Tracks from Texas to Tokyo
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“Tracks from Texas to Tokyo” (Ballpark Impressions, 2006) is the story of model railroad industry icon Bobbye Hall.
Mrs. Hall rose to prominence in the hobby industry and NMRA during a 55-year career with Hall’s Hobby House and Hallmark Models, Inc. “Tracks from Texas to Tokyo” chronicles her rise from the early days of Hall’s Hobby House in Dallas, Texas, to a popular line of imported brass model trains. Mrs. Hall, who was inducted into the Model Railroad Industry Association’s Hall of Fame in 1996, retired from the business in 2001 at age 92.
A native of Whitney, Texas, she began writing the book along with co-author Tim Blackwell shortly after closing her shop on Bryan Street in Dallas on Dec. 31, 2001. In the book, Mrs. Hall relates stories about how she and her husband, Buddy, took a former ice cream parlor just north of downtown Dallas in 1946 and converted it into her first hobby shop.
“Numerous stains from the malts and milkshakes were noticeable on the walls and terrazzo floor,” she writes. “After twenty-five gallons of muriatic acid and hand scrubbing, I was assured that I was the only living thing there.”
Because hobbies such as model trains and airplanes were scarcely available during World War II, Mrs. Hall relied on an inventory of antique furniture to sustain the business in its early days. She ultimately established Hall’s Hobby House as one of the premier model railroad stores in the country. She was an industry leader and traveled the world, meeting royalty and celebrities, and forging relationships that lasted a lifetime.
The book also details the rise of Hallmark Models, Inc., which offered an exclusive line of brass imported locomotives and cars of southwestern U.S. railroads, and how Mrs. Hall became the first woman to successfully work with Japanese manufacturers.
Keith Brewer’s HO Wichita Falls Division, Fort Worth & Denver Rwy. is not just the culmination of years of research of his hometown railroad but the backstory after he took up model railroading. It wasn’t until several years after leaving Bowie, TX, that he understood the importance of the FW&D beyond its everyday whistles. Today Brewer's point-to-point 14x20 layout, a scaled down version of a much larger pike in another home, pays homage to the freight business. Short main line trains haul cattle, grain, gravel and agricultural products along the route from Fort Worth, Decatur, Bowie, Henrietta and Wichita Falls, TX. The action is heavy but eases when the crew breaks midway through an operating session. A tasty cobbler, cake or banana pudding is just the right recipe for fun.
With a variety of options, N-scale modular model railroading is enjoying growth.This summer in Chattanooga, TN, NRail, which embraces all forms of N scale, will head the hobby’s quest to build the world’s largest modular layout at the NMRA National Convention. It’s all but assured that the previous record will fall to a connected layout that will occupy 10,000 square feet of the city’s convention center.
A fierce winter storm brought out model railroad and rail enthusiasts by the thousands for the opening day of January's annual Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield, MA. A single-day record of 18,432 filled the aisles at the Eastern States Exposition before some 18 inches of snow blanketed New England. U-series General Electric locomotives topped new product announcements.
Coordinated run-throughs that connect two or more Class I railroads is a proven solution for moving freight from coast to coast; one of Micro-Trains last N-scale releases, the Greenville Railgon is worth its weight in hauling heavy loads; the elegance and food of the dining car experience spoiled hungry riders during the heyday of passenger rail transportation; Union Pacific inks a record deal to upgrade its locomotives. And more!
