A scale model of the Solar System

To Scale: The Solar System from Wylie Overstreet on Vimeo.

This video has been making the rounds of the internet lately, but I like it and decided to post it here too. It's humbling to see the vast distances between the planets and realize how tiny the Earth and all our neighbours are. Also, model railroads have a similar problem with representing distances. They’re constrained by things like shelf size, room size, basement size, garage size and things like that, much like solar system pictures have been constrained by page size. Trains go places, often faraway places, and it’s hard to convey a sense of distance and the time it takes to travel from one place to another.

E. L. Moore's 1900 era shortline terminal yard

[E. L. Moore's Two Stall Brick Enginehouse; J. R. Fisher collection]

One of the most surprising finds was that both collections contained amongst them all the principal buildings in E. L. Moore's shortline terminal yard - a separate part of his Elizabeth Valley Railroad - that was featured in his article Turn backward, O Time, that appeared in the January 1967 issue of Model Railroader magazine. This project is arguably his masterwork, and even though he produced other buildings with somewhat better quality construction, this project captures the essence of his methods and approach to model railroading. The large, brick two-stall engine house was the centrepiece of the diorama. The details of its construction are outlined in Brick Enginehouse that appeared in the March 1967 issue of Model Railroader. 

[E. L. Moore's Coal Loading Derrick; J.R. Fisher collection]

The yard is composed of a number of buildings and structures. There's a coal loading derrick, and the one used was featured in Mr. Moore's article Coaling Up! that appeared in the March 1961 issue of Model Trains.

[E. L. Moore's Icehouse; J. R. Fisher collection]

Also along the service track with the coaling derrick is the Icehouse. I've always admired the proportions of this little building.

[E. L. Moore's Sandhouse; J. R. Fisher collection]

The service track includes a Sandhouse that's near the Icehouse, but on the opposite side of the track. When I first saw this building, I didn't know what it was - possibly because the sand delivery equipment, located on the tower, is missing - but there's a clear picture in the article that confirms its identity.

[E. L. Moore's Yard Office; J. R. Fisher collection]

Dead centre in the diorama, and in front of the enginehouse, is this little yard office. I like that broom beside the door.

[E. L. Moore's McGee Lumber Co.; J. Collier collection]

On the far right of the facility is a siding that services a number of businesses. At the very end, down by the enginehouse, is McGee Lumber Co. It may have been a precursor to Cal's Lumberyard that appeared in the April 1973 issue of Model Railroader.

[E. L. Moore's Dilly Manufacturing Co.; J. Collier collection]

Next in line along the siding, beside McGee Lumber, is Dilly Manufacturing. I like the shape of the building, and the weigh-scale on the loading dock is a nice touch.

[E. L. Moore's Central Warehouse; J. Collier collection]

Beside Dilly Manufacturing on the same siding is the Central Warehouse. Hilarious.

Well, that's it. So, what's missing? First, there is no watertower. It appears that the watertower used in this facility is the one E. L. Moore wrote about in the article, Octagonal Water Tower, that appeared in the August 1963 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. However, there is this water tower that could be used as a substitute. 

[A watertower in J. Collier's collection attributed to E. L. Moore]

Unfortunately, I can't find a reference article for this watertower although it looks like the main water tower in Elizabethton on the Elizabeth Valley RR - however, I might be overlooking a build article and I'll keep digging.

As well as a missing watertower, the handcar shed is missing. E. L. Moore used the one he described in Handcar and its shed in the February 1964 issue of Model Railroader. Way back in one of the early posts in the E. L. Moore's Legacy in the 21st Century series I built that shed as part of a post on building with balsa. If I may be so bold to suggest, but that one could be used in a recreation of the facility.

[My build of E. L. Moore's handcar shed]

There's an ashpit hoist across from the handcar shed that's missing, as well as Ma Spumoni's house and outhouse. It wouldn't be too difficult to build the hoist. It's very similar to the main coaling derrick. The picture of Ma Spumoni's house only shows its back and no other elevations, so some creativity will be needed to make a replacement. Well, all the major pieces have survived around 50 years - which is an incredible feat in itself - and could be used to build a reproduction of E. L. Moore's masterwork.

E. L. Moore's Elizabethton Depot

[E. L. Moore's Elizabethton Depot; J. R. Fisher collection]

The Elizabeth Valley RR., was still in the wilderness, half completed, when I began my search for a depot for Elizabethton, my village-to-be.

[E. L. Moore begins his Down by the depot article in the December 1964 issue of Model Railroader.]

I noted that the model was signed on the bottom by E. L. Moore and appeared to be dated as 1967. However, pictures began to appear of his Elizabeth Valley RR with this depot in the late1950s, and a construction article in 1964.

If you compare this model to pictures in the article you'll note that the door paneling is painted two-tone, the shingling of this model has finer engraving, there is no mounting hole for the signal, there doesn't appear to be sufficient room for the station sign under the clock, Mr. Moore states he painted the model light green but the model appears medium green, the roof underside is green and not red, and so on. Mr. Moore was known to make multiple versions of models, and this may have been a later version, or possibly a renovation of the original. In my opinion it's a little more refined than the one that appeared in the 1964 construction article.

That's the wire for the lighting poking out of the bottom.

In this side view you can see that the lighting rod like decoration on the bay window roof has broken off and taken a small piece of the roof with it.

The central roof section lifts off to reveal a fully detailed interior. The inside roof peaks have short copper strips with wires soldered on that go out the bottom of the building. Peering inside you can see that the front door on the left is missing - as can also be seen in the opening photo - but I noted while taking the picture that it was around and just needs to be glued back in place.

I think the above part is the missing door.

The roof unit has matching copper strips that contact the power strips in the peak in order to deliver power to the interior lights. I didn't have a battery to try out the lights, but the roof fit snug on the building, so at least contact appeared good.

The picture below is a little closer look at the electrical contact used for the interior lighting system.

And here's a look at the other end of roof for completeness.

As you can see, the roof itself is a sturdy sub-assembly and shows no warping or distortions. Mr. Moore used the wood burning tool technique to scribe the shingle pattern into a sheet of balsa.

On page 72 of the construction article, you can see an outhouse off to the left in the photo at the top of the page. The photo below shows that it was built to match the depot.

Its construction was not mentioned in the article, so here are some shots from all sides so you can get an idea of the overall shape.

The back wall is very simple, but one roof decoration is missing.

Here's the opposite entrance. There's a crescent moon on that end too.

Even the interior has some detail. Note the toilet paper rolls!

Overall, the model is still in quite good condition even given it's cartoon roots :-)

[Note, I updated this post on 20 September to include the additional roof detail photos, the missing door photo, and the matching outhouse (that I just realized was part of this depot)]

E. L. Moore's Fertilizer Plant: 1 of 55 'discovered' E. L. Moore originals

[E.L. Moore's Fertilizer Plant; J. Collier collection]

Recently Debra and I drove down to Raleigh, North Carolina to meet with two gentlemen who own collections of E. L. Moore buildings. Long-story-short, the collections, and the trip, were revelatory. 

One collection consisted of E. L. Moore buildings that were part of the in-store model railroad at Jim Collier's hobby shop in Raleigh's North Hills Mall (the photos of a small number of E. L. Moore buildings I posted back in the spring - here, here, here and here - were from that collection). E. L. Moore was a good friend of the owner and bought all his model building supplies there. Jim Collier's son, Jim Jr., and his wife generously hosted the meet-up. The second collection, owned by J. R. Fisher, was once owned by E. L. Moore's friend, Fred Kelley. 

I was blown away. With both collections combined, there were 55 buildings, 11 outhouses and 2 boats. I'd hazard a guess and say this was the largest known assemblage of E. L. Moore structures in decades. Most were in excellent condition. Some had a little damage, but nothing serious. All were well preserved. Some had been packed away and hadn't seen the light of day in over 30 years. I spent the better part of 6 hours photographing them all: around 1400 images when the dust settled. Over the coming weeks and months I'll be posting pictures of every structure.

I saw lots of things. I learned lots of things. I'll touch on them as I post the images, but I'll start with some of the most striking.

It was obvious that the pictures that appeared in the model railroad press all those years ago didn't always do justice to the models. The first impression of seeing them in person was as if had never seen them before - those relatively lo-fi magazine images of that '50s to '70s era were just approximations and not always good ones. In comparison to in person viewing, digital photography, and, not to mention, colour, those magazine images give an inaccurate impression as to build quality. It's not that Mr. Moore's photos were sub-standard, but the ability of the magazine printing processes to reproduce those images with suitable fidelity was often not there, especially if the mag's paper was on the pulpy side.

As well, seeing the models in person made it clear which projects were brilliant works of modelling and which were mundane. The Planters building is far from mundane, and in the picture below Jim points out one of many interesting details - a few missing boards in a side elevation.

But - here's a problem - photographing individual models by themselves, without scenery, accessories or other props as I did, stripped them of some qualities that made an E.L.Moore project an E. L. Moore project. His articles consist of a model of course, but often include a story in the text, and that same story is communicated in the article's photos. The photos and the text combined told a story. His photos weren't simply beauty shots with figures and accessories added in for scale or colour; they did some heavy lifting; they also told the story. My photos don't have that. They focus on the models themselves without those important Moorian qualities. You'll see the craftsmanship, the colour, the detailing, but not necessarily the spirit of project. The message is: photographing the individual buildings brings some new things to light, but causes other important things to be lost.

That brings me back to the Planters building - which appeared as The Fertilizer Plant in the July '66 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. I had never paid it much attention. The article shows it off in the corner of a layout. Weird shape. Weird roof top add-ons. Weird image. But, not weird in person. In person, it's weirdly compelling. It's well built. It has an interesting and assertive presence with carefully executed details and touches. And that's true of many of the miniature buildings I saw and hopefully that will come across in future posts.

Grand Trunk and Michigan Central bridges

While on the topic of bridges, I found this postcard entitled, Whirlpool Rapids, Niagara. The caption on the back reads,

This chaotic mass plunges and foams like some imprisoned monster. In its mad whirling it forms a convex surface, rising from three to four feet in the center above the outer surface. Here are also seen the Grand Trunk bridge, 930 feet in length and 190 feet above the water, and the Michigan Central bridge, 910 feet long and 192 feet above the water.