E. L. Moore's Caricatured Rowland Emett Castle survives!

All photos courtesy James L. Dixon

While we're on the subject of Rowland Emett, I was pleased to see that the castle ELM built for his Rowland Emett tribute diorama still exists. It's in rough shape, but this is one of the very earliest ELM models to have appeared in a published photo - dating from January 1956 in Railroad Model Craftsman.

I wouldn't consider any repair or restoration of this model. Like many time ravaged real castles, this one exhibits a regal beauty that shouldn't be tampered with.

As we see in the diorama photo, the castle was a background building, and didn't need to be detailed on sides that wouldn't be seen.

The stone colours are quite nice and have aged well.

E. L. Moore's Earthquake Producer: Now in Living Colour!

All photos courtesy James L. Dixon

I've only seen an old black-and-white photo of this thing and assumed the model was lost to time.

I assumed wrong.

And, as an added bonus, there are operating instructions on the back!

Rube Goldberg, eat your heart out.

You can see the vertical columns are missing from the corners, but at least all the equipment seems to be present and accounted for.

The columns in the old black-and-white photo look rather simple, just cylinders, probably wooden dowels, with squares of wood glued to either end, so restoration wouldn't be difficult. Colour matching could be a little tricky though.

The light still works! 

Speaking of seeing the light, I wonder if this contraption has a bit of Roland Emett in its DNA as well as Rube Goldberg. ELM was a big Roland Emett fan, and maybe ELM's use of 'railways' instead of 'railroads' is a clue. Ok, ELM does slip in a 'railroad' and 'pike' in the instructions, but the use of railway seems more than accidental. Not to mention the crazy vibe fits very well with ELM's Emett fan builds. Well, this is the internet, and that's my contribution to wild speculation for today.

Rowland Emett nicknacks on the Elizabeth Valley RR

That locomotive is from E. L. Moore's Rowland Emett tribute diorama and was found parked on a siding of the Elizabeth Valley RR....

Looks like someone is pouring something into the machine. That's the Elizabethton Depot over on the right.

That's a snippet from a larger scene on the Emett diorama. Same loco, different station: Twittering Halt.

In the mountains surrounding the Elizabeth Valley, Mr. Moore hid away the wandering house that appeared in both the Emett diorama and the Water Wheel Mill scene. Wherever it goes, it aways seems to be To Let :-)

Waldo Hoople's Vehicle

[Waldo Hoople poses with his Vehicle for E. L. Moore's Waldo Hoople: Father of Railroading that appeared in the July '76 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.]

This was the introductory photo to E. L. Moore's Waldo Hoople: Father of Railroading that appeared in the July 1976 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Even though I spent a lot of time tweaking the scan, it's neither one of Mr. Moore's finest photos, nor one of his finest pieces of model building, but it does have a few things to say.

[Waldo Hoople's Vehicle bears a striking resemblance to Roland Emett's locomotives, especially Nellie, whose portrait was sourced from Emett's Domain: Trains, Trams and Englishmen.]

E. L. Moore's article is a story about Waldo Hoople, gentleman pig and chicken farmer and enterprising inventor in Revolutionary era America, and his Vehicle, a locomotive powered by the droppings of those pigs and chickens. It's all story, no construction project, and was clearly commissioned to be part of Railroad Model Craftsman's bicentennial issue. American bicentennial aside, Mr. Hoople's Vehicle looks a lot like one of Englishman Rowland Emett's locomotives, especially Nellie

[Major Hoople of Our Boarding House fame. The comic strip ran from 1921 to 1984.]

Speaking of uncanny resemblances, when I saw the name Waldo Hoople in the title, and the portly fellow standing by the locomotive, I immediately flashed back to Major Amos B. Hoople, the star of the old comic strip Our Boarding House. Waldo's tale is right up there with any tall tale the Major spun, although the fez was traded in for a fedora.

Rowland Emett inspired cabins

In the comments to the Water wheel mill post it was pointed out that the little cabin that appears in the background near the mountain's peak might be an E. L. Moore model that we haven't seen before. I thought it might be the little cabin that appears in E. L. Moore's Rowland Emett diorama, so I decided to enlarge both cabins and check. The image above is the cabin from the Water wheel mill photo....

... and this one is from the diorama. They're very similar. Are they one and the same, or two models of the same 'prototype'? They're photographed from slightly different angles, so it's a little hard to match reference points. Mr. Moore was known to build several examples of a particular model, so they might be two different builds.

I can't say conclusively if they're the same model, but they are very similar.

Un-Nixing Emett's Caricatured Castle

One of E. L. Moore's earliest publications was a photo essay of a diorama he built celebrating the work of Rowland Emett. While going through a stack of E. L. Moore's photographs I came across this one of the diorama's castle - it's located in the upper left corner of the scene.

For whatever reason, Mr. Moore 'Nixed' the original photo and stashed it away. Sixty years later I come along with a scanner and software to do the un-Nixing. 

Why might this photo have been marked 'Nix'? From the note on the back of the picture, I suspect it was one of the 8 photos that accompanied Mr. Moore's 'Versatile Modeling Tool: The Woodburning Pen' manuscript. He sent it and the photos to Model Trains on 12 November 1961, and Andy Anderson, Model Trains' editor, offered to buy it for $45 on 1 December 1961. Model Trains soon ceased publication; however, the article appeared in the July 1962 issue of Model Railroader, who owned Model Trains assets, but without the Caricatured Castle photograph - probably because it wasn't railroady. There's some upside-down handwriting possibly noting when the photo was returned to Mr. Moore; hence, Nixed.

E. L. Moore’s Ode to Emmett

[In the January 1956 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, there was a photo essay by E. L. Moore called with the Spumoni family in Merrie Old England. It was a collection of photos of a diorama Mr. Moore built based on the works of Roland Emmett - basically, it was an homage to Emmett’s work. This master photo shows the entire diorama, and from it you can see the scenes that appear in the ’56 photo essay]

E. L. Moore’s friend, Bill Rau, suffered a heart attack in September ’67. He was laid up in hospital for a number of weeks (note, he recovered and resumed his editorial duties at Model Railroader) and during that time Mr. Moore sent him some letters to lift his spirits. One, dated 1 Oct ’67, included a poem that was to have accompanied the photos in that Jan ’56 RMC photo essay.

Here’s a little ditty after the fashion of Carryl’s Robinson Crusoe Story:

1

I often find diversion

In a holiday excursion

On the little railroad that you see;

And we travel up and down

Then, stopping at a town

Refresh ourselves with whistleberry tea,

2

We stop at every station

To give the engine medication,

And to buy up souvenirs for home.

We get blisters on our hinies

From sitting, talking with the limeys,

And more while writing up this travel pome.

3

We never have to worry,

And we’re never in a hurry,

For we have our own domesticated cow;

While in the coach ahead

The Dukes and Lords are fed

On refrigerated, germinated chow.

4

Our coach is light and airy,

But quite unsanitary,

For the plumbing has a weather-beaten look.

We live from hand to jug

Weighing calories by the glug,

For we have no pots and pans with which to cook.

5

We had an invitation

From the Duke of Ostentation

To scale at Castle Twitching By-The-Sea

We bought a ship for sailing

But it had a single failing

It was anchored on a mountain balcony.

6

I’ve come to the conclusion,

So I’ll put my sox and shoes on,

For the ties and cinders hurt my feet.

You see, I lost my bloomin’ ticket

In a bloody game of cricket,

So I’m walking home down railroad street.

I had a set of pictures, one to illustrate each verse, or vice versa -- the pictures appeared in RMC once many years ago -- here’s one of them -- a take-off on the English caricaturist, Rowland Emmett and his Nellie, or whatever his engine’s name was.

Carryl was Charles Edward Carryl, an American stock broker and children’s literature author who was born in 1841 and died in 1920. His poem, Robinson Crusoe’s Story, was published in 1919.

Rowland Emett's Afternoon Tea-Train to Wisteria Halt

A a couple of weeks ago Debra and I visited the Ontario Science Centre while we were in Toronto to see their exhibit of Rowland Emett machines. The OSC puts their collection on display every year at Christmastime, and while we were in town I wanted to make sure I saw it. I hadn't been to the OCS since the late '70s, so it was something of a homecoming.

They have a large collection and it was on display in the Great Hall. We arrived early on a Saturday morning soon after opening, so crowds were still thin. That airplane in the first photo I seem to remember from the '70s, but the other machines were new to me...

... especially the train.

The sign accompanying The Afternoon Tea-Train to Wisteria Halt had this to say,

Designed and constructed by Rowland Emett, this well-loved train is hauled by Nellie, the senior engine of the line, which embodies all that is most pleasing in locomotive practice.

Light milking in this section is here seen taking place for the benefit of the afternoon tea First Service, and it should be made absolutely clear that the semi-permanent cow bears no malice towards First-Class passengers, but absent-mindedly chews their ostrich feathers through sheer boredom.

Some of E. L. Moore's earliest work was an homage to Rowland Emett's trains, so I was glad to see one 'up-close-and-personal' even though it wasn't one he modelled. 

Debra's excellent investigative skills eventually connected me with the OSC's Director of Science Content and Design, and she noted that although Mr. Emett made copies of a number of his machines - much like E. L. Moore often made duplicates of a number of his models - but the Tea-Train is the only one ever made. I should note that it's in excellent condition and runs flawlessly.

The OSC's website notes that the Emett machines are on display until 3 January, so if you're in Toronto, I highly recommend you go see them.

To Let

Back in the All Things Weird and Wonderful post I was mentioning how E. L. Moore's earliest work was an homage to Rowland Emett. While paging through Emett's Domain:Trains, Trams and Englishmen I came across that image on the right. It reminded me of image on the left from E. L. Moore's photo spread, with the Spumoni family in Merrie Old England, that appeared in the Jan. '56 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. True to form, Mr. Moore left out the converted trams, and being an ex-navy man, replaced them with a precariously balanced ship :-)

E. L. Moore builds a blimp...

... or maybe just a fanciful steerable balloon. The more I read, the more I discover. This is a slice from a photo that appeared in the Stop, look and listen section of the December 1959 issue of Model Trains - which I recently obtained. It's another view into the world shown in with the Spumoni family in Merrie Old England that appeared in the January 1956 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Being a blimp aficionado I was thrilled to see this photo. Ok, I'm stretching the definition of blimp, but it does have a propeller and a rudder, so it's propulsible and steerable, so it sort of meets the minimum definition of a blimp. The accompanying text says that Mr. Moore was inspired by the work of artist Rowland Emett, and that Mr. Moore built the 'blimp' envelope from a "worn-out egg".