E. L. Moore's Soo City barge

All photos courtesy James L. Dixon

This model didn't make it into the book, and although it's a simple project I thought I'd show it here to round out the collection of models from E. L. Moore's harbour diorama.

E. L. Moore wrote a two part article called Add a Harbor to Your Pike that appeared in the January and February 1968 issues of Railroad Model Craftsman. The article discusses how to build a complete 1900s era harbour scene that includes 2 tugboats (one from a Model Shipways kit and the other scratchbuilt), a barge, sail loft, and a wharf. 

I've posted pictures of the Sail Loft and the scratchbuilt tugboat John McKeon from that article.

As well, we saw some tantalizing photos last year of the barge along with the Model Shipways tug Taurus. 

Recently James Dixon forwarded some pictures of the Soo City barge from the harbour project so we could get a better look at it. As you can see, the barge is still in excellent condition. 

I rather like that coiled rope, and, as you can see, Mr. Moore used a Moore Green on the deck :-)

This view shows the barge flipped upside down. Yeap, it's a waterline model with a hollow hull. I'm rather surprised the hull hasn't warped given the lack of interior stiffeners.

I think there might been more E. L. Moore original models out in the wild. I hope the book can help surface them. If any are brought to my attention I'll be sure to post photos of them here.