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COWCATCHER MAGAZINE

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.

Current Issue: July/August 2025

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Katy Flavor

Growing up in Central Texas in the 1980s, David Heyde loved big machinery. Only natural for a boy surrounded by a mighty river complemented by steamboats, an active Army airfield and regional airport, and equipment that tended row upon row of corn, soybeans and other grains. What loomed largest, though, was the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. Heyde’s MKT Central Texas Subdivision, a compact but bold HO-scale layout, captures on two levels around the walls the zest of the iconic railroad that ran from Kansas City and St. Louis to Galveston, TX, and the Gulf of Mexico. All while maximizing space in what once was a one-car garage.

Holding Steady

This year’s National Narrow Gauge Convention is coming home, where it all began 45 years ago. The Mudhens will once again have a large presence at the convention Sept. 3-6 in St. Louis. Over the last four decades, their rise has been rather circuitous. While developing national appeal in narrow-gauge circles, these dedicated modelers from St. Louis to Arizona to Texas have persevered.

Personal Switcher

The Kansas City West Bottoms Railroad (KCRR) debuted in early March, with no small impact on a parcel of track along the former Missouri Pacific Railroad near the Kansas-Missouri line. What’s turning heads, says KCRR president Rich Duncan, is that the tiny Class III short line is rewriting the railroad marketing narrative on first-mile, last-mile service with a new level of dedicated switching so its three customers can better connect to the Union Pacific.

Plus

Columnist Michelle Kempema writes that model railroaders and railfans can preserve their legacy for a good cause, railroads once ran special trains in enormous size and variety and autonomous battery-electric rail cars are being piloted on two Georgia short line railroads. Also, one modeler looking for something unique for his layout found just the thing in an old model railroad magazine - plans to scratch build a rock bunker. And more!