First draft of an EVRR control panel

First draft of a control panel schematic

One thing I didn't mention in the EVRR video was that there several possible electrical decompositions of the layout. All involve dog-bones with a reversing loop on each end. After thinking things through a bit more I'm likely to go with the electrical layout shown in the schematic on the left.

In this scheme the upper loop has been moved over to the right so it doesn't over lap and confuse the track in the valley.

New decomposition superimposed on track plan

This new decomposition  is also a dog-bone (shown by the blue line) with the lower loop going around the big lake instead of more-or-less the entire valley. This leaves the valley track (shown by the green line) as a completely separate block where a second locomotive could do some switching, isolated from the loco running the dog-bone

Decomposition shown in the video

Over on the left is the electrical decomposition shown in the video. In this version the loop in the valley is much larger. The problem is the green leftover track sections are just that, leftovers. On the new plan the green track is almost a second switching layout.

E. L. Moore could have used either scheme, or something else. I have no information on how it was wired so it's basically an aesthetic judgement about which to use. Right now I'm thinking the new one is the one.

Next up will be giving some thought to making the schematic a lot more understandable :-)

EVRR Feedback

The future EVRR control panel

Much to my surprise I’ve gotten considerable offline feedback on the Elizabeth Valley RR video. There seems to be some interest in that little layout. Given the complexity of the track plan the question was raised again about whether it actually ran. Even though I’ve never seen a picture of a control panel for it I think it did run. I recall this passage from a long letter E. L. Moore wrote to Andy Anderson on 3 December 1965 where ELM hints that it did run:

“Again this fall I decided maybe I’d get rid of that 4x6 Elizabeth Valley. I turn on the lights [JDL: I assume he means the room lights, but maybe he means the layout lights], pull back the dusty plastic cover, then for no good reason at all clean up the tracks and give her a try. Once a year, I do this. Nostalgia gets me, and I decide not to bother to sell it.”

It’s just a hint, but a strong one. 

Way back when I decided that even though I didn’t know what the EVRR’s control panel looked like I’d nevertheless keep in the Moorian spirit and build a control panel based on the foundation he used for his Enskale &Hoentee RR: a Tampa Nugget cigar box! With the cigar box found I looked around the workshop and dug up the DPDT and SPDT switches I had stashed away for this project. However, they now strike me as too big and I’m going to replace them with miniature ones. I also need to figure out how to connect the wiring bundle from the control box to the layout so everything can be easily disconnected for transport.

Anyway it’s nice to see some interest in bringing this layout to life.

An E. L. Moore inspiration?

Did this ...

After typing up yesterday's post about E. L. Moore's old-time water tank I started to wonder about his statement that he based the model on a photograph likely taken in the 1940s. Since his phrasing made it sound like he didn't take the photo himself I wondered if he got it from a book. I knew he had access to Beebe and Clegg's books Mixed Train Daily and When Beauty Rode The Rails so I decided to look through them to see if the water tank photo was in either.

I couldn't find a water tank similar to the one he modelled, but I did stumble across that picture on the left in the lead photo to this post from When Beauty Rode The Rails, which got me thinking about how it resembled the photo below from the E. L. Moore archive. Did one inspire the other? We'll likely never know. But, as Yogi Berra might have said, the similarities are very similar :-)

... inspire this?

David Fugere's version of E. L. Moore's Old-Time Water Tank

Left: David Fugere's model (photo used with permission) | Right: E. L. Moore's (E. L. Moore Archives)

Paul is doing a great job keeping his eyes open for new versions of E. L Moore projects. Recently he alerted me to this excellent HO model by David Fugere of a water tank E. L. Moore built and described in the article, An old-time water tank, that appeared in the Spring 1959 issue of Model Trains. David kindly allowed me to post a picture of his water tank and notes it's built from "Balsa, card, plastic and a few commercial parts."

In the article E. L. Moore mentions his model was based on a photograph - it's not freelanced - but from the way he talks about the photo I don't think he shot it:

"My photo of the prototype doesn't tell me where the old veteran saw service, but it was obviously still in use when photographed, sometime in the early 1940's."

I was hoping the article contained some tall tale about how he stumbled across the prototype on one of his adventures, but no such luck.

It looks like Mr. Moore used the water tank as a background structure in the photos of his Grizzly Flats depot that appeared a few years later in the March 1962 issue of Model Trains. In the photo below from his archives it seems for some mysterious reason he renamed the depot Blue Lake and shot another series of photos. The thing that remains the same though is the water tank appears in the background of both.

Blue Lake depot, aka Grizzly Flats depot, photo circa early 1960s (E. L. Moore Archive)

Bringing the Siku Bombardier tram to life in Casualized HO-9

I've had it in my mind for a long time to motorize Siku's Bombardier toy tram (SIKU 1895). In Toronto it seems to be marketed as a toy version of the TTC's iconic streetcar manufactured by Bombardier.

Siku Bombardier tram, SIKU 1895, straight out of the box

The box says it's HO scale, and I believe it, but it is a casualized representation of the vehicle. Ok, it is a children's toy so play value down on the carpet is more important than the fussy desires of an adult modeller. However, the shells are nicely detailed, and I thought they'd make for a rather decent casualized HO-9 vehicle for running around the Centennial Experimental Farm layout, or simply posing for scenic photos.

A TTC Bombardier streetcar as seen in Feb 2019

I started the motorization and casualization back in the fall of 2022. I thought it was going to be a rather easy conversion, but I was very wrong. There was a lot of trial and error before I even came close to getting it to run trouble free laps. At one point I was so frustrated I parked the project and only gave it another go just after last Christmas. Even though it now runs, and doesn't look too bad, I'm not completely satisfied with the approach I've taken. I'd say it's good enough for what I want, but it could be much better. What follows are some rather loose notes on how the build proceeded so I have a record in case I try this conversion again, or someone else is interested in learning from my mistakes.

The Siku toy taken apart

The toy is held together with 2 screws on the bottom of each chassis. Once removed the shells and baffle are easy to pry off the chassises. Now the fun begins.

Preparing the shells for re-spraying with white paint

I decided to work on some cosmetic changes first. The oversize Bombardier logo was the first thing to go. I rubbed it off with an abrasive track cleaning block and an assortment of fine sanding sticks. The damaged areas were then masked off and resprayed with white paint.

About 1/3 the way through construction

The above photo is a bit deceiving because a lot of work has been done at this point besides re-painting the shells. As I mentioned in the beginning, there was a lot of trial and error during construction and I didn't photograph many intermediary steps. I'll note a few things in the above photo:

1. A big rectangular hole has been cut into the forward chassis for accepting the Kato 11-109 drive unit that powers this thing. It was cut out with a disc cutter in my Dremel motor tool. If you're going to do this wear safety glasses, and go slow. Once the hole is cut it needs to be cleaned up with files.

2. The forward interior insert needs to be cut up to match the hole in the chassis. At this stage both interior inserts were painted black.

3. There's a long and complex story about the trailer's wheels. I'll try and be brief. Although the model is more-or-less HO scale, the wheels aren't even close to standard HO gauge, or standard 9mm N gauge either. There was going to be lots of work fitting standard HO-9 or N gauge wheels to the trailer, and after much head scratching I decided just to grind off the wheel flanges and pull the trailer along the road with the power car as if it were a truck's trailer. For running on Kato Unitram track this works ok. And it turns out since the wheel sets are close to N gauge, the track rails inadvertently help keep the trailer more-or-less tracking the power unit when in motion. That does increase rolling resistance, but the power unit appears to have more than enough umph to handle it. More on wheels, tracking, and turning radius a little further on.

4. Speaking of wheel sets, the toy wheel set that would go into the back end of the power car was eventually left off. Only the trailer incorporates those ground down toy wheel sets. The only wheels on the power car are those on the Kato drive unit.

There's a lot of equipment on the roof

5. The shell roofs were enhanced a little with a few extra mechanical looking boxes glued on and everything up there was painted with some greys and blacks. There probably needs to be a bit of weathering applied.

Styrene blocks were used as motor supports

One of the trickiest parts of construction was installing the Kato drive unit. Obviously the couplers and their supports were cut off before starting. Again, there was a lot of trial and error in measuring and fitting styrene blocks to the chassis and power unit until I got the heights and positions just right. In the above photo those blocks numbered 21 and 25 have been previously glued to the power unit and the resulting structure is being epoxied into the chassis. Those styrene strips on the track are there to temporarily lift the chassis to the correct height until the glue dries. Ground clearance is something like 1.5 mm - very low.

The forward power unit is loaded with weights

From this point on there was lots of testing on the track. Again, lots of trial and error, but here's what I hope is a summary:

1. The power unit was loaded down with 'a lot' of weight: a strip of chicklet style 1/4 oz weights plus an old lead fishing weight (which can't be used to fish because of the lead) pounded a bit flat. The trailer has a bit of a bumpy ride and the extra weight up front helps keep the power unit's wheels in contact with the track in the presence of this transferred shaking motion. I probably should have added a little extra weight to the trailer - not as much as up front - to help it roll a little better. Maybe next time.

2. The only strong - aka, metal - 'connection' between the trailer and power unit are the two flaps sitting one atop the other. Note that there's no positive mechanical connection. It's the weight of the power unit that maintains the connection through the flap to the trailer.

The trailer connection casting is discarded

The reason for this setup  is the trailer has to be loosely connected to the power unit so that trailer motions don't transfer to the power unit and cause it to lose contact with the rails.

This also meant that the metal castings in the toy that connect the two shells had to be discarded because they made the connection between the two far too rigid. The tail would literally wag the dog when this thing was in motion with the metal connection castings in place and locked together.

Ok, well as you see in the photo on the side the trailer casting was discarded, but I kept the one on the power unit as it provides just a little weight over the flap connection to hold things in place. 

Toy's baffle is not very flexible at all

The other piece that had to go was the baffle that covers the connection between the two cars. It's far too rigid and prevents the cars rotating with respect to each other. 

Again, after lots of trial and error, I improvised a new baffle by slicing the ends off the old one and replacing the middle with a piece of micro fibre eyeglass wipe. The wipe was blackened with a Sharpie pen, glued over the baffle ends, and then whole thing was inserted and glued between the cars. 

Before running, the new baffle needs to be carefully folded so it will open and close cleanly as the vehicle goes around curves and doesn't prevent the cars from freely rotating. After a lot of test runs I'm thinking the micro fibre baffle might be replaced by either a silk, mylar, or very thin plastic one to further improve the baffle's flexibility. I like the visual texture of the micro fibre, so maybe it'll be a silk one to try and retain some of that look.

Underside of the power unit

All these special provisions - removal of the toy's cast metal shell connector, replacement baffle, wheels with ground off flanges that run on the road surface, flap only connection between the cars - are needed because I'm trying to make the little vehicle run over curves that are far to tight for it, and because the connections between the cars, and between the cars and rail, are too numerous and too rigid. A moving vehicle needs flexibility to negotiate its travels and deal with upsets. A moving model needs that too. The basic toy doesn't because it's designed so junior can't break it - in that regard, it's a champ :-)

I know, I've skipped over some items like arms to the overhead wiring and new decals as they're relatively straight forward compared to the mechanical work.

Operationally, it's finicky to get set up and running. It has to be handled very gently when placing it on the track because the cars aren't really connected together by anything other than a thin piece of cloth. And that cloth has to be carefully folded so that it flexes in just the right way and doesn't cause the streetcar to stall on curves. But, once those are dealt with, it's smooth running, and I like the way it looks on the farm.

Overall, it's ok, but needs a lot of refinement: more flexible baffle, smoother running wheels in the trailer, and some sort of secure mechanical connection between the cars just to name a few. Another job for the future :-)

Space Hopper sighted in Belleville, 16 July 2023!

Havelock Yard on YouTube alerted me in a comment to one of my videos that he had made and recorded a Space Hopper sighting in Belleville, Ontario. Apparently it has been there awhile, but this reporter was no doubt asleep when he passed through its landing site recently :-( 

The truth is out there - but only if I'm awake :-)

And one other thing, Havelock Yard has lots of excellent and well produced videos at his YouTube channel. I recommend having a look.

No Space Hopper at Smiths Falls

A reader asked me if I'd seen the Space Hopper recently. Unfortunately, no. But, it's out there somewhere. I can feel it in my bones. Hmm, maybe that's just from too much snow shovelling :-)

Barrelling through the trees en route to Ottawa from Toronto

E. L. Moore's smithy as Faller kit #131237

Paul recently brought to my attention the box art for Faller's packaging of E. L. Moore's village smithy kit and build - that's it in the top left corner. He mentioned he thought it was quite attractive and I have to agree. It's much better than the generic, nearly monochrome packaging used by Walthers. There was also a Pola release back in the day. It's box art seems to strike a halfway point between the other two. However, the old AHM box art still holds its own even though it shows a painting, not a model.

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[25 January 2024 update: Paul asked that I post the full catalog shot that Faller created so you could see the full diorama:

]

Status of my N-scale tribute to E. L. Moore's Elizabeth Valley RR

My little, unfinished N-scale version of E. L. Moore’s Elizabeth Valley RR (EVRR) has been hanging on my workshop wall for a long time. Lately it has been giving me some accusatory stares along the lines of was I ever going to finish it :-) To tamp down the nagging voices in my head, and maybe start things off on the road to finishing it, I decided to make a video that would document where the layout’s at construction wise. The video making process has helped me look at the project with fresh eyes, and some improvements are now quite clear: extending the front a little with foam, maybe trying an alternative track block decomposition, replacing a valley track segment with one with a little bigger radius, and so on. The video segments are a little disjointed - and take the dates I mention with a grain of salt - but hopefully the big picture comes across.

Departing Toronto's Union Station for Ottawa

The view across my desk

I continue to play with video. I know it's no big deal to have two audio tracks attached to one video, but it is for me. On this video the first audio track has the sound of the model train going around the loop, and the second track has the sound of birds and frogs I recorded in the wild last summer.

Coles on Yonge: Signs

With signs the building is starting to look more alive. The letters in the main COLES sign were cut from pieces of 0.080" thick styrene in much the same way the letters for its descendent, the World's Biggest Bookstore, were made. The lower sign, the Book people!, is a printout of an online photo sized and trimmed to fit the model, and then sandwiched between two pieces of clear plastic. 

One other thing. I had made the entry doors too short, and it gave me a bad feeling every time I looked at the model. My brain would constantly nag, "those doors aren't right, those doors aren't right,...". No matter how much those big yellow letters made the facade pop, I couldn't pry my eyes from the doors. I decided I couldn't live with that nagging, so I went ahead, threw caution to the wind as they say, and pried off the door frames. Luckily, it was a little easier than I thought and they came off with some gentle but persistent work. A new centre piece was cut, and the frame pieces were re-glued to locations that looked right. I now have some psychological relief :-)

Next step: interior and lighting.

The Railroad Photography of Walter Schopp

A few days ago when I was working on a Memoirs post I stumbled across this video about the railroad photographs of Bill Schopp's son Walter. I didn't realize he was a serious railroad photographer. 

Memoirs of a Former Model Railroader: Why Bill Schopp left the hobby.

Bill Schopp’s four part Memoirs of a Former Model Railroader series is a detailed and fascinating look at what HO model railroading was like from the mid 1930s to mid 1940s for Schopp and his generation. He goes into great detail about how he built several layouts and their associated equipment. By today’s standards there was not a lot that was commercially available or ready-to-run so construction of just about everything was required. I haven’t gone into that story very much here, but I would highly recommend it to those interested in the roots of the hobby. In these posts I’m focusing on what we might today call the ‘human interest’ side of Mr. Schopp’s story.

Bill Schopp went to college and trained as a teacher. Very early on in the memoir, the fourth paragraph of Part I to be specific, he hints at the issues he eventually had with teaching:

“While attending college I would dream away many an unhappy hour in History of Education class drawing model railroad layouts, while my notebook edge doodles in other classes consisted of switches, crossovers, crossings, slipswitches, scissors, ladders, and other fascinating variations of trackage. For that matter my doodles even now are similar, except that they usually are a variation of the trolley Grand Union theme with extra intersecting tracks thrown in to make it tough. Wonder what a psychologist would make of some of them if he didn’t know I was off my trolley over trolleys? “The diverging lines indicate a split personality, while the complexity of the diverging, merging, and intersecting lines indicate a tremendous inner conflict.””

But, boredom aside, he stuck with college and did graduate. Schopp doesn’t mention when he graduated, but reading between the lines a bit I speculate it was in June of 1936. He notes he was unemployed for a year after graduation - it was the middle of The Great Depression - and only held the occasional substitute teacher job during that period. He used his time to build the Moonlight & Violins layout and finished it in early 1937.

It’s not until we’re into Part III of the memoir that Schopp mentions all was not well with being a school teacher. However, he notes model railroading was keeping him sane, much in the way it provided some diversion in college:

“Of course you need a hobby as absorbing as model railroading after a tough six hour day of being a policeman, educator and parent all in one, caught between the desires and needs of a bunch of stupid kids and the proddings of a stupid supervisor whose main job is to avoid trouble so he can be advanced to a higher job.”

Bill Schopp wasn’t the only person in that period to note that having an absorbing hobby was crucial to staving off the corrosive effects of a day job. Our old friend H. S. Coleman in his 1952 book Teach Yourself Modelcraft notes:

“Everyone is familar [sic] in these days with the value of an absolutely different interest from that of the workaday routine, not to mention the fascination arising out of an entirely fresh circle of friends and associates. There is hardly a profession or calling which does not leave its impression upon those who follow it - an impression which frequently is definitely not advantageous. Thousands of people are unconsciously suffering from the effects of their vocation. The parson grows parsonic, and thereby rebuffs without knowing it the similarly acquired sophistication of the tradesman. The “country man” may unwittingly grow snobbish through want of more intimate relationship with the rank and file. The sergeant can tend to become a cynic or a bully unless he mixes in his off-duty hours with people who redeem him to the realm of humanity. There is, within the mixed fraternity of model-workers, a common interest which, bringing all manner of people together, does for them a great and significant work. Modelcraft makes for humanitarianism. 

I wish that last sentence were true.

Anyway, getting back to our story. 

The bulk of Part III recounts layout building activities beginning soon after he was married. This phase of Schopp’s model railroading career saw the creation of his Rancocas Valley layout. His model railroading was continuing to get more sophisticated, but the impact of his teaching job was taking its toll on his mental health as he rather casually notes deep in some technically oriented text:

“I had plenty of time to work on this line during a six month layoff from nervous exhaustion.”

By the time we get to Part IV his Rancocas Valley Route Interurban layout is more-or-less finished, and so is his teaching career.

“It took several years [JDL: to build the Rancocas Valley layout], but meanwhile my health was getting worse and worse and, with the help of a psychiatrist, I discovered that perhaps some of the nervous trouble was caused by the occupation of school teaching. (I claim to be the only model railroad enthusiast who admits he has been to a psychiatrist!) So I took a Vocational Guidance test series which showed that I was hot stuff at writing and at manipulating small things, whereas I was not so hot at the traits involved with school teaching. Now I wonder where I picked up the ability to manipulate small things? HO gauge railroading perhaps! Among the suggested occupations were train repairing, locksmithing, printing, typewriter repairing or watch repairing.

Of these I leaned toward watch repairing and was going to take it up in night school and in the summer. Instead, however, I soon took it up full time, going to Horological school for over a year.”

At this point Schopp took to tearing down his Rancocas Valley layout to make room for a home watch repair bench. He wasn’t giving up on model railroading just yet as he had a plan to build a new, smaller Rancocas Valley along side his new watch repair facility.

So, life goes on and Schopp becomes a watch repairer. In his spare time construction on the new Rancocas Valley layout is moving right along. When the layout is fairly well developed he realizes that some parts are proving quite troublesome. He then decides to pull up “all the track, wire, buildings and everything” and then makes a “new platform of slightly different shape and put down all of the roadbed-board except the highest part.”

It’s at this point the crucial decision is made to give up the hobby, at least for awhile:

“At that stage proceedings stuck for about a month. I could not get up ambition to go to work on the layout until one Sunday I decided that this was the time. I started to lay track at the site of some heavy special work but could not seem to get interested in it. After about an hour, I suddenly thought, “the devil with it,” and started to make up my mind to give up model railroading for the time being.

In time, almost everything was sold off except a bunch of relays, which nobody seemed to want.”

He then speculates on his reasons for quitting the hobby that provided solace when he was a teacher, but frustration when he was a watch repairer:

“I think the real reason for laying aside the model railroad hobby was psychological. While I was teaching school and before, I had plenty of spare time and also the construction and operation of models was a change from the work I was doing. In one sense, it was an escape from the unpleasantness of teaching. But watch repairing is very much the same as model railroading in that there is much work with small parts, and besides, I like it! So the modeling was no more escape, it was just more of the same thing, on a grosser scale, and so lost its savor. My guess is that there is no watchmaker in the country who builds models as a hobby unless it be live steam.”

Later he seems to confirm my speculation that he was model railroading’s amateur scientist:

“I think that another reason why I finally quit model railroading was the lack of new worlds to conquer in HO gauge. I had three-rail, two-rail, trolley and narrow-gauge operation. I never had pantagraph [sic] or live steam but they didn’t appeal to me. I thought one time of trying two-wire operation as in Havana and Tokyo (and Ann Arbor, Mich), and another time I thought of a very small gauge, maybe the size of present TT gauge, but with trolley operation.”

He didn’t leave the pages of The Model Craftsman, but noted that the magazine had a backlog of his articles that would be published, and that he’d be around to answer questions in print wherever he could.

We know Bill Schopp did return. The 1950s and 1960s were a time of great creativity for him in the pages of Railroad Model Craftsman - including some collaboration with E. L. Moore ! - so he clearly came to terms with his day job / hobby conflict. I speculate becoming a staffer at RMC and running his own model railroad related business helped resolve things. 

Decades later, after a prolific model railroading career, in a letter to the editor in the May ’73 issue RMC, he had this to say about his retirement:

“I continue to get mail inquiring about my health and whether or not I’m still in the model railroad business. I am not in business any more, and no longer advertise (almost all stock was sold to another dealer in one transaction). I have no desire to return to business in any way, including layout design.

All things considered, I’m doing fine and am getting a lot of reading done these days (especially domestic and foreign model railroading magazines). Which reminds me: anyone have a copy of The Fleet That Had to Die?”

RMC reported in its June ’74 issue that Bill Schopp had died, and in their Jan ’75 issue reported that a recent reader survey showed he was their 4th most popular author, one position ahead of E. L. Moore. 

Memoirs of a Former Model Railroader: The Moonlight & Violins RR

First version of the M&V RR; The Model Craftsman, Dec '47

For a very long time I’ve been trying to get my hands on Bill Schopp’s series of articles, Memoirs of a Former Model Railroader, that ran in the Dec ’47, Jan’48, Feb ’48, and Mar ’48 issues of The Model Craftsman. It turns out the C. Robert Craig Memorial Library had copies, so last week Debra and I went out there. Luckily the parking issues I had encountered on previously attempted visits weren’t a problem this time so I was able to make it in and read through those long sought after articles. 

They’re eye opening to say the least. Bill Schopp, probably the most prolific American mid 20th century model railroad writer with over 1,000 publications, arguably model railroading’s amateur scientist, gave up model railroading in the mid 1940s - well, at least temporarily by his own telling. He even went so far as to sell off his equipment. You know that Rancocas Valley freight car that appeared in eBay last October? It was likely sold off during that time as Schopp had 1 and 1/2 versions of the Rancocas Valley RR under his belt before quitting. By some miracle it survived from its sale in 1946 or '47 until 2023. Hopefully it’s tucked away safe-and-sound for 21st century enjoyment.

Ok, back to the series. It’s about his history as a model railroader, and what caused him to give it all up. Luckily we know this was but a hiatus; however, in 1947 and '48 his future in the hobby was still up-in-the-air.

Although he tells us about a long, enchantment filled engagement with model railroading as a child, teen, and young man, he didn’t construct what he considered to be his first true model railroad until 1936: The Moonlight & Violins RR. It was a 3-rail, HO scale setup built in an attic bedroom.

The most striking thing about this layout to me is how modern and sophisticated it is. There’s none of that spaghetti-like track that is unfortunately often associated with Schopp’s trackplans in the modern imagination, if they’re thought about at all. Or maybe I’m struck by this plan because I’m naive about 1940s layouts? Could be, but still, building a model railroad with its trackplan today would not be considered unusual.

The other striking thing to me is the fictional railroad’s name: Moonlight & Violins Railroad. That does sound very 1940s to me, and reminded me of George Allen and Ernie Huebner’s Tuxedo Junction layout construction series that started in Model Railroader in October 1952. Okay, that was the early 1950s, but the reality was the 1940s weren’t done by then, and the railroad itself has its roots in them. Look, the Glenn Miller song by the same name was a big hit in 1940.

Apparently, according to Mr. Schopp the Moonlight & Violins RR was also named after a song. Here's how he tells it in the Dec '47 issue of The Model Craftsman:

“A word regarding the name of the pike to those people who are always curious about “where did you get the name of your railroad?” (unless it is Pennsylvania with Belpaire fireboxes to make it even clearer). Several months before construction really got under way I had drawn up carefully a gigantic three-room model railroad, to fill the whole attic. One section was named Moonlight and Violins from a song of the same name from Earl Carroll’s Sketchbook. Another section was named Moonlight, Magnolias, and You from a song of the same name by yours truly. For about four years before taking up the model hobby in earnest, I was a completely unsung songwriter, tossing off many dillies [sic] which song publishers wouldn’t even open. The most interesting from a railroad point of view was one about riding the open trolleys through Fairmount Park, rhymes with spark, rhymes with arc - conductor walking down the side in his daredevil way and telling me to keep my foot off the trolley rope, etc. At the present time I am contemplating a Chrapsody [sic] for Five Air Horns and a Trolley Harp, with directions as to soft and loud (usually given as p, mp, f, ff, etc.) given as first series position, full series, etc., up to Field Taps when temporary deafness sets in. So the M. & V. was almost called Moonlight, Magnolias, and You.”

Bill Schopp was a failed songwriter? Who knew? His Fairmount Park song might not have seemed like a bad idea at the time given that Tuxedo Junction is about a jazz and blues club located close to a trolley crossing - a junction - near a place called Tuxedo Park in Birmingham, Alabama. If he had wound up on Tin Pan Alley, model railroading would likely have been a lot different. Was model railroading his self awarded consolation prize?

I didn’t know what ‘Earl Carroll’s Sketchbook’ was so it was Wikipedia to the rescue. Apparently Earl Carroll was in the business of putting on musicals and such, and the ‘Earl Carroll Sketchbook’ was a Broadway show of his that eventually became a movie in 1946. Moonlight and Violins was a song in the show given the layout's date, but I'm curious to see if it's in the movie. Unlike Tuxedo Junction I wasn’t able to find the song in YouTube or anywhere else. 

I need to find that movie.