Railway Modeller magazine, is one of them and after considering the idea for many years, he finally decided to launch a magazine for railfans across Canada.

About 2,000 copies of the 48-page premiere issue of Railfan are expected to go to press this Friday, Turney says. Edited by fellow train enthusiast Suzanne Lemon, the photography magazine also carries service articles, profiles of prominent railfan photographers and features about Canada’s prominent rail lines.

Turney estimates there are about 10,00 railfans in Canada, and says he hopes to eventually reach about 4,000 of them with his magazine. He’s selling Canadian subscriptions for $30 and newsstand copies—mostly distributed through hobby shops—for $8.95. Promotion has included mail-outs to CRW subscribers and booth sales at the Calgary Train Show.

Hoping to move beyond the CRW’s local hobby shop base for Railfan’s ad sales, Turney has made contact with camera retailers such as Don Photo and Henry’s but hasn’t closed any deals on those fronts yet.