E. L. Moore's Central Warehouse

[E. L. Moore's Central Warehouse; J. Collier collection]

Although the brick enginehouse is impressive and the focal point of the 1900-era shortline terminal, my favourite buildings on that diorama are the supporting businesses that are strung out along the right-most siding. All are interesting, but the Central Warehouse is likely the best, as well as being the stand-up comedian of the bunch - or maybe, more accurately, the propped-up comedian :-)

It was packed away in 1983 and hadn't seen the light-of-day since. I've seen a few of those old movies where archaeologists open up a mummy's tomb and then all manner of trouble starts, so I figured I'd snap the unboxing in case anything odd happened during the process :-)

The first step was to carefully cut through the tape.

Folding back the end flaps revealed the toilet paper wrapped model.

Now the mummy - er, model - was extracted from the box.

Begun unwrapping the outer layers.

With the outer layer removed, some more unwrapping.

The ends of model were are now exposed - things were looking promising.

As more layers were peeled back, the shape became clearer.

Repositioned to remove the final layer.

Done! And there it is. 32 years later and looking fine. 

All joking aside, the preservation job done on the model by wrapping it in toilet paper and boxing it up did the trick and kept the model in fine shape.

Plans for the model were given in the Turn backward, O Time article about the 1900-era shortline terminal that appeared in the January '67 of Model Railroader, but there wasn't an article devoted to its construction.

I like the variation in colour across the model.

The small extension is un-tilted and gives some contrast to the tilted main building.

Like most E. L. Moore buildings, the roof lifts off to show a finished interior.

The roofs are built using his standard technique of solid slab triangular trusses to give strength. Both roofs fit well and haven't warped over time.

It looks like one truss was made from a scrap of wood that had some stones scribed into it. 

The extension roof is built using the same technique.