Colin Brown says he is a lifelong rail fan. He has a strong personal interest additionally in "trams," the English term he uses for streetcars. His twin passions have brought him twice a year for the last six years to Japan. He praises especially "the discipline, smartness, courtesy and dedication of railway staff" here. He has ridden all 21 streetcar systems still existing in Japan. Trains and streetcars constitute for him "civilized urban transit."
Brown is an active member of the Japanese Railway Society, which was founded in 1991 in Britain. "Many societies concerned with the railways of different countries exist in the U.K.," he said. "JRS promotes interest in all aspects of Japanese transportation, and modeling. It is an international organization with about 220 members in 14 countries. Japan and its railways fascinate me, so I joined JRS in 1993." He is also an active member in Britain of the Light Rail Transit Association, which from 1937 has been advocating modern streetcars and urban light rail transit. He supports the aim of LRTA, which is to retain, extend and develop efficient public transport.
Brown was a schoolboy during World War II. His school was evacuated to quiet countryside where lessons for the boys became hit-and-miss affairs. He remembers: "No school for three weeks due to heavy snowfalls. Our host was a post office telephone engineer, and we used to go with him to remote gun sites, and to a hotel that was the headquarters for assembling convoys in the River Thames." At 18, Brown joined the Royal Air Force.