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| Snipped from larger image here. |
As you’ve gathered if you’ve studied some of my previous articles, I’m a nut on mines and feel that mining and railroads go together much like ham ’n eggs, Stravinski [sic] and Bernstein, or Thalonius [sic] Monk and way out jazz.
The first sentence from the first part of Gil Mellé’s January 1964 RMC article, Mountain Flotation Plant.
Yes, that's the flotation plant with Gil Mellé in the photo.
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| Mellé's drawing of cleaning equipment in SP's Taylor Engine Terminal, RMC Dec'65 |
In 1965 Gil Mellé had 3 articles published in RMC about building various types of structures he observed on trip(s) to rail equipment servicing facilities and yards in the Los Angeles area. The articles are:
Los Angeles Junction Diesel Shed, May ’65
Diesel Fuel Tank, July ’65
SP Parts Servicing Depot, December ’65
I particularly like the opening to the Dec ’65 article:
For anyone who has been a rail fan for a long time as I have, nothing could be more rewarding than the five mile trip I recently took through the Los Angeles yard area of the SP. Perched atop a flat car I was immediately made aware of the space age changes that were present everywhere. I saw freight cars of mammothian proportions and unfamiliar design! Mentally I tried to see them negotiate a tight radius and (in error I’m sure) I doubted that they could. In some cases the weird designs were dictated by the very nature of what they must transport. There was an interlocking tower that more closely resembled a home for alien life than a yardmaster and his assistants. I’d like to do an article on that concrete beauty in the near future but for now shall describe how you can duplicate an operation on the SP that was installed a few years ago.
Various online biographies seem a bit vague on when Mellé relocated from New Jersey to Los Angeles and re-entered the music business. Based on my experience with E. L. Moore's articles, it appears that RMC would publish articles within a few months after their receipt, so I speculate that maybe Mellé relocated as early as 1964 and appears to have been there in 1965. I guess these articles could have been merely the result of a visit to Los Angeles, but hopefully I can find some corroborating evidence in the future. For whatever reason, he seems to have had his feet in LA in either '64 or '65.
The Dec ’65 article appears to be his last; however, that opening paragraph teases the reader with the spectre of a future article on the interlocking tower. I’m going to take another look and see if that article did materialize, and if there are others I might have overlooked.
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| Top:Centre wall; Bottom: Standard gauge shed wall |
I must now reveal an embarrassing secret: I've bought more styrene stock than I've used up from my stash :-(
When I started this project I chose styrene because I thought I had plenty in my scrapbox, and could use up what I had on hand. It turns out I didn't have enough stock and had to buy more, lots more, to achieve the level of detailing I was after. I suspect when this project ends I'll have more in my stash than when I started.
Ok, so enough of true confessions. I should note I changed the design of the centre wall. E. L. Moore's extended all the way up to the roof peak, and incorporated some massive cross-bracing for strength. Maybe the prototype looked like that, I don't know. I made it a little more conventional - well, what I think is conventional. The roof on my version with have a lot of trusses. Also, in my design in order to accommodate box cars, not just flat cars, the wood loft doesn't extend over the narrow gauge track.
The side wall between the main building and the standard gauge shed is all conjecture on my part. And, as I've stated before, the framing details on this wall, like all the others, is impressionistic. I think the centre openings for unloading cars are likely too wide at 16' across to be realistic, but hopefully they'll make for interesting and more easily viewable scenes.
I'm just about ready to glue some of main building together, which I'm quite looking forward to.
Black spray: A technique for unifying the overall hue of a layout by over spraying with a mist of flat black spray paint.
Usage: Hal decided to black spray his layout a few days before the magazine photographer arrived.
Source: Gil Mellé appears to be the original source of this technique, and described it in his September 1963 Railroad Model Craftsman article, Scenery to Improve Your Layout. Mellé notes:
Have you ever looked at your entire layout and noticed that some parts of it seem to stand out in an unsatisfactory way. After two years of work every individual component looked satisfactory but when the whole of my layout was viewed it was not [sic] anything but a harmonious integration……Here’s what I did to correct this. It took two minutes, a spray can of flat black and a track cleaner……I covered my entire layout with a mist of the stuff. I aimed above everything so that the minuscule particles of wet paint would fall on everything as soot issued from the fiery stack of an iron horse, is hurled sky high and deposited on everything around. Of course the walls around the pike were protected with newspapers taped in place……It worked!
The technique strikes this editor as a bold and unforgiving one with serious consequences if not properly executed.
from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.
