time, joining Carstens Publications. And then three years later came the magazine that you are now holding in your hands, the magazine that Jim was born to lead. Now his sphere of gener- ous influence jumped from hundreds to thousands. As the consummate railfan, through his magazine of the same name, he built an interactive communi- ty that had credibility, focus, and ele- vated respect. Above all were the al- most uncountable number of friendship circles that would not have been were it not for Jim. Fast forward to the early days of


2011... Jim is gone, dying suddenly and unexpectedly on New Year’s Eve 2010. He departed as swiftly as that first night he swept into the Forest City Model Railroad Club. That his com- manding presence had vanished with him was all too evident at the two fu- neral services held for him, one in New Jersey and one in Illinois. Jim was still the center of attention, but not in the way we like to remember him. Howev- er, the width and breadth of his influ- ence was unmistakable, as dozens and dozens of people from all walks of life filed in to pay their last respects and to exchange tales of how they had met Jim, traveled with him, learned from


ABOVE: Jim Boyd and Mike Schafer chasing a 1970 fan trip with Southern 4501. MIKE SCHAFER COLLECTION BELOW: Back in the early 1960s, Jim’s railroad night photography wowed us no end, and we were soon eager to learn the techniques of time exposures combined with fill-in flash. Not that Jim invented the techniques, but he certainly popularized them among railfan photographers. With his leadership capabilities, Jim was a natural at organizing group photo shoots like this one at Cass Scenic Railroad at Cass, West Virginia, in the spring of 1983. JIM BOYD PHOTO


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