Thursday, September 17, 2015

E. L. Moore's Fertilizer Plant: 1 of 55 'discovered' E. L. Moore originals

[E.L. Moore's Fertilizer Plant; J. Collier collection]

Recently Debra and I drove down to Raleigh, North Carolina to meet with two gentlemen who own collections of E. L. Moore buildings. Long-story-short, the collections, and the trip, were revelatory. 

One collection consisted of E. L. Moore buildings that were part of the in-store model railroad at Jim Collier's hobby shop in Raleigh's North Hills Mall (the photos of a small number of E. L. Moore buildings I posted back in the spring - here, here, here and here - were from that collection). E. L. Moore was a good friend of the owner and bought all his model building supplies there. Jim Collier's son, Jim Jr., and his wife generously hosted the meet-up. The second collection, owned by J. R. Fisher, was once owned by E. L. Moore's friend, Fred Kelley
I was blown away. With both collections combined, there were 55 buildings, 11 outhouses and 2 boats. I'd hazard a guess and say this was the largest known assemblage of E. L. Moore structures in decades. Most were in excellent condition. Some had a little damage, but nothing serious. All were well preserved. Some had been packed away and hadn't seen the light of day in over 30 years. I spent the better part of 6 hours photographing them all: around 1400 images when the dust settled. Over the coming weeks and months I'll be posting pictures of every structure.
I saw lots of things. I learned lots of things. I'll touch on them as I post the images, but I'll start with some of the most striking.
It was obvious that the pictures that appeared in the model railroad press all those years ago didn't always do justice to the models. The first impression of seeing them in person was as if had never seen them before - those relatively lo-fi magazine images of that '50s to '70s era were just approximations and not always good ones. In comparison to in person viewing, digital photography, and, not to mention, colour, those magazine images give an inaccurate impression as to build quality. It's not that Mr. Moore's photos were sub-standard, but the ability of the magazine printing processes to reproduce those images with suitable fidelity was often not there, especially if the mag's paper was on the pulpy side.

As well, seeing the models in person made it clear which projects were brilliant works of modelling and which were mundane. The Planters building is far from mundane, and in the picture below Jim points out one of many interesting details - a few missing boards in a side elevation.
But - here's a problem - photographing individual models by themselves, without scenery, accessories or other props as I did, stripped them of some qualities that made an E.L.Moore project an E. L. Moore project. His articles consist of a model of course, but often include a story in the text, and that same story is communicated in the article's photos. The photos and the text combined told a story. His photos weren't simply beauty shots with figures and accessories added in for scale or colour; they did some heavy lifting; they also told the story. My photos don't have that. They focus on the models themselves without those important Moorian qualities. You'll see the craftsmanship, the colour, the detailing, but not necessarily the spirit of project. The message is: photographing the individual buildings brings some new things to light, but causes other important things to be lost.
That brings me back to the Planters building - which appeared as The Fertilizer Plant in the July '66 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. I had never paid it much attention. The article shows it off in the corner of a layout. Weird shape. Weird roof top add-ons. Weird image. But, not weird in person. In person, it's weirdly compelling. It's well built. It has an interesting and assertive presence with carefully executed details and touches. And that's true of many of the miniature buildings I saw and hopefully that will come across in future posts.

14 comments:

  1. Wow, what a find! I see what you mean about the Planters building, the loading dock is quite interesting with all its levels, and the roof top details add some much needed interest.

    Just one request, is it possible to post the images at a higher resolution so that we can see the smaller construction details more clearly?

    Looking forward to seeing the remaining 54!

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    1. Yes, I'll post higher res versions of the next ones. I've been concerned about page loading performance, but as I think about it some more, there shouldn't be a problem.

      I was quite impressed by the colour of the models since more-or-less all the published photos were in black-and-white. ELM was a much better colourist than I had imagined.

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    2. Blogger is actually pretty smart, it uses low-res images on the main page, but links through to the high resolution images when you click on the photos, so no worries about page speed there :)

      The high-res photos on the new articles are fantastic though, it was amazing to be able to zoom right in and see the individual balsa grain on the outhouse roof that accompanied the Elizabethan depot. I'd always wondered how the tiles from E L Moore's wood burning pen looked, and from these new photos I have to say they look pretty damned good!

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    3. Thanks Michael. Even after all these years I'm still learning about Blogger's features. ELM used the wood burning tool technique on many builds. I'm rather impressed by his application of it on the conical roof on the watertower (in the shortline terminal post).

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  2. Some interesting revelations here! It is no surprise that the buildings hadn't been given the best start because of the indifferent repro and paper quality of the magazines of the day. I wonder, though, if that gave the imagination of the reader the chance to embellish and add something else to E L Moore's superb creations. I am glad, at any rate, that the real models proved that they were every bit as good if not better than how we had imagined them to be all those years ago.What an amazing find all these models are and I look forward to reading more about them in due course.

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    1. That's something I hadn't considered. Digital images in our era at times don't leave much breathing room for the viewer's imagination - which can be good or bad. Surprisingly, I spent so much time taking pictures of them, I didn't have too much time to carefully look at each one, so viewing the pictures shows me new things too.

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  3. Odd question, but humor me, please. What did they smell like?

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    1. Ok :-)

      Well, some of them smelt like 1983, because many had been wrapped up in 1983 toilet paper - Charmin from the looks it - and given that ELM specialized in outhouse modelling, I guess that was a wise choice of packing material. But, it did do the trick and keep the models in excellent condition. Although to me 1983 smelt like a Plymouth that needed a tune-up, those models were smell free.

      A few had a slight smell of paper mould, likely from the cardboard boxes they were stored in. But, it was only a trace smell. Others had no noticeable smell. Debra is very sensitive to smells, and she didn't have any comments in that regard, but I'll check with her to be on the safe side :-)

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    2. Thank you! Smell, as you are probably aware, is one of the most powerful triggers of memory. I can remember what the smoke fluid, track cleaner, grass mat, etc. smelled like from my earliest childhood layout. I remember what the Wayside Antiques Christmas store smelled like, and the massive HO layout that was upstairs, and even though they had different odors, there is still a close association.

      Anyway, my question about smell had more to do with the materials Moore used - the paints and stains, the cardstock and balsa, after all these years - if they still had any residual smells or had acquired any from mildew, mold, etc. I just recently went through some old trains packed away from my grandfather's house, and naturally they still had some of those smells in the boxes. Ah, nostalgia.

      Thanks for employing all your senses in your quest to enlighten us about all things Moore!

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    3. The newest of the models dated from 1977, and the oldest were likely from the mid-1950s. So, they have had a very long time to out-gas. I asked Debra what she experienced, and she also said that she didn't notice any smells from the models. Although, some of the cardboard cartons had a slight mouldy smell. Many of the models, as well as being wrapped with toilet paper, were then put in plastic bags and then packed in the boxes with styrofoam peanuts, so odour transfer was likely minimal, and seemed like zero to us. I was given the HOJ POJ factory, and it is wrapped as described and has no smell. I plan to repair it and rebuild the accompanying diorama over the winter, so I'll no doubt be adding my own smells to the mix :-)

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  4. This is fabulous. I had no idea the stuff was still around.

    About 10 years ago some friends and I decided we would make a laser kit from an E L Moore design, we chose Bunn's Seed and Feed as the one.

    I would be happy to supply a photo of the result. I have pix of a couple slightly different builds.

    In addition, if anyone is interested, I still have some unsold unopened kits available, but not many.

    I have also been working the CAD drawings to produce Rube's Rhubarb. They are essentially complete. I have a couple of partial builds from a few years ago I probably have pictures of them, too.

    And I have been doing the CAD work for some additional Moore designs, which, one of these days, when I have my own laser, I will finish up and actually be able to sell. One day...

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    1. Thanks. I'd be interested in seeing your Bunn's Feed and Seed photos. You might also be interested in this post on the manuscript that was submitted for that project by ELM to MR: http://www.30squaresofontario.blogspot.ca/2015/03/the-e-l-moore-files-grandpa-bunns-feed.html
      It turns out that Bunn's was one of the models I saw and it was in good condition - I'll try and post those photos soon.

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  5. Also: I'd be willing to pay you for a disc with all the full-res color photos...they would darn sure help my CAD work. I have virtually all the articles at this point, but color pix would be extra-fabulous!

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    1. Thank you for your interest! Hopefully, the images posted here will create enough general interest to warrant a comprehensive book about Mr. Moore and his work. Until then I hope the blog pictures will suffice.

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