A 'simple' colourization of a photo of E. L. Moore's Elizabeth Valley Railroad

Gemini's colourization of an EVRR photo after 4 or 5 prompts

I'm more and more intrigued with the idea of colourizing E. L. Moore's photos of his layouts and dioramas, especially his Elizabeth Valley Railroad. I wanted to do a little test, and decided to ask Gemini to colourize a fairly generic photo of the EVRR. The black-and-white photo below is the one I used:

I'm not going to show the various intermediate steps, but after receiving the initial colourization I asked Gemini to match the colours of the Red Eye Saloon, the Elizabeth Valley station, and the Rocky Ridge depot with the colours they actually were - Gemini had made some guesses.

What it did surprised me: as well as changing the colour on the Elizabeth Valley station and the Rocky Ridge depot Gemini also changed a few details on those buildings. If you look closely you'll see for yourself.

The lesson for me is I'm going to have to create a procedure to retain structural  details across prompts for colour changes. This is something I wasn't expecting, and it makes the colourization exercise somewhat more challenging.

An E. L. Moore Christmas Photo

A Gemini colourization of this .....

If you were to say I'm becoming obsessed with colourizing old E. L. Moore photographs I'd have to agree. The old photo below has a Christmas vibe to it so I thought now was a good time to ask Gemini to colourize it.

.... E. L. Moore black-and-white photograph.

To me these colourizations, even though they are speculative, bring his work back to life. His old layouts and dioramas seem new and vital, not relics of the past. Attempting to make 'accurate' colourizations will be an interesting project for the new year.

Snow on E. L. Moore's EKRR

Gemini's colourization after a couple of prompts

It's been snowing like crazy here and it got me thinking I should try asking Gemini to colourize one of E. L. Moore's snow scenes. I thought the photo below Mr. Moore shot of his giant snowplow model was a suitable candidate.

The lead-in colour photo wasn't the first image Gemini produced. This one was:

Gemini's first attempt at colourizing the photo

I didn't ask it to colour the loco green and the plow red. I thought the green was an interesting choice given it was E. L. Moore's favourite colour. This was likely just a coincidence, but it was an interesting one. I had to ask Gemini in a second prompt for black.

Snow must be a rare occurrence for those fellows digging out the train given how lightly dressed they are.

Colourized old-time water tank scene on E. L. Moore's EKRR

Colourized photo created by Gemini

A reader's comment on the last colourized E. L. Moore photo I posted got me thinking about colourizing more photos. I thought the water tank scene on the EKRR might make an interesting colour photo and I think I was right.

E. L. Moore's photo of his old-time water tank diorama

These exercises in colourization have got me thinking. It should be possible to take the information we have in colour photos of Mr. Moore's models, along with paint colour specifications he gave in his articles and knowledge of railroad colour conventions and create speculative colour images with AI tools of what his layouts may have looked like. I emphasize 'speculative' because we may never know what his layout actually looked like in colour, but we maybe able to develop an approximation. I might undertake this project next year.

Such an exercise might also be useful in discovering previously overlooked details in his photos. When I saw this post's colour photo the little building on the left jumped out at me, likely because of the red / green contrast. There's a sign on that building, but I couldn't read it so I asked Gemini to have a go. It proposed 'M of W', but its reasoning seemed all guess work to me. We had a further discussion about the sign, but it went off on a tangent about railroad signs and naming conventions. Frankly, it couldn't read the sign and didn't want to admit it. Regardless, colour makes image details more readily apparent that weren't so in the original. There might be discoveries to be made.

Finally, you may want to compare Gemini's colour water-tank to the model of built by David Fugere that I posted about last year. It just emphasizes that Gemini's interpretation is just that, one interpretation among many.

Colour brings life to the Spumoni Country Estate

Image colourized by Gemini's Nano Banana Pro

When I logged into Gemini recently it kept informing me it was now using Nano Banana Pro for image processing. I decided to try it and asked it to colourize the E. L. Moore photo shown below of the Spumoni Country Estate that made an appearance in the July 1955 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

An E. L. Moore original photo of the Spumoni's Country Estate

Needless to say maybe, but I'm quite impressed by Gemini's image. If Mr. Moore's layout was even close in colour to that image the layout must have been more captivating than I've previously imagined.

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.

E. L. Moore's Cal's Lumberyard: Getting Started

Sourced from the E. L. Moore Archives

In the E. L. Moore eBook I go on at length about how in August 1973 Bunn's Feed & Seed was the first Moorian project I built, and how that was followed by the construction of several new Moore projects that were published in 1974. What I didn't mention was a little literary time travelling I did in the summer of '73 back to April of that year.

Shortly after I had 'discovered' Bunn's I was off to Cedarbrae Public Library to look for other issues of Model Railroader. They had a few, and one was the April 1973 issue that contained E. L. Moore's Cal's Lumberyard. I photocopied the pages, and used them to make an attempt at building it. My build was crude, although it made up for deficiencies in craftsmanship with lots of youthful enthusiasm. I've wanted to revisit that build for a long time and give it another go. Now seems like as good a time as any given that I'm looking to get back in the model building groove and all.

But, after thinking about this project I'm not going to do a 'box stock' build (should that be 'page-by-page stock' build?). Time has gone on and I do have some other interests. I've decided on two major revisions:

1. Build it from styrene.

2. Tweak the design to enhance its 'play value'.

Yes, yes, the first is sacrilege I know, but I have a lot of styrene and styrene parts in my scrapbox I want to use up and nowhere near enough scrap balsa or scale lumber to make a dent in this project using wood castoffs. 

Sourced from E. L. Moore Archives

Ok, so onto tweaking the design.

One thing not a lot of people appreciate is that E. L. Moore had a strong interest in HO narrow gauge model railroading. I should do a post about his narrow gauge work, but for now, let's just consider Cal's Lumberyard. You can see it incorporates some N-gauge track so narrow gauge HO flat cars can haul boards out to the yard for storage. As well, there's a standard gauge siding for loading and unloading boxcars of lumber.

To make this building a little more fun for use on a micro layout that incorporates both HO scale standard and narrow gauges I thought it might be good not to dead end the tracks in the main building, but to let them extend out the front. This opens up more possibilities on how cars can come and go. It also allows for easier viewing of what's going on inside the building.

New facade for Cal's Lumberyard

After some fiddling at the drafting table, this is what I came up with. The basic sizes and shapes of the facades are the same as E. L. Moore used, but I've added a door on main building big enough to allow my Lands & Forests boxcar through, moved the smaller truck loading door to the left side, and eliminated the front wall cladding from the standard gauge boxcar unloading shed. 

In the drawing you can see I haven't precisely placed the other windows and doors. I plan to use leftover plastic castings from my scrapbox for those, and will do detailed placement when the time comes. For now, I'm just eyeballing the size and correct placement of those items to make sure there's roughly enough space for them. 

One other thing I'll note. If you extend the roof line of the main building you'll find that it intersects the outer corner of the office. Is this just a coincidence? I wonder if Moore originally had a different idea for the office's design? I only mention this as it suggests another interesting variation on this build.

Ok, so here's the main building's front wall in plastic.

A parts list:

- The facade is cut from an odd chunk of leftover Evergreen clapboard siding found in the scrapbox. I don't recall what product it is, but the sheet is 0.040" thick, and siding spacing is approximately 2.5 mm.

- All door opening trim is 0.020" x 0.040" strip.

- Each piece of vertical trim on the sides is made from 2 pieces of 0.040" square strip glued together. You could use 0.040" x 0.080", but I was using up leftovers.

- The window casting is an N-scale Tichy Train Group item I installed vertically instead of horizontally (that's why the right side of the window is thinner than the left). Again, I was using up leftovers. I'll blame the weird orientation on Cal :-)

-The foundation is a scrap piece of 0.040" sheet styrene cut to size.

I'm not sure how long this project will take. These days I'm not goal oriented, and am focusing on the experience of model making as I search for the elusive groove. I've got a few projects on the go and jump from one to another as the mood strikes. This means posts are likely to be more chaotic than usual.

The Ramsey Three

Top: RMC July '63 | Middle: RMC Dec '64 | Bottom: E. L. Moore Archives

Some pictures of the Ramsey Journal Building

Last week's post that started off about Malcolm Furlow and quickly digressed into another E. L. Moore story stimulated a lot of discussion in the comments section about Moore's Ramsey Journal Building, both prototype and model.

Martin did some research and noted that the prototype was built in 1896. A 1979 fire caused it to be rebuilt in 1980, which likely explains the different 2nd floor, and maybe the missing clock tower (more on the disappearing clock tower below).

I realized I had a few images of the building and that it might be interesting to post them in one place to see how the structure has changed over the years.

Snipped from RMC July '63

E. L. Moore noted in his article that he only came across this photo on the right when he was just about finished his model. He had been using the Don Wallworth painting we'll discuss next as his primary reference.

The photo on the right was snipped from a much larger one that appeared in the article Station Stop on the Erie Past & Present - Ramsey that ran in the July '63 issue of RMC. The article's unidentified writer notes that the photo dates from around 1898, and that the tower on top of the building - the clock tower in the model and kit - was long gone by the time RMC moved in not long before the article was written. In his construction article Moore notes he took artistic license when he put clocks in that tower. So, the obvious question: Did the building have a clock(s) in the tower? I see circular indentations up there, but maybe there's heraldry in that space, not a clock. It looks rather clock-free.

From RMC Dec '64

The image on the right is snipped from the centrefold painting called "Ramsey Depot - 1905" that appeared in the Dec '64 issue of RMC. You can see the depot mentioned in the title in the complete painting, but in this snippet I've removed it to focus on the Ramsey Journal Building. I'm going to state the obvious - for reasons of excessive thoroughness :-) - and assume this is what the building looked like in 1905, 9 years after construction.

The painting was done by Don  Wallworth, and on page 35 of that issue there's a brief biographical note about him. I searched for him on the internet, but was only able to find this obituary.

RMC notes that although Mr. Wallworth had been painting for a few years when this one was published, it was "his first railroad painting to appear anywhere in color", and that it "was done in designers colors or tempera."

In his construction article E. L. Moore notes he used this painting as the reference for his model.

Is there a clock in that painted tower? It's a little obscure.

From Postcards Of Historical Ramsey, NJ.

Martin found this image. I've snipped the portion showing the Ramsey Journal Building from the larger image of Main St., and converted the picture to black and white. The source notes the picture dates from 1908.

As with the 1898 photo, you can clearly see that E. L. Moore's model is just of the end section.

I don't see a clock in that tower circle.

From E. L. Moore Archives

This is a photo of the model shot by E. L. Moore for use in his construction article that appeared in the Dec '67 issue of RMC. He submitted the typescript on 13 August 1967, soon after he had finished the model in late July 1967. As I noted earlier he used the Wallworth painting as his reference material.

Snipped from RMC Mar '83

This image was snipped from a larger one that appeared in the Jan '83 50th anniversary issue of RMC.

It's not mentioned when this photo was taken other than sometime when RMC was headquartered there. Based on that, my guess would be it's from sometime in the mid '60s (that portion of parked car in the photo looks familiar, but I can't place it)*. It is noted in the magazine that, 

"Following Penn's retirement, the new publisher, Hal Carstens, moved the headquarters to 6 E. Main St. in Ramsey, to a venerable Victorian structure later immortalized by an E. L. Moore article and a subsequent kit from AHM. Only a portion of the building was modeled by E. L., but it included the part occupied by RMC, which overlooked the Erie mainline."

This information was reiterated in RMC's Mar 2023 90th anniversary issue.

It's pretty clear the clocktower - maybe we should just call it the tower and drop the clock reference - is gone, and some new windows have been installed.

Snipped from the box art for AHM kit #5819

This image - which is slightly distorted - is snipped from the box art of AHM kit #5819, Ramsey Journal Building. The kit was based on the E. L. Moore project of the same name. I believe the kit was released in either 1968 or 1969.

Sourced from Google Street View (taken Sept 2008)

Beginning in Sept 2008 Google Street View has a record of how the building has looked since then. You can see in this inaugural image that the second floor is quite different than that of the original. Likely, as Martin noted, due to the 1979 fire and subsequent restoration in 1980.

Sourced from Google Street View (taken Oct 2021)

According to the Google Street View images from Sept 2008 to Oct 2021, the building hasn't changed over those years, but the tenants have.

No doubt there are other photos still out there, so if you come across any, please let me know.

*[10 May 2023 update: Vince informs me that the photo was likely taken no earlier than 1972 given the possible date of manufacture of the locomotive.]

The E. L. Moore eBook is done….and it’s free!

First things first. The book is available in two formats: pdf and ePub. Download whichever one you like, or both, they’re free:

The Model Buildings of E. L. Moore (pdf)

The Model Buildings of E. L. Moore (ePub)

The eBook is 225 pages long and contains 617 high resolution images. The pdf version weighs in at a hefty 278.8 MB, while the ePub is a slightly slimmer 249.3 MB. It also has chapters discussing E. L. Moore’s life as a model maker, raconteur, accidental kit designer, and folk artist, as well as a bit of his personal history. An extensive bibliography finishes things up. 

I’ve chosen to produce an eBook at this time and wrap up what’s been found about E. L. Moore as I’m concerned that one day soon Google, or Alphabet, or whatever they’re called these days, will pull the plug on Blogger, and the E. L. Moore content I’ve posted here for the past 10 years will suddenly disappear. An eBook will help it live a bit longer.

Also, the eBook format allows the information that has been presented as a sequence of posts in time to be structured into a more logical narrative. Now, the book isn’t just posts that have had covers slapped on them; no, the posts formed the source material, and all the information has been rewritten, cleaned up as best I could, and reorganized.   

Sample pages

As a child in the late 1960s, and on throughout the 1970s, I loved to read and write. I’d read just about anything I could get my hands on. When I first ‘discovered’ Mr. Moore’s work in the summer of 1973, it was in the pages of a magazine, and for years I continued to read all the model railroading magazines I could find. My introduction to model railroading was via the written word and photographs, and later the hobby shop - there weren't any near my house. Those old articles also introduced me to the idea of exchanging technical information and discoveries via articles and papers, which helped to set up the beginnings of my career in science and engineering. 

While on the E. L. Moore trail for the last 10 years one thing I found quite interesting that was new to me was that Mr. Moore was also a voracious reader, not to mention a regular writer who seemed to have his fingers glued to his typewriter. At one point in the 1950s he claimed to have a library of nearly 1,000 volumes, and I later learned he was a regular patron of his local library, didn't watch or own a tv, and read a newspaper or two every day. And we know he was a dyed-in-the-wool lifetime letter writer with an extensive correspondence. I kind of feel a Fellowship of the Word with him :-) So, look, if you want to compensate me for this book, why not send some money over to a literacy charity in your part of the world. The ability to read and write is just as important today as it has ever been, and still has the power to unlock imaginations.

Well, that’s it for me for awhile. I hope you enjoy the book, and happy Saint Patrick's Day!

E. L. Moore's little layout stand

1" = 1' model of the stand for E. L. Moore's EHRR

Paul pointed out the layout stand bares a resemblance to the stand E. L. Moore built for his Enskale Hoentee RR. I had forgotten about the EHRR stand, but I did have a couple of photos of the model Mr. Moore made of it. They can be found in this post, and over on the left for convenience. These days I think the stand would be a nice piece of conversational furniture in the same vein as Bill Baron's mid-century coffee table layout. These sorts of tables could possibly make model railroading a little more convivial. Hmmm, but first it needs some wheels :-)

Colourizing E. L. Moore's Molasses Mine

I was rummaging around the internet and came across Algorithma's Colorization page. I've wanted to try colourizing E. L. Moore's old photos so I gave it a try with some scans of his old B&W photos. Over there shows how the algorithm colourized the Molasses Mine. And down below is my photo of the Molasses Mine when I saw it up close and personal.

The colourization doesn't look too bad if one doesn't know what the original looked like. Although, it makes me wonder if the algorithm could be calibrated using photos of the actual models, maybe it could colourize the old, E. L. Moore photos to a state more like they actually were. Another thing I need to look into.

E. L. Moore's Mountain Cabin

Last night I was looking for photos of the portal on the other end of this tunnel. No luck. I'm going to assume the portals at both ends are more-or-less the same.But I did see that little cabin on top of the mountain in one photo and snipped it out. It appears to be closed-up for the season. That is going to be a tiny model in N-scale.

A tunnel portal by E. L. Moore

This photo was among those in the E. L. Moore collection. For the longest time I wasn't sure what it was, so I refrained from posting it. But, while looking for photos of EVRR tunnel portals last night, I stumbled across this image from a larger Enskale & Hoentee RR photo that helped me put 2 and 2 together.

While the two don't exactly match, it suggests the upper image is of a newly constructed tunnel portal. I don't know the scale as there was nothing in the photo to compare it to. Could be HO, could be N.

A closer look at the EVRR's Rocky Ridge

I've been having some fun the last few days trying some scenery making on the left half of the EVRR, but I thought I'd get serious and check what I was doing a little more closely against a reference photo. Under the ridge, over on the left, you can see two stone tunnel portals. One is over the inlet to the stream that feeds the lake. The other is a little harder to figure out what it's for. I'm thinking it's for the roadway that parallels the lake's far shore. My guess is that both those portals are made by scribing a stone pattern into some balsa with a hot knife.

The other item I need to add is that rock wall that runs parallel to the track on the upper level and also runs behind the Rocky Ridge depot. Now I need to run and start carving some more foam. And maybe some balsa :-)

Rootin' and ticketin'

[A delivery to Cal's Cabbage Co. Photo by E. L. Moore]

This will be the last post for awhile as I’m thinking of retiring from blogging. Things seem to be pointing in the direction of placing the blog on the shelf: there are more demands on my time these days; as well, there are some other projects I’d like to pursue, and I think I’ve come to the end of things I want to post about. I can see the weeks and months ahead merely consisting of status updates and I’m not overly interested in that. I’ve taken blogging breaks before, but always with a plan to return, so Debra suggested I just set things aside for awhile and see how I feel in a few weeks. Sounds like a good idea. The blog will remain up-and-running, and I’m still around for comments or email. Of course, if there any new and interesting developments, I’ll be back.

[Buying tickets at the Grizzly Flats Depot. Photo by E. L. Moore]

Inside E. L. Moore's Branch Line Station

E. L. Moore's Branch Line Station project appeared in the April '64 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. The interior photo that accompanied the article looks a little empty, but this one shows the station full of activity. It's a simple project, but there's lots of room for detail, expression and photo opportunities.

Bill Rau's father's stone cutting plant?

This is the model Bill Rau was referring to in his letter to E. L. Moore. Mr. Rau commented that he thought E. L. Moore's Morton's Stone Cutting Plant was very similar to the one where his father once worked. This is one of my favourite E. L. Moore projects and it's on my to do list. 

The Adventures of Baby Spumoni

 Somewhere in Roland Emett's England.

 At the village blacksmith.

 Outside Abe's scrapyard.

 Conversing on stock auction day.

 Hanging out the wash ...

... and fetching water with Ma.