I found this 2-page spread on some of Bill Schopp’s scratch built traction cars in the June ’54 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. What caught my eye was the opening statement that Schopp’s traction layout, The Rancocas Valley Interurban, was built and operated between 1940 and 1945 - the same era that John Page noted he had the opportunity to see Schopp’s layout. So, these could be the cars Page noted: "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." We don’t see much of anything of their environment - which is the key to Page’s assessment - in these photos so it’s hard to judge if they’re casualized, or just not that well built.
These photos highlight some of the problems with looking at model work from pre-digital eras. Photos were harder to take, fewer were taken, magazine paper quality wasn’t that good for reproducing images, and many photos - then and now - don’t give the viewer a sense of what was really going on, mainly due to poor composition. Yeah, I know, the last statement seems odd, but it’s easy to just snap photos and then later wonder why what was there and felt doesn’t come across. That might be happening with these photos. We think we’re seeing what was actually there because we’re looking at a photo, but just because it’s a photo doesn’t mean what it records is true - I now remove my Captain Obvious hat and return you to regular programming :-)
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