Little Railroad Notebooks

I love my fountain pens, and certainly enjoy some good paper to write with them on. My hands-down favorite paper is Rhodia/Clairefontaine and my everyday notebook is their Webnotebook. I also love smaller "Field Notes" size notebooks and keep them around in various locations for quick jotting (and for the record, while I think Field Notes are cool--especially the fountain pen-rejecting Expedition(!)--my current favorite little book for size and writing quality is Nockco's Nikko Blue DotDash).

It's well-known that Field Notes were inspired by old agricultural notebooks. While I haven't found one of these original notebooks, I was delighted to find these like-new Railroad memo books from 1961.

DotDash, RR notebook, Field Notes, Life. Unplugged, and a Parker 51 Special

As you can see, they are smaller than "Field Notes Standard" (they measure approximately 4 1/2" x 2 1/2", and it appears that these were made for the American Brake Shoe Company.

For Better Railroading...

Each day has its own page, with a couple of memorandum pages, a 1962 calendar, conversion table, and ruler at the end.

Christmas Day, 1961!

I didn't even want to bend it all the way open for the picture.

So how is the paper? I couldn't bring myself to write on them. They were too pristine, and I have tons of other options available to me. So maybe they'll sit for another 55 years in my notebook drawer to be pulled out and admired periodically. Or maybe I'll change my mind at some point when curiosity overcomes me and I need to find out how well they take a fountain pen. It's not bad, actually. While it looks like cheap school notebook paper, it actually handles fountain pen ink surprisingly well and has a smooth texture. There was some feathering with the Falcon when I pressed on the flex nib a bit, and there is too much bleed through to make this a viable everyday option. Better to use a pencil with this notebook.