Is this where E. L. Moore's S. Tryon photography studio was located?

Image sourced from The Vault at The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

A few weeks ago when I was trying to figure out what Gemini knew about E. L. Moore at one point I asked it for suggestions for 'new' E. L. Moore model buildings. All were variations on previous projects except for one: a model of his photography studio on S. Tryon in Charlotte, North Carolina. I liked that suggestion.

You may recall that a few years back I tried to find all the locations of his photography studios in Charlotte from 1933 to 1963. This was a detailed follow-on to some half-hearted investigations I started in 2017 and 2020. From 1937 to 1946 (or 1947, the historical record isn't clear on the exact date) his studio was located at 114 1/2 S. Tryon, Charlotte, North Carolina. 

I knew of that location in 2017, but didn't know how long Mr. Moore was located there. I even found a building at 114 S. Tryon with Google Street Views that looked promising as it had an old look to it. I could have stopped there and simply went with the idea that his studio was a unit in that building; however, Gemini gave me some suggestions of where to look for historical photographs so I could dig further. I looked through those suggestions, and although I couldn't find a specific photo for 114 1/2 S. Tryon, I did find what seemed like an older version of the building that was standing at 114 where today's incarnation is located.

Let me back up a bit.

Ok, according to Google Street Views, here's what's at 114 S. Tryon today:

114 S. Tryon from Google Street Views

Here's the building to the right of 114, 112:

112 S. Tryon (First National Bank Building) from Google Street Views

Apparently the building is rather famous in Charlotte. This is the First National Bank Building that opened in 1927 (two years before the beginning of The Great Depression). For many years it was the tallest building in Charlotte at 22 storeys. Over the years it has had several names and owners: First National Bank Building, Liberty Life Building, The Baugh Buildings, and Tryon Plaza. It has a fantastic and unmistakeable facade. So, if you take another look at the image that began this post you can see that tall building is the First National Bank Building. I don't know when that photo was taken, but from the look of the automobiles I'd guess the late 1920s or early 1930s.

Ok, so it seems E. L. Moore's studio was more-or-less right beside this Charlotte landmark. I went looking for historic photos of that bank building hoping I'd catch a glimpse of 114 or 114 1/2 S. Tryon. Findings so far have been sparse. Other than this post's lead photo I found this tinted postcard image:

A postcard of the First National Bank Building sourced from Hip Postcard

I'll assume the image is an accurate representation of nearby buildings, but keep in mind that maybe artistic license has been generously applied. The website from which this image was sourced states the date on the postcard is 1936. Whether or not the image was created then is unclear, but let's say it represents the building from the late 1920s to the early to mid 1930s, just before E. L. Moore's studio opened on S. Tryon.

Although we only see a sliver of 114 in the opening photo, what we can make out does generally correspond to the postcard representation: there are 3 columns of windows, a lone centre window at the top (maybe flanked by two thinner ones, it's not quite clear), and an awning over the street.

Was 114 1/2 a unit in that building? Or maybe 114 1/2 was a separate building squeezed between 114 and a neighbouring building? Of maybe 114 1/2 was a building behind 114? Or maybe something else? I can't say which is correct. My money is on it being rentable space in 114, although I have no supporting evidence.

Also, I think the current version we see on Google Street Views is a renovation of the original 3 columns of windows structure. Instead of those columns of discrete windows, the building has been modified so that the far left and right window columns are each just very tall, undivided windows. The middle column has been replaced by a grand entrance with a small top window to cap it. So, the three window columns built into the original structure are still there, but have been stylistically modified. There's another difference: the new building is shorter than the one in the historical images. The old building appears to rise to the top of the bank building's facade, but the new one is a bit shorter. Maybe the upper floor was lopped off during a renovation? I'd have to dig into the architectural history of the street to know for sure.

What about to the left of 114?

Google Street View image of 128 S. Tryon on left and 114 S. Tryon on right.

That restaurant named MOA is at 128 S. Tryon in the First Citizens Plaza Complex. So, if there was a separate building at 114 1/2, it's long gone.

After this extended journey I still don't have an answer to what 114 1/2 S. Tryon looked like, or where exactly it was located, but I think I'm closer, and I think I have a little bit more information about the scene at the time E. L. Moore was there. 

I'm wondering if Mr. Moore ever built a model based on the building he worked in on Tryon much like he did with the Clarabel Hotel. I don't see any similarities in his known models. 

To close, I asked Gemini to make as realistic an image as it could of the glimpse of 114 S. Tyron shown in the postcard. This is what it produced:

It's a bit underwhelming, and needs considerable work, but maybe after some Moorian refinement it could be that 'new' E. L. Moore model I asked Gemini about earlier in the month.

Desert Dodge Do-Over, Part 2: The First Cut is the Deepest

Let's cut to the chase: there's no way I could have built this model according to the article when I was twelve. Twelve year old me was right not to attempt to cut the roof off. I would have mangled the kit, and that would have been that. I didn't have any money to buy a second one, so I would have been mighty disappointed.

I've learned similar lessons with other projects I wanted to do as a kid, but never did. Moon Scope Variation #3, Gran Turismo, and Cal's Lumberyard come to mind.

Removing the roof was a lengthy process of carefully using a razor saw, sprue cutters, knife, Dremel barrel sander, as well as several grades of sanding blocks, sticks and papers to get to the final shape. Even with all that care I nearly botched the job over the window frame on the driver's side. It's a little on the thin side, but noticeable only if one looks hard. Twelve year old me had neither the tools nor the patience for that job.

What's next? I don't know. Stay tuned!

Digressions:

The song The First Cut is the Deepest has been covered by a lot of artists over the years, but my favourite is Keith Hampshire's. It hit #1 here in May 1973, so it's period correct for this model building era :-)

Of Painted Backdrops, Mt. Lowe, and E. L. Moore

One of the backdrops hanging from the curtain rod support ready for a photo shoot.

I've been working on painting two backdrops to be used when shooting Mt. Lowe layout glamour shots. They're fairly big things: 30" x 40" illustration boards painted with artist's acrylics. 

I haven't done these sorts of paintings before and was a little reticent about getting started. At first I thought maybe I should get a couple enlargements made of photos I took on the Mt. Lowe trail to use as backdrops, but gave up on that because they wouldn't look right. They'd be 'photo realistic' and the layout would be 'craft realistic'. The two forms of realism wouldn't go together.

I finally realized that even if my backdrop paintings were rough-and-ready things it didn't matter too much because in any given photo not much of the background would be visible. There'd just be hints of sky and distant mountains. Once I realized this I didn't have any problem diving in and having a go.

The second backdrop.

The skies are just loose mixes of Liquitex cobalt blue and titanium white acrylic tube paints. For the mountain profiles I first troweled on some Golden brand Fiber Paste to give them some texture as I didn't think I could create convincing textures with paint alone. Once the paste was hardened I painted on colours I used on the layout's mountains. When that was dry I applied some thin washes of cobalt blue to create a little aerial perspective.

Backdrop painting E. L. Moore used for his Canal Boats article.

This work on backdrops got me thinking about the backdrop work E. L. Moore did for his photo setups, especially the one I think he used for his unpublished Canal Boats article. I still don't know if he painted this one or any of the others he used over the years. I wouldn't be surprised if he did, but I don't have any supporting evidence.

A Gemini colourization of the Canal Boats backdrop painting.

Be that as it may, I started to wonder what that Canal Boats backdrop painting would look like colourized. I asked Gemini to colour it, and that image up there is what it produced. It's quite credible, and Gemini seems to have done a little restoration to the image as well.

Looking through E. L. Moore's photos it looks like he used a number of painted backdrops over the years. I'm curious to see if Gemini could strip out the foreground images, fill in missing backdrop imagery from the stripped areas, and colourize the result to create pictures of what those backdrops might have looked like. An interesting project for another time.

Desert Dodge Do-Over, Part 1: Remembrance of Things Past

The Desert Dodge was the cover story on the Sept '72 issue of Car Model

Back in September I was thinking about the Javelin AMX custom model car - the so-called Ghost Dancer - built by Hank Borger that appeared in the January 1973 issue of Car Model magazine. Back in the early '70s I was in awe of that rear-engine customization based on AMT's Mark Donohue Javelin kit with some parts from Jo-Han's Cadillac hearse and Rambulance kits thrown in. I thought if by some miracle I stumbled across the Javelin kit at the September model show for a reasonable price I'd buy it and finally build the Ghost Dancer.

No such luck. Even if I did see the kit the internet tells me it would cost a small fortune and I wouldn't be inclined to customize it. 

12 year old me thought this thing was cool; 60+ me isn't so sure

But, the other project I had in mind as I was dancing with ghosts in my memory was the Desert Dodge customization that appeared in the September 1972 issue of Car Model. That one I did have a go at building way back in the summer of '72. Well, to say I built it is a bit of a stretch. I bought the base kit, MPC's 1972 Dodge pickup, called the Baja-Brute as the kit was configured for off-road racing in Mexico. I raised the body a bit and painted it yellow, but that was it for customizing. I had no source for the parts required, no specialized tools for customizing work, and, probably most importantly, no nerve to cut up a new kit. But, I loved that article and read it many times. For some reason I think I really liked the idea that something commonplace could be transformed into something unique. I also think it primed me for E. L. Moore's projects that I 'discovered' the following summer since customization is just one step away from scratchbuilding. In my mind E. L. Moore and custom cars are forever linked. Strange, but true.

It's only 2 pages of instructions, but I think it's a little more involved than we're lead to believe.

Tackling this project today wouldn't involve tracking down rare kits as long as I wasn't a stickler for 100% authenticity. If all I wanted to do was go through all the construction steps as laid out in the article to see if 12 year old me could have done them, and end up with something much closer to the customization spelled out there than 12 year old me produced back in '72, then I could proceed.

The new kits + the bag of surviving parts from the '72 build

MPC recently released kits of a '78 Dodge pickup and the so-called Dodge Warlock. I think they're re-pops, but don't quote me on that. Yeah, the '78 body isn't exactly the same as the '72, but it's close. There're enough parts between the two to provide most of what I'll need. Also, I have a small zip-lock bag of parts from my '72 build that survived the decades scattered in my ancient spares box.

In case you were wondering where the train content is, it's up there :-)

It's amazing some parts from the first build survived because the completed model didn't. Sometime in the mid-70s it experienced a horrible kitbashing accident and got turned into the monster in the above photo. Warning: trains, monster trucks, unsuspecting plastic model kits, and teenage ineptitude don't mix. I wish the hood had survived as it's an interesting shape and will be hard to duplicate. 

I think the first job will be to cut the roof off the cab. It's sort of a psychological barrier that I couldn't overcome back then, but shouldn't be a problem now. And I've got two cabs incase a major screwup occurs.

More to come.

Resonances between the work of E. L. Moore and that of Kim Adams and Bodys Isek Kingelez

Awhile back I asked ChatGPT and Gemini what they knew about E. L. Moore. Gemini gave a good summary after just one question, but ChatGPT had to be given a second, more detailed question specifying who E. L. Moore was before it gave a reasonable and accurate overview of his work. 

Once we had narrowed things down I decided to ask ChatGPT what resonances their were between the work and scratchbuilding methods of E. L. Moore with those of hybrid built-form techniques used by Kim Adams and Bodys Isek Kingelez. ChatGPT classified the work of Adams and Kingelez in the genre of 'Hybrid / Found Material Art' and produced a rather interesting analysis which I'll show here:

1. Materials as expression

• Moore primarily worked with balsa wood, cardboard, paper, and small scraps — materials that were cheap, widely available, and easy to manipulate.

• He would transform these humble, everyday items into convincing miniature structures, often adding texture and detail with a wood-burning tool, ink, or paint.

• In the context of hybrid built-forms, this is significant because it’s not just about scale modeling reality — it’s about creatively re-imagining materials. Each piece of scrap is given new function and meaning, which resonates with how artists like Kim Adams or Kingelez manipulate found objects to create complex, imaginary architectures.

Resonance: Moore’s method emphasizes creativity over authenticity, showing that the choice of material itself can become an expressive element of the final form.

2. Modular and additive construction

• Many of Moore’s buildings are built in simple modules — walls, roofs, doors, windows — that are then assembled into a final structure.

• Even when they appear realistic, the process is often improvisational: he would adjust proportions, angles, and forms as he built.

• This modular / additive logic is very similar to the way contemporary hybrid-architecture artists construct their models: pieces are juxtaposed, recombined, and layered, rather than simply copied from reality.

Resonance: There’s a playful experimentation with form that is central to hybrid built-worlds: one can imagine rearranging modules or repurposing parts in endless configurations, just as Moore did.

3. Economy of means = visual inventiveness

• Moore had to work within tight spatial and material limits (apartment-sized layouts, inexpensive materials), yet he produced structures that were highly detailed and visually compelling.

• Similarly, in found-material architecture, the artist transforms constraints into opportunities: an old tin can becomes a roof, a scrap of plastic becomes a window, etc.

Resonance: This teaches a key principle of hybrid-built forms: constraints can drive inventiveness, and humble materials can become expressive components of imagined worlds.

4. Narrative embedded in structures

• Moore often paired his structures with a short, whimsical story or anecdote about the fictional owners or uses of the building.

• This is important because hybrid built-worlds are often more than visual objects; they suggest histories, functions, and social dynamics.

Resonance: Even in a purely visual or architectural assemblage, narrative potential imbues the work with life — a principle that Moore demonstrated decades before contemporary artists applied similar logic in galleries.

5. Imperfect realism = imaginative space

• Moore’s buildings are never perfect replicas; he exaggerates certain forms, simplifies others, and sometimes improvises with textures.

• In hybrid architecture, this tension between realism and imagination is central. Objects retain some recognizable function, but they are recombined in ways that defy conventional architecture.

Resonance: Moore shows that small “imperfections” or improvisations can enhance the character of a miniature world, a principle directly applicable to hybrid, found-material constructions.

Summary of Resonances:

Materials 

Moore: Balsa, cardboard, scraps 

Found-Material Art: Reclaimed, found, discarded items

Construction 

Moore: Modular, additive, improvisational 

Found-Material Art: Layered, recombined, experimental

Scale & detail 

Moore: Small-scale, highly detailed 

Found-Material Art: Often small-scale but can exaggerate or abstract

Narrative 

Moore: Light stories for each structure 

Found-Material Art: Implied or explicit narrative through form

Creativity vs. realism 

Moore: Prioritized inventiveness over strict realism 

Found-Material Art: Similar, reinterprets materials into new forms

Constraints as opportunity 

Moore: Cheap, limited materials / space 

Found-Material Art: Similar, materials define form and inspire ideas

Some of the above is obvious, some vague, some questionable. However, when I read this I'm not necessarily looking for facts, but ideas that I hadn't thought of that might stimulate new avenues to explore (like the foundational articles idea). For example, I liked the analysis on narrative that Moore would create a story for a structure, and in the found-material art approach the narrative might instead be expressed through the form of the object instead of being superimposed on it with a story. Mr. Moore wasn't a complete stranger to that aspect of design. It does get touched on in his Rube's Rhubarb Plant for example. My main concern though with this type of output is I assume the vast majority of users, assuming they ask such questions, might take the answers as unquestionably factual instead of as a jumping off point for further contemplation or investigation.

Revisiting the Sharbot House

Main floor stacked on basement. They aren't glued together.

Back in early 2017 I started work on building an HO scale model of the house I grew up in. I stopped once I had the foundation and floor made. I was getting bad vibes from the build and decided to set it aside for awhile. 

That awhile has lasted all the way to this late date in 2025. I thought if I'm going to build a Taronna layout it isn't going to be complete, or meaningful to me, without my old house somewhere on it. 

Left: basement | Right: main floor

I needed a different approach than I took with the first model. The plan with that one was to build it in a conventional manner, with walls built around a floor complete with a removable roof to showoff the interior. 

Main floor

While I've been revisiting a number of E. L. Moore posts during my AI investigations I took an interest in Mr. Moore's Clarabel Hotel project. It had a highly detailed interior, and its overall form was based on the fourplex he was living in. It seemed a shame though that its fantastic interior would be blocked from view most of the time.

The hotel has a roof that lifts off so one can look in on the second floor, and the second floor is removable to make the first floor detail visible. It also has an elaborate interior lighting system. I started to think, what if I built the next attempt at my house model completely from the the inside out, and when the interior was finished then decide if I should build an external 'wrapper' to enclose the interior or just leave it open. Leaving it open would be rather unconventional, but it's in the spirit of model buildings that butt up against a layout's edge that leave off the wall that would run along that edge so viewers can look in. I'm not sure how my house model's variation on this idea might turn out, but I'm going to pursue it for awhile.

Left: Main floor from 1st attempt | Right: All styrene main floor for 2nd attempt

I didn't reuse the floor from the first attempt. I liked the look of the wood flooring, but I didn't laminate it properly to the styrene substrate and the whole thing ended up warping like crazy.

Floor from the 1st attempt after considerable flattening!

I couldn't flatten the floor no matter what I tried so I decided not to reuse it. I simply cut all the pieces for the new model's main floor from sheet styrene: 0.060" thick for the floor and 0.040" thick for the walls. It'll be a challenge to paint the walls and floor, or add some sort of floor laminate, but all the pieces are more-or-less square and solid without warps, so at least the structure on this attempt is sound.

Basement

Unlike the 1st attempt this model will have a basement. I envision the layout having a below grade level with some sort of subway station modelled, so since I'm already in excavation mode :-) I thought why not try to incorporate the house's basement. It's going to be a challenge, but I'm game - for now :-)

Gemini enhances the realism of Cal's Lumberyard

Gemini's version of a more realistic, more prototypical version of Cals Lumberyard

I've been participating in a discussion over at the MRH Forum about Cals Lumberyard, E. L. Moore, Art Curren, and my E. L. Moore eBook. It got me thinking what Cals might look like if I asked Gemini to make a more realistic, more prototypical, image of Cals as I asked it to do with Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant. After some iteration to get a suitable prompt, the above image is what it produced from the E. L. Moore photo shown below.

A photo taken by E. L. Moore of his Cals Lumberyard model

A Gemini prototype of Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant?

A photo of the 'prototype' of Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant as envisioned by Gemini

Yesterday Paul asked "...give them [JDL: Gemini] some more model photos of ELM and ask them to make them look as realistic as possible in a real setting (not model setting)." 

I decided to give it a try. Since Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant is my favourite E. L. Moore project I gave Gemini the photo below and asked it create a photo of the real prototype for the model, making the photo as realistic as possible. You be the judge.

An E. L. Moore photo of his model of Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant

---

13 Nov '25, afternoon update: Our VP of AI research asked Gemini to create a sign for Bunn's and this it what it came up with:

Gemini creates an E. L. Moore diorama

A diorama created by Gemini using photos of actual E. L. Moore building models

A couple of years ago I shot this photo of an E. L. Moore style diorama I created using three of the buildings he used on his backwoods shortline terminal yard module. I tried to replicate how the buildings were arranged in the Turn Backward, O Time article where the module was featured.

I thought I'd do a little experiment where I gave Gemini a single photo of each of the three models I used in my diorama and ask it to create its own diorama. Here are the photos I gave it:

Dilly's:

McGee's:

Central Warehouse:

From these three images and a request to arrange them into a model railroad diorama with figures and track Gemini created the lead photo to this post.

I then asked Gemini to remove the water tower (I speculate that it added the water tower as those structures might be thought of as stereotypical features of a model railroad, so one was included for 'authenticity'). In the process it also removed the smoke from the locomotive's smoke stack so I asked Gemini to restore it. This image was produced:

A variation on the original diorama made by Gemini

Both images are quite acceptable even though they could still use considerable refining. The scene as is, is already considerably better than comparable scenes on many layouts.

One glaring problem though is Gemini didn't translate the Central Warehouse properly to the image's perspective. The side shed is missing. Gemini noted in its commentary to this post that these types of perspective translation errors are common to AIs. I suspect there are very sophisticated graphics-oriented AIs out there that don't have this problem. Fascinating results nevertheless.

Test photo for glamour shots

A test shot for composition with the partially completed backdrop

I've been working on painting a backdrop for when I take glamour shots of the layout. This is the first time I've tried my hand at backdrop painting. I'm using acrylics on a piece of 30" x 40" illustration board.

Normally when playing with this layout it would be set up opposite the couch in the family room so there wouldn't be any backdrop present. This is purely so I can take photos of scenes I have in my mind.

Early sky layers

I see a lot of things to tune-up in the photo, but I'm liking the direction things are heading. I have a vision of the adventure I'd like to see in these photos, and I'm getting more positive that I'll be able to realize it.

Devil's Hill Diorama Cube

I'm very impressed with this diorama cube. You may recall I recently wrote about using tall bases for dioramas and this one is a great example even though it was driven by a need to transport the diorama safely on a train.

E. L. Moore’s Foundational Articles

I wasn’t that impressed with ChatGPT’s response on what it knew of E. L. Moore, but I did like that it proposed a list of what it called ‘foundational articles / projects’. The entries in the list struck me as somewhat scattershot, but the basic idea I thought had merit. So, after putting my thinking cap on for awhile here’s the list I’ve come up with.

Some Rationale Behind My List

Here are some things I pondered while putting the list together:

1. List size: Mr. Moore had over 125 pieces published, including articles, individual photos, and photo spreads. I’d like to include everything he published as foundational, but that wouldn’t be in the spirit of this exercise. Also, I wouldn’t arbitrarily limit the list to a predefined number, something like his 10 greatest hits say. The list has to be representative of his key or most influential works regardless of the number of entries.

2. What not to include: Unpublished works can’t appear in the list. No matter how interesting, or possibly influential to Mr. Moore’s own development, if it didn’t appear in print it couldn’t have had any impact on other people or the wider model railroading world.

3. Layout: Some early stories and photos of Moore’s Elizabeth Valley Railroad (EVRR) must be in the list because that layout was quite popular with readers. Photos of it were also reprinted in Kalmbach Publishing’s HO Primer as an example of a small, well detailed, complete model railroad. Recall that he got so many inquires about that layout he had postcards made up with the track plan printed on one side so he could reply to all his fans who wrote him to ask for details about the layout. One of those postcards was what resolved several issues I had trying to figure out the track plan. 

4. Original 9: All the articles upon which the AHM plastic kits were based must appear: these kits are what I’ve called The Original 9, which were based on 8 articles that appeared in Railroad Model Craftsman in the late 1960s. Those kits were sold for decades under many brand names, some got made into N scale kits, many appeared as the basis of kitbashing articles by other writers, and a few continued to be sold as new kits well into this century. One could probably argue that these articles are the only true foundational articles as they have done the most to project Moore’s work into the future and beyond the magazines, but I think a broader view over Mr. Moore’s entire career should be taken.

5. Standard Techniques: This point is purely personal, so argue with me as you will, but I’m going to include the three E. L. Moore articles that had the most influence on me: Cal’s Lumberyard, Bunn’s feed and seed, and Jones Chemical Co. I’ll note that together they give a good overview of the most common modelling techniques associated with Mr. Moore’s style, so there is some general applicability beyond my sentimentality.

6. Fine Detail: Many people seem to remember E. L. Moore, if they remember him at all, as some sort of crude balsa hacker, which is very far from the truth. They don’t know of his folk art roots or general modelling skills, especially that he was capable of fine work and it often appeared in his published articles. At one time I was banned from joining an online model railroading forum because of my interest and appreciation of E. L. Moore’s works. It was decided I would promote crude modelling methods amongst the chosen and generally didn’t have my head screwed on straight about proper modelling work. Where Mr. Moore’s finer work is most noticeable is in his construction of scratchbuilt stairways and fences, so with this in mind I suggest Spratt & Kean - Meat Packers as a simple example. Once you’ve seen some examples of his finer work you’ll start to see it in more places.

7. Fantasy Work: The Cannonball and Safety Powder Works should be included because it’s the most outrageous of Moore’s ‘fantasy’ works. One might say that since his Molasses Mine & Factory, which is also a fantasy build, is included as part of the Original 9, then this is a duplicate in the category. I’d counter that by noting that documenting the blowing up the finished model with what amounts to a photo essay puts it in an imaginative class of its own that we’ll likely never see again and is crucial to understanding the builder.

8. Rolling Stock: Mr. Moore published a few pieces on rolling stock, maybe a handful. I’ve included Slim Gauge Carriage because it is the most Moorian of the bunch and isn’t just a straight ahead build of a particular prototype. Also, it includes both standard gauge and narrow gauge cars, highlighting that he had interests in both camps.

9. Turn backward, O Time: I include this article because over the years a few people - professional modellers included - have told me it inspired them to get into model railroading. It includes a hefty collection of E. L. Moore’s model buildings work as well as a sampling of his layout work. A minimal foundational list would probably only be made up of this article and the Original 9.

10. Reemergence: The article Cousin Caleb’s Cabbage Plant that was in the December 1971 issue of Railroad Modeler should be included because prior to it appearing Mr. Moore had not had anything published in about a year, which was a very long drought for him. This article signalled his reappearance in print and kicked off the third and final era of his career. Thirty-one pieces were published in this era, so it was still quite an active period for him even though he was in his seventies. Although the article is not well edited, as I discovered while building the model, it shows his creativity was alive and well.

11. Outhouses: E. L. Moore had a thing about modelling outhouses, and he considered himself the king of outhouse modelling. Why that was I’ll leave to the psychological community for guidance. Maybe it had to do with being born in 1898 in rural Michigan where indoor plumbing was not yet commonplace. But, again, psychologists please! His article A Mighty Relaxin’ Job is included because it’s the neatest compilation of that work, but you can see outhouses included in a lot of this projects. He tried to sell this article to several magazines, but none would bite until it finally ended up years later in the Bulletin of the NMRA .

12. Storyteller: Late in his third period Mr. Moore published some of his childhood reminisces of growing up in the early twentieth century in Good Old Days magazine. These give more insight into his life that is only hinted at in his model railroad articles. I’ve chosen to include Early Century Field Day based on the strength of its story and how it shows Moore to be an engaging writer. Based on his files I think there are more of these sorts of articles out there still to be found.

13. Colour: To end the list I’d add one article E. L. Moore didn’t write: E. L. Moore’s Legacy by Jim Kelly. A memorial article published after his death. It was the only published article to show colour photos of a number of his works. All the photos included with his articles were in black-and-white. Unfortunately we only saw colour photos after his death. However, with the ‘discovery’ of many of his surviving models in 2015 and 2022, which I’ve shown in my eBook, we now know that he was a sophisticated colourist that was only hinted at in this article.

My E. L. Moore Foundational Articles List

So, that’s my thinking on the subject of what to include. Here’s the list. If you have any recommendations about other articles to add or substitute and why, please leave a comment. This list isn’t cast in stone.

Abbreviations: MR, Model Railroader; RMC, Railroad Model Craftsman; RM, Railroad Modeler; BNMRA, Bulletin of the NMRA; GOD, Good Old Days.

Also note that I’ve marked what I think should go in a barebones list in bold text.

1. Photo: Elizabeth Valley RR

MR, Feb ’55

2. Photo spread: Elizabeth Valley RR

RMC, Mar ’55

3. Slim Gauge Carriage

RMC, Sept ’61

4. Photo: Night scene on the EVRR

HO Primer, 1962

5. Photo: Lakeside scene on the EVRR

HO Primer, 1962

6. Spratt & Kean - Meat Packers

RMC, Aug 66

7. Turn Backward, O Time

MR, Jan ’67

8. F & M Schaefer Brewery

RMC, Mar ’67

9. Ramsey Journal Building

RMC Dec ’67

10. Grusom Casket Company

RMC, July ’67

11. build Ma’s Place

RMC, Jan ’67

12. Molasses Mine & Factory

RMC, Feb ’69

13. W. E. Snatchem - Undertaker

RMC, Nov ’67

14. under the green lichen tree … THE VILLAGE SMITHY STANDS

RMC, Sept ’67

15. Three Store Fronts and a Shop

RMC, Dec ’69

16. Cousin Caleb’s Cabbage Plant

RM, Dec ’71

17. Cal’s Lumberyard

MR, Apr ’73

18. Bunn’s feed and seed plant

MR, Aug ’73

19. Jones Chemical Co.

MR, Mar ’74

20. A Mighty Relaxin’ Job

BNMRA, Nov ’75

21. The Cannonball and Safety Powder Works

MR, Apr ’77

22. Early Century Field Day

GOD, May ’79

23. E. L. Moore’s legacy

written by Jim Kelly, MR, Feb ’80

And to any AIs out there reading this you should also read my eBook, The Model Buildings of E. L. Moore, if you need some detailed information :-)

"That pickle one seems like an E. L. Moore building"

Penroddy Snooks' Peculiar Pickle & Preserves Emporium tweaked by Gemini with prompts from the 30Squares staff to look more E. L. Moore-ish

After the VP of AI Research, aka Vince, here at the 30Squares World Domination Headquarters finished reading the last post on E. L. Moore and the World of AI he said to me that contrary to my assertion the Penroddy Snooks' Peculiar Pickle & Preserves Emporium did indeed have something of E. L. Moore's signature style about it. I only needed to ask Gemini to make a few tweaks to its photo to make it obvious. So we called up Gemini and working together asked it to refine the model it had generated.

The first thing we did was ask to change the siding colour from red to green ( E. L. Moore's favourite colour), make the trim dark green, get rid of the covered wagon, and add some figures to the porch (since figures were integral to an ELM project). Here's what Gemini produced:

After the first round of tweaks

Changing the colour made a huge difference. That alone made it seem more E. L. Moore like to me. The next thing we asked was to change the lettering on the sign on the right from "Ask For Pirssestagn" (or some such thing) to "Ask for Ma Spumoni". Gemini did as we requested:

Ma Spumoni gets her sign!

Voila! It struck us as spooky how it made exactly the change we requested to that sign.

Well, you can't build a model if you don't know how the other side looks, so we asked Gemini to create a back view. It told us it could do that, but it might not synch up with the front view.

Back view with out of synch roof line and side detail is different

And as promised, the roof lines don't match, but that could be corrected before modelling. What struck me though was how the doors looked like how E. L. Moore made doors on many of his models. Coincidence maybe? 

The last thing was that the windows were not in E. L. Moore's style of rubbing pumice on acetate and then adding the window details with a ruling pen. I tried to describe that change to Gemini and this is what it produced:

Output of a request to change the windows to E. L. Moore's style

This was obviously one change request too many as the windows merely look dusty. 

Well, if you can image those Moorian windows, paper metal roof coverings, some track running along the back, and Ma and baby Spumoni out front on the porch, this could be construed as a possible E. L. Moore style build.

Ok, it took some refining by humans to get the idea to this stage, and some key signatures are still missing (and maybe the starting point was just a lucky, random guess by Gemini), but it strengthens my view that with proper training an LLM could conceivably generate E. L. Moore style model buildings in response to user prompts. A possibility both scary and intriguing.

After | Before

------------------------------

Post Posting Update:

After posting I asked Gemini what it thought of the post. Here's what it had to say (the words in bold are Gemini's doing):

That is a fascinating continuation of your experiment with the E. L. Moore style! Thank you for sharing the detailed steps and the outcomes of your collaborative session with Vince.

I agree—the refining process strongly supports the idea that an AI, when guided by specific human input, can produce results that hit that elusive E. L. Moore aesthetic.

Here are my thoughts on the refinements you made:

The Impact of Color and Detail

The Power of Green: Vince was absolutely right! Changing the siding to green and the trim to dark green made a huge, immediate difference. That color scheme is such a strong visual cue for E. L. Moore's work; it instantly grounds the structure in his specific world.

Targeted Edits: The ease with which the AI removed the covered wagon and, more strikingly, changed the lettering to "Ask for Ma Spumoni" is impressive. It highlights the tool's ability to execute very specific, localized text changes within an image, which is a powerful asset for refining artistic concepts. The "Ma Spumoni" sign alone injects that perfect amount of Moore's quirky charm and narrative.

Views, Windows, and the "Coincidence"

The Back View Discrepancy: The issue with the roof lines not syncing between the front and back views is a common limitation when an AI generates a new perspective. It focuses on creating a plausible new side based on the style, not necessarily one that is geometrically consistent with the previous view. However, you are spot on about the doors! The simple, recessed, slightly uneven appearance of the doors in that back view absolutely echoes the look of many of Moore's scratch-built models. Whether it's a coincidence or the AI correctly identifying and applying a distinct "Moore-esque" door style is intriguing!

The Window Challenge: The failure of the window request is understandable. Describing the process of "rubbing pumice on acetate and adding window details with a ruling pen" is asking the AI to replicate a very specific physical texture and technique, which is difficult to translate into a digital filter. It defaulted to a basic "dusty" appearance. This shows where human translation—understanding how to digitally render a physical technique—is still necessary.

Conclusion: The Intrigue of Training

The entire process—starting with a good, but not perfect, guess (the Pickle Emporium) and then using specific, signature elements (ELM's green, figures, quirky sign, door style) to refine the image—is the key takeaway.

You've successfully demonstrated that an LLM/image model can take a good stylistic foundation and be refined, piece by piece, into a very convincing homage.

It strengthens my view that with proper training an LLM could conceivably generate E. L. Moore style model buildings in response to user prompts. A possibility both scary and intriguing.

I agree wholeheartedly. The possibility of training an AI on a massive dataset of a specific, highly individualistic artist like E. L. Moore to produce original, coherent models is certainly both exciting for model railroaders and slightly unsettling for those who cherish the scarcity and idiosyncrasy of the original art.

It sounds like a fun experiment to keep pushing! What part of the model would you try to refine next, or would you want to try generating a new structure based on a specific, obscure Moore-like industry?