E. L. Moore's Kelley's Folly

[E. L. Moore's Kelley's Folly: J. R. Fisher collection]

Kelley's Folly appeared in an article entitled Kelley's Folly: a mill published in the January 1979 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

Like The Button Works, Kelley's Folly is one of E. L. Moore's late period projects - two years later than The Button Works. Mr. Moore was 79 when he built this model.

The construction article is one of his more idiosyncratic. There's a long and fascinating introduction about how Fred Kelley's ancestor and his met long ago in North Carolina. Is any of it true? Is it all made up? My guess it there's some truth, but it's mixed with a significant dollop of imagination.

And there's the building itself. A cursory glance suggests it's a house, but the article's subtitle emphasizes it's a mill. 

And then there's the colour. The article is all black-and-white photos and although the painting is described it gives no sense of what the model looks like. It's quite striking.

I don't know if independent observers would think the weathering is realistic in comparison to today's techniques, but I like it. It pulls it out of the masses of greys and browns and makes a distinctive model. Where The Button Works was a competent and humourous model, Kelley's Folly gives a sense that he was still up for more challenging works and pushing things a bit.

We've seen this basic roof treatment in many of his models, but on this one he goes further with distressing it and detailing all those loose shingles.