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Rails, Tales & Sales
GREETINGS FROM THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE, where Marilee, Percy and I are bracing for another hazy, hot and humid summer. Weather complaints notwithstanding, this is among our favorite times of the year as longer days mean paid “date nights” recording concerts for a local TV station, my own live programs on regional railroads and selling merchandise at vendor tables. We bid a fond farewell to my trusty, rusty 2008 Corolla last November and will be a one-car family until Marilee takes the plunge with a shiny new vehicle and I take possession of her cream puff 2009 Honda Fit (with CD player) and plenty of cargo room. Other than missing a multi-disk changer and a quieter ride, there may be a good decade left in this practical hunk of metal.
We quietly entered the 21st century in March after exceedingly difficult situations requiring something more than our antiquated flip-phones. Marilee and I are gradually learning the ropes on these wonderful devices which simplified applications for Medicare and other internet-based situations. Tell-Tale customers may note quicker response times now that I’m not chained to a desktop PC for e-mails!
Central Vermont Railway’s Burlington & Lamoille Railroad: Queen City to Cambridge fulfilled a nearly sixty-year dream for its worldwide expert, Jerry Fox. Tell-Tale Productions took this 222-page beauty to the finish line last November when I combined our resources and completed the last two chapters in time for a well-received Christmas offering. Over the years, the passing of revered railroad historians has increased the volume of calls, e-mails, requests for material and information from those who would have been better served by the likes of my father, Robert C. Jones, friends Jim Shaughnessy, Steve Mumley, Jack Thode, Ed Haley, and others from Vermont to Colorado. During the past year, I have discussed rail history on several TV shows and honored with Vermont Historical Society’s “Jim Jones Vault” with digitized versions of Tell-Tale rail documentaries designed to be accessible for future generations. The nation’s 250th anniversary led to my hiring as the keynote speaker for Vermont Humanities Council’s railroad presentations. Just this afternoon, I wrote and sent the Foreword for Chris Coyle’s upcoming autobiography, of sorts, Trains and Me. The beat goes on.
Tell-Tale Productions, for all intents and purposes, began during my 1990s Colorado residency as I researched and authored a pair of prairie rail books for Sundance, Ltd. of Denver. My first book, Denver & New Orleans: In the Shadow of the Rockies covered Colorado’s least known, original standard-gauge mainline from Denver to Pueblo, via a roundabout route east of the Divide. Technological advances made it possible to attach those cumbersome camcorders to a tripod and record trains as I freely moved about snapping Kodachrome 64 stills. Many of you have seen our popular collection of forty titles which were produced between 2003 and 2019. In recent years, I have been encouraged to publish the best slides, which cover virtually every stick of rail in the Centennial State, for five Colorado in Color books. I began with Union Pacific, Colorado Specific and D&RGW: Rio Grande Finale. The Southern Pacific story arrives in August, then Santa Fe and Burlington Northern as time and funds permit. Unlike DVDs, books demand far more investment and careful consideration. You don’t just call the printer and ask for another 2 or 3. Therefore, we’re starting with a (hopefully) conservative 100 books per title and have Mary Dearborn, owner of REPRO Print, Jake, Dean and Susan roll digital presses when demand, funds and inventory make sense. All books are signed and numbered. Special thanks to Ron’s Books for selling our products and making them available to their loyal customers. Lee and Ellie’s full-page advertising in traditional publications and relentless lugging of heavy books to train shows deserve your support. I’m also grateful to both Ron’s and Philippe of Club Train Direct for selling outside the U.S.
Pete Land, of Tamarack Media Cooperative, Inc., has dutifully maintained the Tell-Tale Productions website for the best part of twenty years. We met, quite literally, “by accident.” In this too good to be true story, it was a rainy night in Winooski, Vermont and I’d parked my car at St. Michaels College, who hosted our monthly railroad club meetings. I returned to my vehicle, a few hours later. To my surprise, a crunched piece of paper was taped to the door handle. The hand-written note, scribed on the back of a grocery store receipt, contained an apology, contact information and offer to pay for damages to my nearly ten-year-old car’s front end. Since it was dark and rainy—I took a close look the next day and bought replacement parts for $39 and change. I was anxious to call the honest stranger, “Pete,” with good news. In our chat, I mentioned being a local radio personality and videographer, with a labor-of-love obsession for creating and selling railroad media. It just so happened that Pete specialized in web design and understood my need for an economical site and affordable marketing consultant. Years later, we still chuckle at the memory of that first encounter and how cool it was to have met “by accident.” I’ve known Pete now for two decades, witnessed his wonderful marriage to Emily, birth of two children, and adorable black lab, Stanley. Money can’t buy the life-changing people, places and experiences Marilee and I have met on this journey. Thanks for coming along for the ride!
—James R. “Jim” Jones
We quietly entered the 21st century in March after exceedingly difficult situations requiring something more than our antiquated flip-phones. Marilee and I are gradually learning the ropes on these wonderful devices which simplified applications for Medicare and other internet-based situations. Tell-Tale customers may note quicker response times now that I’m not chained to a desktop PC for e-mails!
Central Vermont Railway’s Burlington & Lamoille Railroad: Queen City to Cambridge fulfilled a nearly sixty-year dream for its worldwide expert, Jerry Fox. Tell-Tale Productions took this 222-page beauty to the finish line last November when I combined our resources and completed the last two chapters in time for a well-received Christmas offering. Over the years, the passing of revered railroad historians has increased the volume of calls, e-mails, requests for material and information from those who would have been better served by the likes of my father, Robert C. Jones, friends Jim Shaughnessy, Steve Mumley, Jack Thode, Ed Haley, and others from Vermont to Colorado. During the past year, I have discussed rail history on several TV shows and honored with Vermont Historical Society’s “Jim Jones Vault” with digitized versions of Tell-Tale rail documentaries designed to be accessible for future generations. The nation’s 250th anniversary led to my hiring as the keynote speaker for Vermont Humanities Council’s railroad presentations. Just this afternoon, I wrote and sent the Foreword for Chris Coyle’s upcoming autobiography, of sorts, Trains and Me. The beat goes on.
Tell-Tale Productions, for all intents and purposes, began during my 1990s Colorado residency as I researched and authored a pair of prairie rail books for Sundance, Ltd. of Denver. My first book, Denver & New Orleans: In the Shadow of the Rockies covered Colorado’s least known, original standard-gauge mainline from Denver to Pueblo, via a roundabout route east of the Divide. Technological advances made it possible to attach those cumbersome camcorders to a tripod and record trains as I freely moved about snapping Kodachrome 64 stills. Many of you have seen our popular collection of forty titles which were produced between 2003 and 2019. In recent years, I have been encouraged to publish the best slides, which cover virtually every stick of rail in the Centennial State, for five Colorado in Color books. I began with Union Pacific, Colorado Specific and D&RGW: Rio Grande Finale. The Southern Pacific story arrives in August, then Santa Fe and Burlington Northern as time and funds permit. Unlike DVDs, books demand far more investment and careful consideration. You don’t just call the printer and ask for another 2 or 3. Therefore, we’re starting with a (hopefully) conservative 100 books per title and have Mary Dearborn, owner of REPRO Print, Jake, Dean and Susan roll digital presses when demand, funds and inventory make sense. All books are signed and numbered. Special thanks to Ron’s Books for selling our products and making them available to their loyal customers. Lee and Ellie’s full-page advertising in traditional publications and relentless lugging of heavy books to train shows deserve your support. I’m also grateful to both Ron’s and Philippe of Club Train Direct for selling outside the U.S.
Pete Land, of Tamarack Media Cooperative, Inc., has dutifully maintained the Tell-Tale Productions website for the best part of twenty years. We met, quite literally, “by accident.” In this too good to be true story, it was a rainy night in Winooski, Vermont and I’d parked my car at St. Michaels College, who hosted our monthly railroad club meetings. I returned to my vehicle, a few hours later. To my surprise, a crunched piece of paper was taped to the door handle. The hand-written note, scribed on the back of a grocery store receipt, contained an apology, contact information and offer to pay for damages to my nearly ten-year-old car’s front end. Since it was dark and rainy—I took a close look the next day and bought replacement parts for $39 and change. I was anxious to call the honest stranger, “Pete,” with good news. In our chat, I mentioned being a local radio personality and videographer, with a labor-of-love obsession for creating and selling railroad media. It just so happened that Pete specialized in web design and understood my need for an economical site and affordable marketing consultant. Years later, we still chuckle at the memory of that first encounter and how cool it was to have met “by accident.” I’ve known Pete now for two decades, witnessed his wonderful marriage to Emily, birth of two children, and adorable black lab, Stanley. Money can’t buy the life-changing people, places and experiences Marilee and I have met on this journey. Thanks for coming along for the ride!
—James R. “Jim” Jones
