This is another portrait I was provided. Along the bottom, in very light and smudged pencil, was written, E. L. Moore, 1940. Camera, binoculars and rifle. Everything needed to observe the unknown and protect oneself. Some of his dreams and inner life is on display here.
You can see in his right hand he's squeezing the shutter release bulb to snap the picture. Likely taken in his own studio. Compare it to his farmer selfie. I don't have a date on that one, but I'd guess it was taken at the same time - look at the face.
There's more to this man than I know; likely more than I'll ever never know. In theses portraits lies the deep story behind the E. L. Moore we know as the model railroad ranconteur. All these pictures add up to someone, but someone we've barely met.
I've updated the master index of E. L. Moore articles with a couple of additions. One important thing I had overlooked was a Trackside Photo of the Elizabeth Valley RR that was published in the February 1955 issue of Model Railroader. I had previously thought his Elizabeth Valley RR photo spread that appeared in the March 1955 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman was his first publication, but I was wrong. I'm glad the preparation of the Wikipedia article is nudging me to review all this material.
A generous reader saw the draft of the E. L. Moore Wikipedia biography and most kindly sent me two portraits that could be used in the place of the 'farmer'. The above photo I think is best suited, and I don't think it has been published elsewhere, but I need to check. This one is also intriguing.
When I saw that shot, my mind immediately flashed on a fantasy Howard Hawks movie starring Barbara Stanwyck, James Cagney and Cary Grant with the bit-part part of the hard-bitten newspaper reporter played by our man Moore. Crazy I know, but it just has that sort of look.
You may remember a couple of years ago I posted some photos of E. L. Moore's HO scale outhouses. That's one up there. Well, they say there's a prototype for everything, and I guess that's true, because today while browsing the latest photos at Shorpy, I saw this.
Who would have thought?
John and I drove over to the Montreal Model Train Exposition to see what we could see. It was a gloriously sunny day and a pleasant 18C, so a great day for a drive. Neither of us had been to this show before, so we were up for surprises. It was held over several floors in the halls of the Sun Youth Organization's building on St. Urbain Street. Overall, it's a great show for families with children. There's lots of things for the kids to do, along with plenty of Thomas, Harry Potter, some sci-fi models and dioramas, tin-plate and toy trains on display. Although for me, the highlight - other than the charming Madchenbahn - came later with a lunch at Montreal's famous Snowdon Deli.
It's located beside the Snowdon Theatre; a magnificent building in the Streamline Moderne style that opened in 1937 and has fallen on hard times over the last few years. Wikipedia states it's likely to be demolished soon to make way for progress.
But DeliSnowdon appears to be doing just fine. It was jammed as usual when we showed up for lunch, but we were quickly seated.
What did I have? The corned beef sandwich of course.
I should have snapped the photo before I took a bite, but my stomach overruled my brain when the sandwich was placed in front of me :-)
