E. L. Moore's Soo City barge

All photos courtesy James L. Dixon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

A Dilly of a diorama

I finally got the lead out and finished the first diorama. This one is an homage to the industrial strip that ran along one edge of E. L. Moore's old time shortline terminal yard, featured in his article Turn Backward, O Time that appeared in the January 1967 issue of Model Railroader. If you have access to that issue you can see these models on pages 57, 62, and 64. Here we are in January 2023, 56 years later, and I'm still impressed that these little buildings are in such great shape. They let us see that Mr. Moore was a great colourist, something that readers half-a-century ago in that long gone black-and-white world never knew. That yard of his would have been a sight to see. Well, my time machine's buried under a mountain of snow, so we'll never know :-)

E. L. Moore's Old Red Barn

All model photos courtesy of James L. Dixon

You might recall that back in May Paul figured out that one of the E. L. Moore mystery pieces was the cowshed from the barn described in ELM's article, The Old Red Barn, that appeared in the January 1966 issue of Model Railroader. Recently, I generously received some detail photos of the rest of the barn from E. L. Moore's grandson.

A photo of this view of the barn's end wall is clearly shown in the article, and one thing that strikes me about the model on the left is that it has no window in the peak, and the decorative circular designs on the middle of the wall are missing. So, I'm wondering if this is a duplicate of the model that appeared in the article. As Mr. Moore notes in the article's opening paragraph,

I really built two barns, one for a fellow modeler who wanted a bit classier barn with matched siding and a cupola to set it off. But both barns are basically the same, with similar skeletons serving both. The difference is in the finish.

So, I'm thinking this is the less classier one.

You can see from this interior shot that there are no cutouts for windows near the end wall peaks.

But, I do like that interior, and the straw is still there.

Here's a closer look at the straw and interior framing around it, which is quite neatly done and precise.

It's even got a curious pig, and what looks like a rooster.

Here's a view of the framing looking in the opposite direction. Again, the joinery is quite well done.

Animals abound in this barn. Here's a collie.

A chicken looking for some seed.

Another chicken and what looks like a goat, or maybe that's the animal I thought was a pig in a previous photo.

Looks like it's feeding time. 

As you know, I consider E. L. Moore an American folk artist who plied his art in the world of model railroading. A number of his builds are more in the folk art vein than strictly model railroading, and this is another example in the folk art category. In the article's introductory paragraph ELM notes as much,

I wanted a souvenir to recall a phase of my wasted youth, so I set about building a barn with memory - it being some 40 years since I was last down on the farm - as my only guide.

ELM was raised on a farm in rural Michigan in the early years of the 20th century, so this sounds like it was a model of the barn on his parents' farm.

Piece #2 = Cowshed

Left image snipped from MR Jan'66

Many thanks to Paul and his excellent sleuthing skills! He provided the important clues that identified mystery piece #2 as the cowshed that's attached to E. L. Moore's The old red barn project that appeared in the January 1966 issue of Model Railroader. I don't know if the barn still exists somewhere, but it's good to know part of it does.

One further note. You see that cabin in the upper left corner of the black-and-white photo? I think that's the Elizabeth Vally Cabin being reused in the photo shoot.

A Mini Moore Mystery

Piece #1

I've been puzzling over these two stray pieces of E. L. Moore buildings for quite sometime and can't figure out where they might come from. So, dear reader, I'm asking you, do you recognize these pieces?  

Piece #2

I offer no prizes other than glory. If you think you know which models they're a part of, please let me know in the comments.

Going out with a bang: More E. L. Moore Outhouses

All images courtesy James L. Dixon

This being the last post documenting the collection of E. L. Moore models owned by his grandson, I thought we'd go out with some outhouses. I say some, as there's more than what I've shown in this post. The rather suggestive ones I've withheld as I don't want trouble with Google's net nannies. I'll put photos of the complete collection in the book.

ELM considered himself something of a Specialist in HO-scale outhouses, and we've seen some examples of his work before (here and here).

In the above image, the 3rd outhouse from the left is actually the outhouse for Mr. Pottle's Potworks that appeared in the September 1975 issue of Model Railroader. 

ELM described how he built his outhouses in an article called A Mighty Relaxin' Job that appeared in the November 1975 issue of the NMRA Bulletin. As you might imagine, the article was something of a hot potato. It was first offered to Railroad Modeler in August 1972, but much to ELM's chagrin, they rejected it, for obvious reasons. RMC and MR wouldn't touch it.

Well, that's that. Again, I thank ELM's grandson for allowing me to post pictures of his collection, and give us a more complete understanding of his grandfather's work.

A new E. L. Moore cabin

All photos courtesy James L. Dixon

The date on the bottom of this cabin says 1978, which if it's to be believed, means ELM decided to pick up where he left off in the early 1960s and build another cabin. It looks like this particular one was unpublished, and is a new find.

We've seen some cabins before. There were these two, where the larger one appeared as a background building in the lead photo to the unpublished article, The little church on the hill, and the smaller one looks like it was based on a photo from the book, Cabins in the Laurel. There was also this cabin, whose construction was described in ELM's December 1963 Railroad Model Craftsman article, Easy To Build Cabin or Cottage. 

Love that bear skin. 

An aside. In the '60s my grandmother had a bear skin, much like that in ELM's model, hanging on an inside wall of her garage. My uncle had shot the bear during his time on the Pinetree Line. It was making frequent raids on their camp looking for food.

I think all the cabins ELM made relate back either to his time in the Great Smoky Mountains or to his childhood days in rural Michigan. I can't yet prove this conjecture, so it's so far just another of my speculations. 

As per his usual technique, ELM didn't build the walls from individual logs, but carved log shapes into sheets of balsa.

It looks like the fireplace's stonework is texture paper, and not cut in with a wood burning tool as per his usual method. But, it looks good.

Like many ELM projects, the roof comes off to show a detailed interior.

The living area almost looks like a reading room. This seems like a theme across a few ELM builds. That other large cabin includes a bookcase full of books, and then there's the Bookery.

As you can see, the attic level also lifts out. In his other large cabin, the attic level was the sleeping area.

Overall, this is a very nice project, and given that he returned to this theme later in life, it might have a personal significance for him that I haven't grasped.

A second Elizabethton Depot

All photos courtesy James L. Dixon

This is the second Elizabethton Depot we've seen. Like the first, this model is also dated 1967 on the bottom, even though the original upon which the design of these two 1967 versions are based was published in the December 1964 issue of Model Railroader in the article Down by the Depot. Both of these '67 versions have more refined construction than the '64. You can see a photo of the original in this image of downtown Elizabethton on the Elizabeth Valley Railroad.

Unlike the first version, this one is mounted on a base that could serve as a platform on a railroad.

It looks like ELM has modelled one front window as being propped up by a ruler.

The outhouse is not in good repair. You can see its roof is missing.

And from this overhead view you can see a sidewall is also missing as well as one of the front privacy walls. Here's what the outhouse looks like on the first version.

I can see the scale on the left side of the shed.

Yeap, there it is. My guess is that it's a commercial item, but it might be scratchbuilt.

The decorative trim along the ridge line is a little damaged, but there's enough left that a replacement could be made that would exactly match the original.

Like many other ELM models, the roof is removable and exposes a fully detailed interior. The roof design is the same as used on the first version.

It has an excellent interior just like the first version.

I like how the desk in the centre room even has books on it.

The red chairs look comfortable. 

Also, in this view it's clear that ELM once again carefully set the window glass in the frames, as Paul pointed out in the five window schoolhouse post. That's some nice attention to detail on ELM's part.

I wonder if ELM built both versions at the same time, or one after the other? If I knew at the outset that I wanted two models, I'd do them at the same time. It's a trivial question of course, but another that'll never be answered.

E. L. Moore's Tugboat & Barge

All photos courtesy James L. Dixon

We've seen a couple of boats by E. L. Moore before. One was a tugboat whose construction was described in Add a Harbor to your Pike, a 2-part article that appeared in the January and February 1968 issues of Railroad Model Craftsman.

The tugboat shown in the photo, the Taurus, also appeared in that 2-part article. However, the Taurus is a kit that was sold by a company called Model Shipways. ELM notes in the article that he used it to figure out how to build a boat model, and then applied that knowledge to scratch build the other tugboat and the barge, also shown in the photo.

The articles also described how to build a sail loft, which we have also seen. If all these boats and the loft could be acquired, the harbor scene from the articles could be recreated. A tantalizing idea.

Is this the well from the Spumoni's Country Estate?

All colour photos courtesy James L. Dixon

No.

But, it's highly reminiscent of it.

Image from E. L. Moore Archives

Back in 1955 ELM published a photo essay in the July issue of Railroad Model Craftsman called Spumoni Country Estate. Over there is one of the featured photos with Ma Spumoni lifting a bucket of water from the well, and Baby Spumoni trying to keep his diaper from falling off.

It's not the same well as in the lead photo, but it may have inspired it.

There's no date on the bottom, so its vintage is a bit hard to figure out. I'm going to take a guess that it was built in the mid to late 1970s based on two flimsy pieces of 'evidence'. And what could be flimsier than some texture paper :-)

The roof is papered with a sheet that looks similar to that used on the 4th version of the Schaefer Brewery, which was built in 1979. The papering on the well's body looks like the same material used on Mr. Pottle's Potworks that was published in the September 1975 issue of Model Railroader - and come to think of it, I think ELM used the same style of roof sheets on the Potworks. So, my guess is that leftover texture papers from a project(s) undertaken in the 1970's were used to make this little model. As I've said before, this is the internet, and this is my contribution to its wild world of flimsy speculation :-)

E. L. Moore's blacksmith shop for his single stall engine house

All colour photos courtesy James L. Dixon

In 2015 when I saw the single stall engine house that was the subject of ELM's article, Home for Small Locos in the March 1973 issue of Railroad Modeler, I wondered what had happened to the accompanying blacksmith shop. I need wonder no more, 'cause here it is!

The blacksmith shop I saw back in 2015 was the one ELM wrote about in Yard Blacksmith Shop in the October 1965 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. It was similar to this one, but the two aren't identical.

Image snipped from Railroad Modeler, Mar. '73

You can see the single stall engine house's blacksmith shop over in the image on the right snipped from ELM's Railroad Modeler article.

ELM doesn't describe how to build this little model in the article, but the construction methods look pretty much like those used in his '65 RMC article.

The end wall is quite simple. 

As is the full side wall.

Where things get interesting is inside. Unlike the RMC blacksmith shed, this one appears to have a fully preserved interior.

And finally, there's the bottom. Looks like it was built in 1969. FK? I think that refers to ELM's friend, Fred Kelley. Mr. Kelley once owned the single stall engine house model, as you can see if you look way in the back in this picture. So, him owning the blacksmith shop too doesn't seem like much of a stretch. Although, maybe the shop was meant for Mr. Kelley, but he never received it.