I seem to recall that Jim Boyd presented the slide show version of his "The Men Who Styled the Streamliners" article to at least one NRHS National Convention. Does anyone recall if he ever showed that program to an R&LHS National Convention?

Not asking about monthly chapter meetings here, just the conventions.

PC

I wonder if the slides, or perhaps text of the narration, for this presentation survive anywhere. I only know of the two-part article in Railfan and Railroad in the mid-'80s.

Jim had the program intact prior to his passing in 2010.

I have asked the person who should know whether it is still intact or not.

And I believe I know who made an audio tape of the narration and will probably see them next week, so I will inquire about it. If a good clean audio recording taken from a podium microphone survives, along with the slides, it would be nice to see this program presented again.

It is one of those programs that is almost universally applicable for showing to any historical society that studies and documents a railroad that bought new EMD locomotives in the 1930s-1950s period.

PC

And doesn't this all remind us that we should be video recording these presentations!

And PLEASE if you video a presentation, properly mike the presenter, and use a good tripod for the camera, I have seen too many videos that make me seasick, and sound like the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon.

-Hudson

The issues involved in videotaping a presented program (speakers approval, copyright concerns, music licensing, effects of audience interaction, etc.) are actually a hot topic item right now in many museums and perhaps deserve another discussion.

PC

I asked about Jim’s original program slides, they may exist, but are not in program organization. I suspect they are not in very good condition if they survive – I scanned many slides for him and his collection had problems with mold and fungus due to his home being near a lake.

When he assembled the original program in 1984-1985, I provided some of the images and reviewed the program with him. Based on what I recall from those and his subsequent event showings, I can reconstruct this program, and probably with better images for PowerPoint use than the original slides would allow at this time. I am going to do that in case a narration tape surfaces.

Jim’s narration followed the article quite closely, and if no tape survives, it would still be possible to write a script for the program from the article that would be a close approximation of Jim’s original narration.

PC

If I can be of assistance with editing, production, or post, please let me know.

We'd love to have that program for the annual meeting of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, Inc. I am sure there would be many others.

Thanks very much for your offer to help.

PC

Update added 6/27/2017: With the help of several EMD retirees who have excellent collections of EMD commercial art, it was possible to assemble an updated PowerPoint version of Jim's program that includes almost all the essential elements from the original article series. My thanks to the several RYPN participants who offered help.

The program is being "test" shown to a few interested groups to generate feedback and allow refinement of the narration. As I have done with several previous programs, some of these groups are general public with no particular railfan interests, in an effort to make the program suitable for the widest possible audience.

Once some experience is gained with the program, it is likely that narration will be embedded in each slide. The resulting format may be manual slide advance with individual audio clips for each slide, thus eliminating the need to travel with the program.

PC

Update Added 8/25/2017: The program was shown last night for the North Shore Model Railroad Club in Wakefield, Mass. Comments were collected and a few edits will be made based on the feedback received. In the long term the plan remains to equip the program with embedded narration.

Update Added 10/20/2017: The program was shown in a "final" form to the Amherst Railway Society on October 11, 2017. Audience was approximately 80. My thanks to those who offered help and those who provided help to make this possible.

PC

Some of the new modern scanners can digitally remove damage that has been caused by mold and fungus. My parents have recently started to scan old photos for a book on my family's history. Just one of the scanners that they have for this project is the Epson Perfection V800 photo and color scanner. The scanner although expensive, is worth it if you are going to be scanning a lot of photos, slides, documents, or anything else really.

Update 7/4/2018:

The reconstructed version of Jim Boyd's THE MEN WHO STYLED THE STREAMLINERS will be shown as the afternoon program at Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Members Day on Saturday, September 29, 2018.

Added 12/8/2019:

The reconstructed Jim Boyd program was shown multiple times during the last two years to groups that expressed interest in hosting it. No additional showings are planned.

PC

I recently received several questions about whether this program will be available in 2022, these perhaps a result of the recent discussion of the upcoming EMD 100th Anniversary.

If I do any programs next year, I would prefer to do some other topics that document a larger scope of company history, the product line, and recognize more of the people who worked there.

PC

Since the program has apparently now been digitized, is there a reason it couldn't be put on YouTube where a wider audience could see it?

Probably some copyrights...