Summarizing the Eight Ball Loco Works / Dilly Manufacturing story

E. L. Moore's Dilly Manufacturing Co.

Last week there was a little discussion at the Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling forum about a post of mine on the 8-Ball Locomotive Works and E. L. Moore's Dilly Manufacturing. After reading the discussion I realized I hadn't done a good job of summarizing the story about the origins of the 8-Ball Locomotive Works, and how E. L. Moore used it as inspiration - well, maybe accidentally stole the idea is a better characterization :-) - for his Dilly Manufacturing Co.. Here's the summary I posted about the origins of this iconic model (with a little more word-smithing): 

In the June 1950 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman a photo appears of the model, and it is credited with being on Bill Livingston's Venango Northern R. R.. Photos of the model also appeared in the Oct '50 and May '51 issues of RMC. Bill Livingston noted in captions that he built the model in 1949.

In the February '51 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, Eric Brunger published an article called 'Eight Ball Locomotive Works' with plans by Bill Livingston explaining how to build the model.

In the February 15, 1951 issue of HO Monthly, a photo appears of the model on Bill Livingston's Venango Northern layout.

The November 1952 issue of Model Trains (the then new name for HO Monthly) has a cover photo similar to the one that appeared in the Feb 15, 1951 issue of HO Monthly. 

My N-scale version of Dilly's

In the January '67 issue of Model Railroader, E. L. Moore publishes the article 'Turn Backward, O Time' and it includes plans and the model 'The Dilly Manufacturing Company', which he based on the Eight Ball Locomotive Works. A kerfuffle ensued because Moore thought the intellectual property for the Eight Ball Locomotive Works was owned by HO Monthly, which was in turn owned by Kalmbach Publishers, the owners of Model Railroader. But, as I've noted above, the rights were actually owned by RMC, as the Brunger & Livingston construction article was published there in Feb '51. Letters were exchanged. Apologies were noted. Life went on. I wrote about this incident near the end of this post on how to build an N-scale version of Dilly's.

In the October 1970 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, Bob Hayden published an article called '8-Ball Locomotive Works', which is essentially an updating of the Eric Brunger article from the Feb '51 issue of RMC. Hayden's model also makes an appearance in his 'Thatcher's Inlet' article that appeared in the Feb '72 issue of RMC.

Afterwards I realized that the way I use blog posts to present my notes and pieces about my findings often leaves the stitching together of the entire story wanting because I assume that readers are following along and putting the pieces together. However, after time rolls on, it can be tough to assemble the entire story from the pieces. I need more summary posts that put the pieces together while even I still remember how they go together :-)