No Space Hopper at Smiths Falls

A reader asked me if I'd seen the Space Hopper recently. Unfortunately, no. But, it's out there somewhere. I can feel it in my bones. Hmm, maybe that's just from too much snow shovelling :-)

Barrelling through the trees en route to Ottawa from Toronto

E. L. Moore's smithy as Faller kit #131237

Paul recently brought to my attention the box art for Faller's packaging of E. L. Moore's village smithy kit and build - that's it in the top left corner. He mentioned he thought it was quite attractive and I have to agree. It's much better than the generic, nearly monochrome packaging used by Walthers. There was also a Pola release back in the day. It's box art seems to strike a halfway point between the other two. However, the old AHM box art still holds its own even though it shows a painting, not a model.

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[25 January 2024 update: Paul asked that I post the full catalog shot that Faller created so you could see the full diorama:

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Status of my N-scale tribute to E. L. Moore's Elizabeth Valley RR

My little, unfinished N-scale version of E. L. Moore’s Elizabeth Valley RR (EVRR) has been hanging on my workshop wall for a long time. Lately it has been giving me some accusatory stares along the lines of was I ever going to finish it :-) To tamp down the nagging voices in my head, and maybe start things off on the road to finishing it, I decided to make a video that would document where the layout’s at construction wise. The video making process has helped me look at the project with fresh eyes, and some improvements are now quite clear: extending the front a little with foam, maybe trying an alternative track block decomposition, replacing a valley track segment with one with a little bigger radius, and so on. The video segments are a little disjointed - and take the dates I mention with a grain of salt - but hopefully the big picture comes across.

Departing Toronto's Union Station for Ottawa