Model railroading's amateur scientist?

For some reason I can't explain I've thought of Bill Schopp as model railroading's amateur scientist. And that's using amateur in the good way. And I know, he was on the Railroad Model Craftsman staff, so he wasn't an amateur in the doesn't get paid way. He was an amateur in the C. L. Strong, Scientific American's The Amateur Scientist column way: a professional who writes on technical subjects for 'amateurs' in a sophisticated and engaging way. 

Bill Schopp in '68 at his new layout*

But according to John Page, one time editor of Model Railroader, Mr. Schopp had another side. In a Sept. '85 MR article of reminiscences, John Page noted that a number of Mr. Schopp's scratchbuilt trolleys that he saw when visiting the Schopp household in the early 1940s were built sloppily, even by the more permissive standards of that day ... but ... I realized they fascinated me. I found them endearing, even loveable. In place of precision they had something else very special. I suppose "character" or "personality" would be the word, and for all their construction shortcomings, they looked realistic and quite at home in their environment - which was a rather minimally finished layout. And Mr. Page further notes that the 6 wristwatches I mentioned in the earlier post were being worn to test their operation as Mr. Schopp had repaired them - he fixed watches as a sideline, and he could certainly build a neat model if he wanted to. Let's not forget Bill Schopp was the guy who's ideas inspired E. L. Moore's Molasses Mine.

*This picture was snipped from the lead picture to Bill Schopp's Slip Switchery that appeared in the Dec '68 issue of RMC. It's a very detailed technical article on using multiple Casadio slip switches. When I first saw this picture, the layout struck me as being a piece of lab equipment instead of a model railroad. Maybe it's the pondering, hands-on-hips stance combined with the control panel close by that made me think that. This probably isn't the layout John Page saw in the '40s as the caption says it's new, but the level of scenicking seems similar.