Selective Impression and E. L. Moore's Cole Mfg. Co.

In the comments to the Selective Impression post Paul noted that E. L. Moore often applied Selective Impression, although Mr. Moore didn't call it that. The comment got me thinking about one of E. L. Moore's unpublished manuscripts, Build a 1900's Foundry, that described how he built a version of the Cole Mfg. Co..

It wasn't so much the article that got me thinking about E. L. Moore and selective impression, but the reference photos he took of the prototype. Many were shot from a distance, some maybe from a vehicle, and others look like he might have taken them while walking around the grounds - he did say in the article he got a guided tour. Whether he made any measurements is unknown. 

I didn't post his reference photos with along with the Cole article as the story was long, and they weren't referenced by it. But, now that we're on the subject of loosely using reference photos to design a model, I thought I should post them. I apologize for the dark shadows that many have. I wasn't able to adjust them enough to make a significant difference, so I've just posted them here as is for completeness. I think this is the most extensive set of reference photos I've seen for an E. L. Moore project.

The large store sign off in the distance is for PIC 'N PAY SHOES, and the Cole's sign in the photo below notes that the entrance to Cole's is off Central Avenue. E. L. Moore mentions in his article that Cole's can be seen from the overhead bridge where the highway rises above the Seaboard tracks. Maybe these clues are enough to locate where this foundry once stood - assuming it was in Charlotte, N.C..

From those cars it looks like these pictures were taken in the 1950's, maybe the mid to late '50s. So, although the Cole manuscript was submitted in June 1967, it looks like E. L. Moore had these photos in his files for awhile before he started to work on the project.

In the upper left, way off in the distance, you can see a water tower that looks a lot like the one in the HOJ POJ Mfg. Co. project. The HOJ POJ project was based on a factory complex in Charlotte, N.C., so maybe the Cole project is too if I can assume the water tower actually was located over at the HOJ POJ prototype site.

In the upper right, to the left of the PIC 'N PAY SHOES sign you can see the sign for another store called ADVANCE.

In the first four paragraphs of the Cole article E. L. Moore outlines how he came up with the model's design - it sounds rather similar to that used by Franke on his feed mill, although this process isn't uncommon amongst model builders.

For some reason the Cole complex reminds me of AHM's Old Time Factory kit. The two don't look all that similar, although both are rather low-slung. Maybe it's simply the words 'old' and 'factory' that alert my E. L. Moore circuitry :-) But, I think there's a Faller kit that has some features similar to E. L. Moore's project. I need to try and find that kit.