Spumoni Club Coach: Going on a Diet

After basic construction was finished, Cal used the newly painted engine to push the coach onto Ma's siding out back behind her place. The boys were sittin' around enjoying the sun. Once they've done loafing, there's the interior to outfit. Luckily Cal's cousin had the foresight to take a short movie of this auspicious event.



For a removable roof you'll need a piece of balsa 9" thick (3/32" for HO) by 10 1/2' x 21 1/2'. Round the top of this by sanding, then taking a sheet of 1/32" balsa measuring 11 1/2' x 22 1/2', cement it over the rounded length to form the top of the roof.

I did exactly as Mr. Moore specified on this part of the build. That's a piece of 3/32" balsa in the above photo and I've just started to sand in a curved shape. I drew a line down the centre so it was clear to me where the peak was supposed to be.

My curve wasn't as smoothly elliptical as his. Free form sanding is something I need to practice, but it's serviceable and doesn't look too bad when painted up and installed on the coach.

When you paint this, press a tissue against the wet paint, then follow up with a second coat, this giving the effect of a canvas covering. 

I applied a single-ply tissue as specified. There was wrinkling that I tried to smooth out as best I could. When the green paint was dry I washed on a very thin flat black.

Now, as seen in Photograph A and in the drawing [JDL: Note both the photo and drawing are missing], a 15" strip of sheathing is cemented to the under side of the roof leaving a 9 1/2 x 20 1/2' center clearance so as to fit down over the coach sides.

15 HO scale inches translates into about 4.4 mm. If I used that height for a sheathing strip, the roof would have rested on the trim pieces above the windows. I wanted the roof slab to rest on the coach walls, so I made the strip 2 mm high. This leaves no room for lettering, but I like the roof fit better. It gives the coach a little sleeker look too.

The roof's inside surface was painted flat white.

Bumpers and couplers of your choice can now be added to the ends, also the door step and door grab irons.

I used standard Kadee couplers glued to the floor's bottom. It turned out they had just the right height without any extra shimming or adjustment. A lucky break! The bumper is a little different than the one used in E. L. Moore's model and the prototype. His used a different coupler and I built something from balsa and stripwood scraps that looked right with the Kadee couplers and didn't interfere with the wheels.

In this view it looks like the two couplers are skewed off the floor's centre line, but in fact everything lines up ok. As you can see there is a gigantic screw holding the truck to the floor :-)

The door grab irons were bent from small diameter piano wire - I don't know what exactly the diameter is.

The trim around the door was drilled to accommodate the grab irons so that the wood wouldn't split when they were pressed in place. The step is a plastic stair unit is cut from a molded set of stairs meant for a building. I didn't have any coach stairs on hand, so I made due with what I had.

I painted the outside and roof of my coach a light green and added a trim of yellow.

Yeap, me too. Now it's onto installing the interior...and giving up on dieting and seeing what's in the pantry for lunch.

Look! Up in the Sky!

It's not a bird or a plane or Superman, it's the Goodyear blimp! Recently I read that Goodyear put a new blimp into service, Wingfoot Two, and I was reminded of the blimp chasing I did back in the mid-80s.

Although I enjoy model railroading, I've never been much of a serious train chaser, but there was a time when blimp watching was my thing.

This particular landing sequence I shot outside the fence of the old Downsview Airforce Base in Toronto maybe in '85 or '86. 

I think that yellow station wagon off to the left is an AMC Eagle. 

Nose down, on final approach.

I recall there was a big ground crew that travelled with this ship. That's one of their buses in in the foreground.

Vehicles cleared, everything is ready for a perfect landing.

I don't seem to have any photos of the docking operation, just this one last shot over the gate of the moored blimp.

Fella from up Canada way ...

... write me the other day wanting a list of all the articles I've write [sic] and the issues they appeared in . . . sorry but fat chance of me getting all them together

[from the cover letter to E. L. Moore's Putty Knife Factory article sent to Hal Carstens at Railroad Model Craftsman on 28 Oct '68]

In '68 I was still a wee lad learning his ABCs, so that fella wasn't me - but maybe I'll be inventing a time machine soon :-) While we wait, I've posted an update to the E. L. Moore articles master pdf here. 

Hastings "Feed & Seed" squiggle style

In the same folder with the alleged Marmora station, I found this single-sheeter of the Hastings "Feed and Seed" I posted photos of back in 2011. This youthful drawing from the '70s is much cruder than the Marmora station. The proportions are all wrong, but maybe I selectively compressed it :-) Regardless, on the drawing's flip-side I scribbled a lot of calculations - maybe I was trying to figure out how to make a small, buildable model out of this prototype.

E. L. Moore and the influence of Bill Schopp

The Molasses Mine and Factory is one of the strangest E. L. Moore projects, and even stranger, it was turned into a plastic kit by AHM. Where did the idea come from? Did he actually spend time in the Bryson City jail as he suggests in the Molasses Mine tall tale? Well, speculation has come to an end, at least for the idea, the jury is still out concerning jail. It was long time Railroad Model Craftsman contributor Bill Schopp, aka The Layout Doctor, who slid a couple of ideas into E. L. Moore’s brain via postcard. 

‘Twas through the kind offices of your loyal helper, Bill Schopp, that the idea of a molasses mine was tendered . . . I thought I might as well make the most of it and could be some will actually believe there was such a plant. Every now and then Bill comes through with a postcard and a brainstorm thereon.

In the 3 Oct ’68 cover letter for the Molasses Mine and Factory manuscript, E. L. Moore enlightens Hal Carstens on the mine’s origin.

Turns out Mr. Schopp was also the idea-man behind Garbage Train or The Mudville Flats Extra that appeared in the July ’69 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

Worked up Bill Schopp’s idea and got it off the board -- ol’ Cannonball Waste Express, sort of a take-off on the San Francisco’s Excess Express, traction engine with fan propellor to keep stink and flies from engine crew, horse and wagon age when garbage would fatten a hawg when not so much was orders in triplicate, TV dinner trays and Christmas wrappings.

In the 5 Jan ’69 cover letter for the Nova Scotian Lighthouse article that appeared in the Oct ’69 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, E. L. Moore tells Hal Carstens what he’s been up to and who was responsible.

But, all good things must come to an end.

You’ve gone off the deep end several times of late with garbage train, molasses mine, etc. Let’s turn to more serious stuff: Regret nothing comes to mind.

In a 25 Mar ’69 letter to E. L. Moore, Hal Carstens, implores him to get serious, but seems not to have a suggestion for how to do that.

Apparently a mark of getting serious again is the construction of a car repair shed.

You easing a hint I should return to sanity and leave off fantasy? Relly [sic], I’m just going the pace the world is setting, and if they’s anything sane about it then I’m cockeyed. Y’all figure maybe a car repair shed is sane enough -- building one for a friend at the moment.

In a friendly update letter to Hal Carstens, dated 2 Apr ’69, E. L. Moore reflects philosophical on the nature of sanity in relation to the modern world. The odd Molasses Mine now and then is pretty tame stuff all things considered.

The car repair shed did see the light of day in the obviously titled Car Repair Shed in the Nov ’69 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Here’s the accompanying cover letter.

16th of April 1969

Ye honorable Editor

RMC Ramsey, N. J.

Here’s a train shed I made for a friend . . . . maybe you can use it. Only half phantasy -- I remodeled somebody’s model into something else again.

If ‘n’ when I find something I can use as a starting point I’ll make up train shed with big brass cubicle above but first I gotta find something authentic as a starter -- the egg, that is . . . . I’ll add the feathers and wings.

Gonna start that youngun on N gauge shortly? He’s about that big -- big enough to be a wrecker.

signed E. L. Moore

E. L. Moore

525 Oakland Ave., Apt 3

Charlotte, N. C.

“... train shed with big brass cubicle above...”? Darned if I know what he’s talking about. Maybe it’s a joke I don’t get. Wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe there’s a Bill Schopp postcard out there that explains everything :-)