Bill Schopp and Streetcars through the Dowdy World

I’ve followed Michael Leddy’s Orange Crate Art for years, and have particularly enjoyed his Dowdy World posts. Dowdy World is his characterization of American culture as it was before certain forms of technology redefined everyday life. The dowdy world is a place with dictaphones, rotary phones, afternoon newspapers, "radio programs," and telegrams. In the dowdy world, a fountain pen is an everyday tool, not a jewel-laden collector's item. And given that Canada is America’s next door neighbour, there’s a certain applicability to life here during that time, but with some of its own planetary dynamics.

Model railroading saw its heyday in Dowdy World, coinciding as it did with the golden age of North American rail transportation. Although never a high-status pursuit, in that era model railroading was more a part of popular culture than it is today where it’s more of a specialist undertaking. Although, Dowdy World is celebrated in many of today’s model railroads.

Who was Dowdy World’s greatest model railroading writer? I’d say it was Bill Schopp, who according to his obituary in the June '74 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, wrote over 1000 articles on various model railroad subjects for Railroad Model Craftsman, Miniature Railroading, Toy Trains, Model Railroader and several British magazines. A few months later in Jan '75 it was reported in the RMC reader survey that in the most popular author category in fourth place despite fewer articles in recent times was the late Bill Schopp (and I know what you're thinking, E. L. Moore garnered fifth-place honors). He was probably the most prolific writer model railroading has produced, and, surprisingly, has no Wikipedia bio.

His most popular stories were likely those published under one of his nom de plumes, The Layout Doctor. Wearing that hat he proposed, critiqued, and analyzed just about every conceivable kind of model railroad layout. Prolific doesn’t begin to do justice to his energy and creativity. Here in the 21^st century his designs might have a little too much spaghetti in them for our palates, but one tasty thing a lot of his track plans did have was an integrated electric streetcar or interurban line. In those days, streetcar lines were often suggested as additions to model railroads whose owners were getting a little bored with their conventional layouts. Mr. Schopp on the other hand would logically integrate them right from the get go. He was no stranger to the trolley pole.

Bill Schopp on the right, and George Allen on the left in the early '50s*

Early to mid Dowdy World was laced with electric streetcar and interurban lines. Mr Schopp knew that; us, not so much. Those lines were omnivagant, but nowhere near the levels brought to us by motorized cars and trucks. I don’t think we’ll see a Schoppian renaissance in model urban electric line layouts any time soon, but I remain smug in the knowledge that there was extensive electric city transportation long before Tesla, dowdy though it was :-)

*That image was snipped from a larger one in part 3 of George Allen's Tuxedo Junction series that appeared in the Dec. '52 issue of Model Railroader. Mr. Allen reports Mr. Schopp was attired in his 1,000 Mile Shirt, accessorized with two patent pending wristwatches: for HO and O scale time! Interestingly, in the Sept. '85 issue of MR, legendary editor John Page mentions in Bill Schopp's trolleys and Jim Dechert's "Fatso" that when he visited Bill Schopp's home in the 1940s that Mr. Schopp was wearing 6! wristwatches, 3 on each arm - no mention of what scale the time was :-)