The new NRHS magazine has an article on Jim Boyd. I didn’t know he’d gone round and round with Carstens to the point he got fired from the magazine.

What comes next will not go over well with some folks, but maybe will go over very well for others. You were warned.

Boyd was for real trains what John Allen was for models. He’d done stuff nobody else did at that point, but if he were still alive today, he’d see the hobby has raced right on by with people who were equally innovative in their own ways.
I’d heard from a few people over the years that someone would pitch an article idea to him, they’d get a rejection and then a year later, there would be the article they'd pitched, but all written by Boyd.
I’ve also heard that Boyd drove people off all the time. After reading that article, now I have an idea why
So, from an article written by a guy who knew him well, Boyd was the type to glad-hand people to get what he wanted, treated others like crap and made them think he was ‘bettering’ them as he did so?
Wow. They have a term for that-

I had a run-in with Boyd once, when I was stationed in Maryland for Uncle Sam. I was at the north end of the bridge over the Susquehanna River at Perryville in the summer of 1998. Another local photographer whose work was EXCELLENT (he never wanted to be published and only showed me his stuff because he was an Army vet as well; I was a 2LT at Aberdeen Proving Ground then) and I were at that end of the bridge at the depot there and this ancient/out of shape looking guy came up with two silent guys in tow and he started talking to us. We both had a ‘meh’ reaction to him and that seemed to tick him off. Finally, he declared who he was, as if we were supposed to soil ourselves at the revelation.
“Well, nice to meet you,” the other guy said in a clearly matter-of-factly way without even looking up from his camera, and I nodded. MAN that ticked him off. “Don’t you know WHO I AM?” He asked.
I said, “Yeah, I think I’ve seen your name in some magazines,” and I thought he was going to have a stroke at that. We weren’t fawning over him and I guess that drove him nuts. He kept looking back at his strap hangers, who kept looking at each other, neither ever saying a word.
Even by then, I’d been published plenty of times in other types of magazines and knew lots of guys who had been in print for the RR mags. It took way more to impress me than that, by this point in my life.
He made some kind of comment about what our photography must look like and the other guy (I can’t recall his name now, I used to run into often at the bridge. Older guy, really nice) told him something like, “Yeah, keep believing that, tubby. Just because I don’t care about getting published doesn’t mean you’re good enough to even carry my tripod for me,” and I started snickering. He tore out of there really fast. His two hanger-on guys never said word, following him like abandoned puppies.
I have some of his ‘trackside with’ books, mostly for the places and scenes he photographed that no longer exist. Sure, he was a good photographer but I really don’t get the God-like imagine with which he’s painted today.
I think this photo says it all. This was his happy place, being surrounded by adoring fans hanging on his every word:
http://railfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/rfr-jimboyd-picnic.jpg
The only times I was every one of those guys was when I was in my teens and didn't know anything about trains. That didn't last long. The other times were when I've talked with NASA astronauts (when a man who walked on the moon calls your house, you hang on every word) or the one time I was at a WW2 bomb group reunion where every other person at the table with me had earned the Medal of Honor.
A train magazine editor? Puh-lease.
I was surprised to realize that when I saw him, he would have been in his early 60s. He looked much older than that at the time.
But the bottom line was even in a article devoted to his greatness, Boyd came across as someone who didn't seem very likeable. I've known lots of people over the years who managed to built a 'posse' of people but treated people like second class citizens. Boyd sure seemed like one of those in person and in print.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum

I last ran into Jim at the 2010 NHRS Convention in Scranton. We had met a few times before; this time were in the Electric City Trolley Museum shop up by the ballpark and Jim's Steamtown book was fairly new. I asked him about his sources on the Electric City chapter and he gave me the name of someone who had been with the Trolley Museum for decades and knew his stuff.

Jim was pleasant and very nice every time.

Jim passed 12-31-2010.

Phil Mulligan

I usually try to stay out of these topics. However, I met Jim once at a Winterail show in Stockton, CA and had a conversation with him.

I'd tend to agree with Lee's feelings. A little bit of Jim went a long way.

Good or bad, let him rest in peace.

Wesley

Every last person out there is "human" to at least some extent. This means that, at some point, one way or the other, they are imperfect. Even Mother Teresa.

Everybody in railfandom and railroading is a flawed individual. The business histories of railroading are full of either the revelations or the character assassinations (a good history will have both) of noted people like Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, John Barriger III, Stuart Sanders, Robert Young, you name them. We can hardly expect magazine editors to be any different. Fans of literate writing and artistic rail photography gushed over David P. Morgan, but those who knew him well had certain reservations about him. Ditto Lucius Beebe, or Rogers E.M. Whittaker.

One unfortunate fact that will come out with any discussion of Boyd/Carstens was "The Black Hole of Newton," as Boyd's desk was called when it came to submissions. Many of us may have stories of sending in slides or photos, never to be seen again (until Steve Barry and others cleaned out the desks upon his dismissal). You learned not to submit irreplaceable images-and thank whatever deities you wish for digital photography now so you don't have to submit originals!

In a modest defence of Boyd (mind you, still waiting for my copy of the issue in question, along with a half-dozen other items in the &#@$!*& mail):

Boyd's job, like many others in this field, and some of the jobs he had previously (such as radio), rely on a degree of not only endless promotion and salesmanship, but self-promotion as well. For every Jim Boyd or Phil Hastings or Jim Shaughnessy or O. Winston Link or the like, there may be a half-dozen equally brilliant rail photographers out there whose work is never seeing the light of day--because they don't share their work or promote their photography. Boyd most likely had humility beaten out of him by the radio world. And then he worked in magazine publishing. Both of these fields are heavily salesmanship; you never let your guard down, and are always looking for an opportunity to promote your workplace/employer to gain listeners/viewers/readers and advertising. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, on the magazine/book racks and elsewhere. The relentless promoters get their phone-it-in history books in every library nationwide (Stephen Ambrose, anyone?); the humble struggle to get anyone to pay attention even at a train show. Do we really think whatever gets relentless promotion on television--Ken Burns, Andre Rieu, Riverdance, Celtic Women/Thunder, etc.--are the "best" out there? Ask anyone in those fields; popularity with a crowd under the spell of high production values and promotion doesn't always equal the "best" talent out there. Similarly, our field has no shortages of "fanboys" eager to slobber over the certain accomplishments of particular self-promoters, while those long in the field will chuckle at the fanboys and mutter "if only they knew the rest of the story....."

I also know from some in-person discussions I had with him that Boyd clashed heavily with Carstens on a particular aspect of the publishing world: Magazine distribution. Years ago (and to a much lesser extent in 2020), elements of organized crime had their fingers deep into the NYC-area-based national magazine distribution networks, the "system" that delivers all those periodicals (from the National Enquirer to the New Yorker to Beanie Babie World to New Scientist to Forbes) to your supermarket/newsstand/bookstore. This, archaically, was a holdover from pornographic "literature" distribution back when much of it was still deeply undercover, and highly lucrative. According to Boyd, Hal Carstens refused to do business with a couple of the largest nationwide distributors because of their business practices (including "pay to play" to some extent), and the result was, to Boyd's view, a serious hampering in the ability of Carstens/Railfan/RMC/etc. to compete with Kalmbach for shelf space, readership, etc.
I know from personal experience that at least some of what Boyd was alleging had some basis in reality, having later worked in magazine distributing and retailing. But I cannot attest as to whether the specifics of his grousing was "sour grapes" or real.

I think I'll go down and see if the Post Office has found my %(*&!@ PO Box yet.........

Sandy, I finally got my NHRS Bulletin yesterday (10-25).

One last Jim Boyd story. He was doing a presentation at a local NHRS Chapter Banquet and we got to talking afterward. Jim was a very visually-oriented person; that's why he was such a good photographer. We were discussing steam locomotive headlight locations and Jim had a CB&Q headlight bracket that had a drop platform. Essentially the center line of the headlight was lined up with the bolt holes mounting the headlight to the smokebox. The Reading T-1 came up, or T-Hog as Jim called them. They are handsome engines with skirted running boards, full jacketing over the smokebox, welded tender. But the headlight was on a straight bracket mounted with the bolt holes in the center of the smokebox door. It was above center, the Reading style for the biggest engines.

This got under Jim's skin. There's a certain symmetry to a smokebox front; it's circular, there's a concentric circular door and Jim wanted the headlight to be concentric with both of them. On a T-hog it was not. But Jim had that bracket. He talked it onto 2101 and the Chessie Steam Special now had a proper, symmetric, front end!

I asked Jim if he was familiar with Josserand's Rights of Trains, a bible of old-style railroading. He was. Did he know the rule book page on signals, in particular the use of lights on a locomotive as night signals: 2 white lights: extra train; 2 green lights;: another section following; headlight lighted: train moving forward. Well, Josserand had used a Reading diagram for this page and the headlight was clearly above center as on an as-built T-1.

Jim thought for a minute and we both had a huge laugh.

Mike Shafer's article covers Jim well, the good and the bad. The thing is, the people who knew him best liked him. Let's remember him that way: one of the good guys.

Phil Mulligan

Great story Phil!
You piqued my interest on the Reading T-1 headlight and I have to admit that the Chessie Steam Special version looks really good.

I threw together this quick compilation picture (from internet found pics) showing from left to right:
2101 in the scrapyard, 2101 as Chessie Steam Special, 2101 as American Freedom Train at the B&O Museum, and then the poor 2100 when it was in Washington state. I bet that headlight really irritated Jim!

Jim was a dedicated and helpful friend for four decades. His advice and guidance played a particularly important role in my own selection of career direction and hobby activity.

He did many memorable things. One of the most amazing was that he took his camera into an off-site EMD management meeting and took many photos of the group of people he was working with. It still amazes me that the supervisors let him do it. The photos would have been taken around 1970, and are a fascinating study fifty years later. If any of you have any doubts that fifty years are the "edge of history", here is some data to study (last names abbreviated for privacy):

Persons in Jim's photos, now deceased: Warren F.; Bruce B.; Robert F.; John G.; Armand L.; Edward W.; Edward S.; Ted V.; Rush P.; William H.; and of course the photographer Jim Boyd.

Persons in Jim's photos still alive at this time (2021): Dennis W.

After his departure from Carstens, I tried a number of times to convince him to do technical writing in the commuter railroad industry. He had the necessary experience and several friends could have helped him gain access. But he could not be pried away from his involvement in the railroad enthusiast book and article market, and finished out his working years that way.

Nice that there is an article, unfortunate that it took ten years after his death to get it into print..

PC

Not pretending to have known Jim Boyd well, but I did visit with him a few times at the old Steamtown fall get-togethers at Bellows Falls.
I found him to be a polite and pleasant man. He joined our Canuck crew for breakfast and we all had a good visit, doing the rounds of many railfanning subjects. I am sure he had an ego -- anyone producing a high quality magazine of international scope needs to have confidence in self. However, in our visits, there was no evidence of an overbearing ego or feeling of superiority from him.
We were all at Steamtown to enjoy steam -- most of it Canadian Pacific steam. As an aside, Steamtown at Bellows Falls was a remarkable place, and the annual railfan weekends were a must-do event. There were six or seven engines in steam one year! Through his night photo sessions, Jim Boyd gave us the ability to record our experiences for later enjoyment.
Boyd was a good egg. It was nice to have met him and railfanned with him.