Sure, you can open her children’s books and read about The 1356, the steam locomotive that graces the north end of Higgins Avenue in Missoula.
But through the magic of computers, and a little patience while things download, you can also hear the brave engine chug and whistle, a wolf howl, a telegraph click, the horrible crackle of the Fires of 1910 and more.
“There are kids’ talking books that you can download for three or four bucks, and they’ll read the book to you,” said Nixon, a writer who has lived in Missoula most of her life. “That takes a huge amount of memory, but it got me to thinking about sounds going with my book.”
She discovered, first, that she had the equipment and know-how to do just that and, second, that it’s a lot of fun to come up with the sound bytes.
“I can’t say that I’ve ever actually seen anything like what I ended up with, though it’s very likely it’s out there,” Nixon said. “If I thought of it I’m sure somebody else has.”
Nixon finished the cyberspace version of her second book “Isaac and the Magic Christmas Train” just in time for Christmas. It follows close on the heels of “The 1356: A Brave Engine (A Story About a Boy Who Loved Trains,” which is available in hardback, on compact disc and online.
The latter tells the story of a railroad station agent and his train-loving son Isaac, who is named after Nixon’s grandson and is inspired by her father Ron Nixon, a former Northern Pacific dispatcher and photographer. Photographs and illustrations from Ron Nixon’s collection at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman are sprinkled throughout, and are enhanced with others by Jeannine’s grandmother, Elizabeth, and her daughter, Cara McCoy.
Besides sound, Nixon’s interactive books provide click-on glossaries and links to related articles on other Web sites.
Her innovative books are part of a blitz of online railroad history material that Nixon is just getting launched.
For instance, you can read the first chapter of the Christmas book, “The Roundhouse,” then click on the first link on its companion site, a historic railroad tour, to see five pages of historic roundhouse photos and interviews with two Missoula roundhouse foremen.
Late last week, Nixon was adding installments to the online version of “Isaac and the Magic Christmas Train” and content to the accompanying historic tour site, which includes such virtual stops as the Missoula Mercantile (where Isaac finds a sled), Missoula hotels and the old Bluebird Theater.
In the story, Isaac goes shopping with his father on Christmas Eve. The book ends with a magic midnight train ride on The 1356.
Trains have always been a part of Nixon’s life, but the idea of writing and otherwise presenting railroad stories didn’t hit her until the day she walked with Isaac, her 6-year-old grandson, to the engine on North Higgins. It struck her that the only connections Isaac had with trains were through children’s books based on British railroads.
“There aren’t enough good stories, important stories about American trains and American railroad history,” Nixon said.
A graduate of the University of Montana’s creative writing program who received her masters of fine arts at the University of Iowa, Nixon knew that children could be drawn in if trains possessed personality.
So it is that in “A Brave Engine,” The 1356 locomotive whispers to Isaac’s father and winks at both of them. It sings a mantra - “I am brave. I am strong. I am not afraid” - that helps make it across the towering Marent Trestle on Evaro Hill, and is especially comforting when the engine is called upon to save Isaac and his family from the Fire of 1910.
“If it can be done in a way that it’s for kids and for adults, so that the families can share the stories, then I guess that would be my ideal goal,” Nixon said.
Even more imagination is at play in “The Magic Christmas Train,” as wild animals come on board and leave with gifts for people in need.
“It’s got this hopefully subtle enough message of sharing - that Christmas should not be this time of greed,” said Nixon.
Her books have other messages, about community and family, about generational traditions, and about independence.
“Those railroad guys were really independent and tough-minded people,” she said. “They had a real difficult job and to be good at your job you had to be able to make decisions right away.”
All aboard!
The hardcover version and compact disc of Jeannine Nixon’s “The 1356: A Brave Engine (A Story About a Boy Who Loved Trains)” is available in Missoula at Fact and Fiction, 220 N. Higgins Ave., and at Shakespeare and Co., 103 S. Third St W. The book costs $14.95 and the CD $7.99. To order online, or to download “The 1356” and “Isaac and the Magic Christmas Train,” go to missoula1356.com.
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Dave Sprau wrote on Dec 22, 2008 12:43 PM: