Spumoni Clubs again, hold the Frim Fram Sauce

The Spumoni Club is just as good in 2017 as it was in 2016, but maybe it does need a little sauce...

Breakfast with streetcars . . . and later some lunch

While eating an early breakfast at a cafe along Dundas, I snapped this streetcar zooming by on its way to pickup some sleepy commuters. 

At lunch, there's a long, thin line that separates Japanese curry from Indian biriyani.

Lord Baltimore Hotel in N scale with a side of toast

This fascinating video on how to construct an N-scale model of Baltimore, Maryland's Lord Baltimore Hotel was kindly brought to my attention by Galen Gallimore. When you're watching it, stay on the look out for all the other buildings in his model of the city of Baltimore. And when it's over, take a look at this video - one of my all-time favourites - celebrating the missing ingredient to Solihull-style Beans-on-Toast.

Spumoni Club Coach: Done like Dinner

.... he ougtha be thankful I didn't stick a book review in the middle of it and maybe a recipe for rhubarb pie...

E. L. Moore in a 15 May 1965 letter to Bill Rau suggesting all the extra things he could have added to his article, Turn Backward O Time, that appeared in the January '67 issue of Model Railroader.

Before continuing on with the interior, I added windows cut from a sheet of overhead transparency film and a door cut from a piece of 1/16" balsa with stripwood trim glued on. But once those two tasks were completed, it was on with the show.

The inside of the Spumoni coach is even more colorful than the outside. Light green walls, a velvety green carpet and upholstered coach seats in bright red. Full width seats were installed at each end, then four 3' wide seats were arranged in the middle. Uncle Charley, who provided that jug of mountain dew, is snoozing in his own special chair. The coach seats are easily built of balsa, shaped and joined as shown in the drawing, bent pins used for arm rests, then upholstered with tissue and painted. Lastly, a card table is done in green, was set in place.

I don't have any photos or drawings of the interior, only the above description. I made a few changes along the way - left out the card table, mountain dew jug, and Uncle Charley's special chair - but the interior worked out ok in the end.

And I swapped out the carpeting for astroturf. I used a piece of Woodland Scenics grass mat instead. 

The seats were built up from scraps of balsa. I used a couple of seated figures to help get the dimensions right. Those are the full width end benches above before they have been sanded into their final shape.

The individual 3' wide seats were made the same way. Once the seats were done, it seemed like a good time for a sit-down lunch of one of my favourite midday meals, Solihull-style Beans on Toast, and to continue the tradition in this series what E. L. Moore never was able to do in print :-)

This tasty little meal is courtesy of my English cousin who, when we naively asked him what were all the ingredients of beans-on-toast other than the obvious, proceeded into a detailed conversation with my Texan wife to come up with an Anglo-Texan version of an English classic. 

First off, you need some potatoes and cheese.

We used some organic potatoes, which are a bit on the small side, so you'll need 4 or 5 for two people. You'll also need to shred some cheddar cheese. Again, organic was used in this recipe.

Next, you need to heat up the pot of fixings. It consists of a can of Amy's Organic Chili (medium heat), a 114ml can of Casa Fiesta green chilies (mild heat), 1/3 cup of your choice of medium heat salsa (I can't recall the brand we used, but it was likely organic :-) ), and a little cumin. You can change the heat levels to suit your tastes. 

While the fixings are heating, cook the potatoes. We put them in the microwave then wrapped them in paper towel and transferred them to this 'potato pillow' to sit for a few minutes. However, any way you want to cook the potatoes - baking, boiling, etc - is fine.

Those are the cooked potatoes in their paper wrappers. Unwrap them, place two on each plate and mash flat. Pour on the fixings and sprinkle with the shredded cheese.

Lunch is served.

Suitably fortified, I went back to work and finished the seats. They were sanded to shape, painted with Model Master Acryl British Crimson, and thin wires were cut and installed for arm rests. I didn't wrap the seats in tissue to simulate upholstery because I didn't quite like that technique when I used it on the roof.

Getting to the bench seat on the left end of the coach might require breathing in or maybe stepping over the seats in the way. Things are a little tight, but it could make for a nice private setting for a card game :-)

And that is the Spumoni Club Special . . . OBG. The OBG? I'm not certain, but I think it means ON BURNT GRAVY.

E. L. Moore’s Spumoni Club Coach: Body and soul and cheese

There is no use pussyfooting in this matter. Do we or don’t we wish to wade into a passenger-car? We do? All right, let’s start. If we use home materials, the least we can do is to squander some time. If the result of our labors should not be satisfactory, we always have the trash can.

[Raymond Yates kicks readers in the metaphorical butt regarding passenger car construction on page 273 of his 1939 opus, Making & Operating Model Railroads]

The sides are 8 3/4' high by 20' long, and the ends are 8 3/4' high by 8' wide (presuming you're using 8' wide flooring).

At this point I thought it a good idea to make a drawing of a side and end to better understand the sizes of things. I laid out the drawing in 1/4" scale so I wouldn't have to fiddle with a tiny picture. The drawing's rough, but accurate - it's for working, not showing. You could do this on a computer, but I understand things better when I draw them with a pencil.

Since there are quite a few windows it would be wise to take the precaution of cementing a piece of thin stripwood above and below the window areas to prevent splitting while cutting out the openings (see Photograph A, inside of coach [this photo is missing]). At the same time another piece of stripwood should be cemented all around just 1' from the bottom edge for purpose of providing a ledge, simplifying matters when you come to assembling ends and sides around the floor.

I didn't do that prep work, but cut directly into the basswood without problem. Later, I did install an interior ledge so that the body fit properly on the the floor.

For the coach walls I used 1/16" basswood HO scale clapboard siding. An odd choice I realize, but I had a sheet - from the Mt. Albert Scale Lumber Co. - in my scrap box. The inscribed angling wasn't all that pronounced, so I decided to use what I had on hand inside of buying new material. E. L. Moore used 1/16" corrugated basswood sheet with the corrugations sanded down, so he too likely made do with what he had lying around. So, at least the 'made-do' ethos was preserved :-) Using the plan I drew the side in reverse on the sheet back.

The window openings are 2' x 3' except one which corresponds to the door and is 3' x 3' and the end windows are also 3' x 3'.

I used a brand-new #11 Xacto knife blade to cut out the openings, and used a new blade on each side. 

Then the side was cut free from the sheet. At this point the openings are still a bit rough and need to be cleaned up a little with sanding sticks and files. After all this work, and staring at that ribbed paneling for so long, I was reminded of my sandwich grill and had worked up an appetite :-) 

My favourite sandwich is a grilled cheese. Luckily, Debra had read my mind and had bought some aged cheddar, so we were ready to go.

Here's what you'll need ingredients-wise,

5 year old aged cheddar - Debra picked some organic stuff

Oatmeal bread

Honey mustard

6 slices of double-smoked bacon - if you're in Eastern Ontario, I recommend the stuff from Roadapple Ranch

Honey mustard

Olive oil

Once you've gathered that up, let's move on to assembly.

1. If you can convince your significant other to fry up the bacon while you prepare the sandwiches that would be most excellent, otherwise you need to get frying.

2. Brush olive oil on the outside surfaces of the bread. This is so the sandwich doesn't stick to the grill.

3. Shred enough cheese to make a significant pile as shown in the photo.

4. Spread the honey mustard on the bread's inside surface and then pile on the shredded cheese.

5. When the bacon is done, drain off the excess grease, cut into bite-size pieces and then stack equal amounts on both sandwiches. 

Once the grill is hot, stick the sandwiches in and grill until they're golden brown and the cheese is melty. The aged cheddar will look a bit curdled when done, but everything will taste just fine.

Get some plates; you're done! These sandwiches have intense flavour, so If you want something a little milder, as we did the next day, use a 50/50 mixture of a medium cheddar and mozzarella instead of the 5 year old aged stuff.

After sleeping off lunch for awhile, it was back to work. The coach wall openings were cleaned up with sanding sticks and files. The pieces were then painted with Tamiya acrylic XF-76, Gray Green (IJN).

Each opening is then fitted with an inner sash of 1/32" square stripwood cemented in so as to be flush with the inside surface. Then, after painting, a single strip of acetate will serve for the row of openings.

Instead of Mr. Moore's recommendation, I glued in some 1/32" balsa sheet to the inside of each wall. You can see that a ledge is provided for the wall to rest on the floor. These inner panels also act to form a recess for some clear strip to be used as window glazing.

The door isn't cut all the way through. The wood was shaved down to a smooth surface and a simulated door worked in with pencil and knife. It's the type of door which might have been salvaged from a bus, opening as it does, in the middle.

I did go ahead and cut the door all the way through. I'll make up a separate door and install it when I get around to adding the windows.

Six inch wide trim (1/32 x 1/16" for HO) sanded down to a more refined thinness, is added to the sides and ends as shown. One piece of 1/32 x 1/16" stripwood forms a window ledge all around.

For trim, I used Mt. Albert Scale Lumber Co.'s 2x4 scale lumber strips I had in my scrap box. Trim pieces were painted with Tamiya acrylic XF-4 Yellow Green prior to installation. I thought it would be tedious gluing all that trim into place, but it was a surprisingly pleasant activity. I think it was because the sides seemed to come to life as each piece was added. 

When assembled around the 8' x 19' floor, it should present a coach with a finished body size of 9' x 20'.

Yeap, it does! Once the trim was installed on the long sides, I glued the 4 walls onto the floor. I trimmed the end walls once everything was dry. For some reason I thought I wouldn't get the trim on the end walls to line up properly with the side wall trim if I trimmed the end walls prior to assembly. 

Well, it was a little awkward to apply trim strips to the ends after assembly, but it wasn't too hard and I got the alignment I was looking for. Digital photos are unforgiving, I see a few areas that need some touchup painting :-( Gotta go clean up the grill - until next time.

Probably there is a moral side to this car building. Many beginners are afraid to tackle the job of making a car of any kind, feeling that it is quite beyond their skill. This is a rather cowardly attitude. Perhaps our first work will not merit a blue ribbon, but what of it? As we move along, we shall gain in experience and, if we are made of the right stuff, we shall eventually reach a point of perfection that will permit us to fashion cars of all sorts with really delightful results. It costs little to nothing to try our hand at it. We don’t need to buy our scale trucks or couplers unless the body of the car merits such attention when it is finished.

[Raymond Yates revels the secret that all experienced model builders know: keep building, don’t give up on page 278 of Making & Operating Model Railroads]

E. L. Moore's Spumoni Club Coach: Lunch, ruler and wheels

E. L. Moore was best known for his HO scale model buildings; however, he did publish a small number of articles about making HO scale rolling stock [1],

with the Spumoni family in Merrie Old England; Railroad Model Craftsman, January 1956 (photos of E. L. Moore’s Rowland Emmett style rolling stock)

Photo in Stop, look and listen of E and K train where 6 of the 7 cars are scratch-built; Model Trains, January 1959
Old-Time Log Buggies; Model Trains, March 1960

Snowplow in an Evening; Model Trains, January 1961

Slim gauge carriage; Railroad Model Craftsman, September 1961

Open-air excursion coach; Model Trains, Fall 1961

The little red caboose; Model Trains, December 1961

Central Pacific snowplow; Model Trains, January 1962

A new look for the Old General; Model Trains, March 1962

Six-Ton Jimmy; Model Railroader, May 1967 (manuscript written in 1963)

An Easy Narrow Gauge Coach; Railroad Model Craftsman, March 1969 [2]

While reading through E. L. Moore’s files I came across an unpublished rolling stock manuscript called Spumoni Club Coach written in 1963 [3]. I’ve never built rolling stock before, so I thought I’d give it a try with this project. 

The notes on the manuscript indicate there were 3 accompanying photos and a sheet of drawings. The only photo I came across was the opening beauty shot. The other photos and drawing are missing. I found the text a little hard to follow without the other photos - one was probably a photo of all the parts prior to assembly laid out in kit form - and the drawing, so I’m going to intersperse my own notes, photos and drawings throughout his manuscript to aid the explanation. E. L. Moore’s manuscript is in Courier, and my notes are Arial. Here we go.

SPUMONI CLUB COACH

BY 

E. L. Moore

I'll admit Spumoni Club Special sounds a lot like a three decker sandwich. Fact is, back in the days when Ma Spumoni presided over the Red Eye Saloon [4], she did put out just such a sandwich. Pork, beef and chicken, with pickle, all for 15 cents. But them days are gone forever.

Hold on a minute. I can’t think of a better way to start a new project than with lunch. Debra and I discussed that sandwich at length, and being the master chef she is, as well as head-honcho here at the 30 Squares media empire, she came up with an excellent spin on the classic club sandwich a la E. L. Moore’s triple decker memory. I hand this part of the post over to her to explain how to make your own incredibly delicious 2016 Spumoni Club Special Sandwich.

2016 Spumoni Club Special Sandwich

A new twist on an American classic

Makes two generous sandwiches (one for you and one for someone you really like)

Ingredients:

6 slices of Premiere Moisson Country Style Round Loaf Bread, toasted (Baked in Quebec with no artificial anything. Sold at Farm Boy in eastern Ontario).

6 slices of nitrate-free, Double-Smoke Bacon, pan-fried (Drug-free meats from Roadapple Ranch, Finch, Ontario. Tell Mike that Debra sent you).

100g of nitrate-free, thinly sliced chicken.

100g of Farm Boy, AAA Beef deli meat, sliced thin (roasted in the Farm Boy kitchen, no nitrates, no additives of any kind).

Your favorite mayonnaise.

1 thinly sliced, ripe tomato and romaine lettuce, preferably both organic.

1. Each sandwich uses 3 slices of bread. One slice of bread acts as the divider between the two layers of the sandwich. One layer has chicken, bacon, lettuce and tomato. The other layer has beef, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. Spread mayonnaise thinly on each internal side of the bread slices.  

2.  Serve with a pickle. It is also especially good with a pile of Red Apron sliced Bread and Butter Pickles .  You long-time readers know Red Apron from previous posts in this blog.  If you don't like pickles, it's also great with Broccoli Slaw.

My recommendation is that you stop at this point, make some sandwiches, enjoy lunch with someone close, come back in an hour or two and we’ll get started. Google willing, I’ll still be here when you return :-)

The Club Coach was really the old man’s idea -- Pa Spumoni’s. He wanted a mobile retreat where the boys could get together for a little friendly game and some celebrating now and again. The middle of Skunk Hollow Trestle seemed the ideal spot, but apparently Ma set Pistachio, Jr on their trail and dogged them down.

["The private car of the "Cirrhosis Club" of the Grasse River Railroad in upper New York State picks up the happy lumber workers and returns them to camp after the saloons close on Saturday nights. C. M. Clegg photograph." As E. L. Moore notes, this photo appears on page 298 of Lucius Beebe's Mixed Train Daily, published by Howell-North in 1947 - I have the 1961 edition.]

Now if you think this coach is a modeler’s wild dream, then just you take a gander at page 298 of MIXED TRAIN DAILY. However, the interior of Pa Spumoni’s coach is probably a bit more sumptious [sic] than that of the Grasse River club car.

When I read that paragraph I went straight to my bookshelf and opened up the copy of Mixed Train Daily Debra gave me for my last birthday, and lo and behold, there it was. You'll notice that the window height to skirting proportions on the car are a little different on the prototype and they result in larger windows. 

Photograph (A) [this photo is missing] pretty well shows the necessary parts of the coach ready for assembling. The only commercial parts used are a T-25 Central Valley old time passenger truck with an 8’ wheelbase, and one from a set Selley’s #335 work car steps. Any truck with a similar length wheelbase will do.

I'm still looking for work car steps - maybe I'll make my own from styrene - but a friend of mine gave me an HO scale passenger car truck in response to my whining that I had no such thing in my scrap box on the condition that I not mention his name in the post. Thank-you Mr. X!

It's not an old time passenger truck, it's Italian made, from a larger, more modern passenger car and probably dates from the '70s or '80s. It's 8'-6" between wheel centres, so its size is close. Besides, I spent all my money on sandwiches, so I can't look a free truck in the couplers :-) I decided to make a few repairs on this piece and go with it. 

I removed the built-in coupler and returned it to Mr. X. I then replaced the wheel sets with some 30" diameter Walthers wheels. They have much smaller flanges and turn more freely than the originals. The side frames were a little splayed, so I glued in some styrene pieces to square things up.

Some styrene shims were glued on top to provide a level surface for the car body. Once all these styrene pieces were glued on, the mounting hole was drilled into the truck centre. The original hole was off-centre, so it had to be relocated anyway.

A few scraps of balsa, about five inches of 1/16” thick commercial sheathing, and you’re in business. Instead of regular sheathing I sanded down some 1/16” corrugated wood roofing to get the effect of very narrow sheathing (I had hoped!) 

I still need to settle on what I'm going to use to build the sides. 

And then, of course the floor, a piece 1’ thick by 8’ by 19’ long. A slice from a souvenir or advertising yardstick makes ideal flooring. The roof is removable and fits down over the sides.

Turns out I do have a few old yard sticks they used to give away in hardware and paint stores, and had a broken piece so I didn't need to contemplate ruining some relic. 

I cut a 19' section from the yardstick to use as the floor. It turns out the floor thickness scales to 1'-3" instead of the 1' E. L. Moore specifies, so I'll need to make some adjustments to the side walls. The good news is the width does indeed match the 8' spec. 

Beginning with the floor, center the truck and fasten it on with a screw, then lay it aside and tackle the sides and ends.

I painted the floor bottom flat black and the top green. That isn't the screw protruding into the floor, but a wood chip left over from the pilot hole that I later cleaned away.

That's it for now. Join me again for lunch and some coach body construction!

Digressions

[1] The Spumoni Club Coach is in the lineage of Slim gauge carriage, Open-air excursion coach, and An Easy Narrow Gauge Coach: easy going passenger equipment. I get the impression from these builds that they aren’t so much for getting from one place to another, but for just getting away. Getting away from it all. Freelanced and free-and-easy. Escape is the prototype.

[2] If you've read E. L. Moore's An Easy Narrow Gauge Coach that was published in the March 1969 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman you'll note that that coach is a narrow gauge variation on the Spumoni Club Coach. Mr. Moore converted an AHM N-scale mine car to an HOn2 1/2 coach. And, hold onto your hats: he notes in the article this was his first project that made use of styrene! Yes, a project predominately of styrene. He stated that since the car being converted was styrene, it made sense to use it for the modifications. He also seems to be a relatively sophisticated styrene builder at that, recommending to the reader to use a liquid cement - Testor's liquid was his choice - instead of the tube stuff.

[3] I’ve also come across another unpublished rolling stock project called Alaska Railroad Cement Mixing Car that was written in 1969. It seems to have 2 sheets of drawings, and between 3 and 6 photographs accompanying the manuscript, but they appear to be lost. As Mr. Moore states in the manuscript’s opening paragraph, “It is nothing more than a cement mixing machine mounted on the end of a flatcar, with a few conveniences built around it extemporaneuous manner." His prototype was a photograph by “John (The Beard) Henderson” sent to him by “a friendly critic up Alaska way.”

[4] Construction of Ma Spumoni’s Red Eye Saloon was presented in Civic center for Boomtown in the March ’63 issue of Model Railroader. Apparently as well as those 15 cent triple-decker sandwiches, “... a 5-cent beer entitled you to a free lunch and the atmosphere was hazy with the smoke of good 5-cent cigars. This was when sumptuous 25-cent dinners were cooked on wood-fed stoves and dinner buckets were packed to capacity....”.