Jim Boyd, active with a number of Carstens publications, and a prolific, author
and excellent railroad photographer, just passed away. It seems we have lost
more than our share of great folks in the hobby the last several months.
I particularly liked his “Illinois Central, Monday Mornin’ Rails” book. I
understand that Jim was also a deep sea diver, and IMHO, he and Tony Koester
made Railroad Model Craftsman more interesting in the late 60s early 70s with
more prototype information for modeling. As a young teenager I could also check
out the column to find out where the last F units were operating.
My condolences to his family and friends. I feel fortunate to have met him in
person once and though Jim did not know me, he was personable.
I’m sorry to hear of his passing. I have noticed him as the narrator and writer for many railfan movies that they show on the Locomotives and Trains program on the RFD-TV channel. You could almost always count on the video crew catching Jim with his camera in hand taking pictures of the passing train along side the other railfans. He will be missed.
My condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Jim Boyd. While I never met Mr. Boyd, I enjoyed his articles in Model Railroad Craftsman and other publications. I felt that I got to know him through Tony Koester and the Allegany Midland. He will be missed. I am certain that he is running the "Big Model Railroad in the Sky".
Jim was certainly a great contributor to our hobby. His insight will be missed.
I met Jim Boyd back in the late 1960’s when he worked on the Illinois Central out of Freeport, Illinois. He made a couple trips with my father, IC Conductor Jack Althoff. Dad told me that he had a “new guy” that asked a lot of questions but did his job and didn’t allow his interest in trains to get in the way of doing what he needed to do and staying safe. Jim stopped in a number of times to the Stephenson Society of Model Railroad Trainmen, the model railroad club that met in the basement of the Reed Park Pavilion there in Freeport, IL. I was a junior member at the time. His schedule kept him from being an active member in that club, but he was always welcome and was clearly knowledgeable about the modeling aspects of railroads as well. Years later, I saw him trackside a number of times around Blue Ridge, Virginia when J611 and A1218 were running.
May his family take comfort in knowing that Jim got to do what he really enjoyed in life, and his skills encouraged so many others to be better at photography, history, and modeling.
I think that this evening I’ll be paging through one of his wonderful books…
Never met him, but he is responsible for my getting into model railroading in a big way. The second model magazine I got was the October 1967 Railroad Model Craftsman (First was an MR, so don’t feel left out Kalmbach folks) which had his photo article about the Monon Railroad. From that point on, I was really, really hooked, more so than with the Lionel stuff I had previously.
I wish I could have met him to thank him about that, and many other articles he did later which kept the fires going.