[E. L. Moore's HOJPOJ Mfg. Co.; J. D. Lowe collection]
While we're on the subject of unusual industries, E. L. Moore's HOJPOJ Mfg. Co., which appeared in the April '68 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, is in that category. However, it's unusual in a more conventional way than the Molasses Mine and Factory: the industry is conventional, but the building is on the odd side. It's - as it's name clearly states - a hodgepodge of additions.
This model was one of the E. L. Moore builds that I learned of its existence back in the spring. It was a part of Jim Collier's collection, and at the meet-up he generously gave it to me as a gift. My plan is to repair it, and rebuild the diorama that appeared in the construction article that E. L. Moore made.
The model is not in bad condition. There are a few details that have come off over the years, but it appears that none are missing - they were captured and stored along with the model in a small box.
After studying the article a bit, it looks like the tall smokestack is the defining piece. The extended guy-wires cover a lot of real estate. They also define the size of the diorama and the placement of items within.
That grey wall is just raw balsa painted grey. I would have thought it also should have been sheeted with metal; however, I suspect that this was done to meet a deadline as that side wasn't photographed in the article. I'll have to read the article again in more detail to see what's going on.
The model made the 1,345 km trip up from Raleigh ensconced in a carton of styrofoam peanuts in the backseat of our car.
There was no additional damage and the pieces made it here safe-and-sound.
Those are the detached pieces up front in the photo. It should simply be a matter of carefully gluing them back in place.
The main brick building has a light in it and I was pleased to find that it still works!
I know it's only October, but I've got Christmas on my mind. I want to get this model repaired and the display built by Christmas, and get my neglected layout back in good shape and operational by then too.
That's quite a road trip! makes my 500 mile trips to Aberdeen seem quite tame in comparison. I hadn't seen this model before- it's marvellous! I love the ad-hoc nature of the frontage, and as you say, the rear was probably not detailed because of the deadline. We can learn much from these modela in terms of selective detailing, I think. Thanks for a continuing, fascinating series of posts!
ReplyDeleteThanks Iain! It was a small adventure for us to drive down there – I’m thinking that next time I’ll fly J But, everyone was friendly and generous with their time and access to these models. The odd thing I now realize is that although I spent around 6 hours taking photos, I was so busy I didn’t spend a lot of time actually looking at and studying the models, so looking back on the photos I see things I didn’t when I was looking at them in person. Seeing this large a number and variety of his works, in colour and from many different angles, I think casts his work in a whole new light. Frankly, I think the quality and inventiveness of his work is better than those old cameras and old magazine reproductions of ELM’s photos had lead me to believe.
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