HOJ-POJ Mfg. Co. ala Bart Crosby

This image was snipped from a larger photo in the Boomer Trail section of  the May 1969 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. All it says is that Bart Crosby built it "from plans in the April 1968 RMC". April '68? Hmmm. It sure looks a lot like the HOJ POJ Mfg.Co. that E. L. Moore published in that issue. And since Mr. Crosby and Mr. Moore were good friends, well...And look at that over on the left, he even built that rascally water tower! Crosby's Yarns: Unbelievably Preposterous! 'Nuff Said.

Dipping my toe into Wikipedia

Here's the beginning of the E. L. Moore Wikipedia article [19 Nov 2017 update: link removed]. There's not much there yet, but now that I've studied the getting started material and setup an account, hopefully things will move along a little faster. One thing I've learned in the process is that it's important to make sure there are suitable references for the statements I'm making so that the article passes review and doesn't get rejected. Well, there's a big winter storm on the way today, so I've got go and do some things before it arrives.
[19 Nov 2017 update: Looks like the article is going to be removed from wikipedia because I stupidly posted the initial drafts here, so now I'm violating my own copyright. It might be resolvable; however, it looks like I'd need a legal degree to make sense of things. There's a steep learning curve to Wikipedia, and I think I'm going to stop at this level - the summit isn't worth it.]

[21 Nov 2017 update: Still no word from anyone at wikipedia about how to resolve this. I'll need to slog through their legal material and see if I can figure it out. After a little web search it appears my woes aren't unique to me; for example, according to this Time article, "The problem, most researchers and Wikipedia stewards seem to agree, is that the core community of Wikipedians are too hostile to newcomers, scaring them off with intractable guidelines and a general defensiveness." I now have a better understanding why articles like those on John Allen and Frank Ellison are so basic and lacking in references even though there are plenty of reputable ones out there - more so than for E. L. Moore. Ok, rant, off :-) Back to normal programming.]
[21 Nov 2017 update #2: I sent wikipedia the email they requested so I can continue. I haven't heard back from a person yet - seems unlikely that I will - but I'll see what they do with the permission email.]
[22 Nov 2017 update: I'll have to retract my grumblings! I was contacted by someone from wikipedia who was quite cordial and gave me some advice about what to do. I did it and now we'll see if the draft-in-progress gets reinstated. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.]
[23 Nov 2017 update: As of dawn, I'm still locked out of the draft. We'll see if anything changes today.]
[23 Nov 2017 update #2: Around mid-afternoon the draft wikipedia article was unlocked and I can get back to putting it together - hopefully I'll be able to resume this weekend! I wish to thank the wikipedia staff for resolving this - and on US Thanksgiving too! - and readers who encouraged me to press on. I hope this is just a minor speed-bump and it's clear sailing for here on.]
[25 Nov 2017 update: I've been doing some updates to the draft article. It's still go aways to go before it's done. I have an immodest goal of trying to raise the bar on articles related to model railroading that appear in wikipedia. Not that the ones there are bad, just that compared to ones for say many tv shows, they could be improved.]

Streetcars rule! . . . well, they do on King St.

Since Sunday, for all intents and purposes, cars are virtually eliminated from Toronto's King Street for a year and streetcars rule the roost. Congrats to Toronto! It wasn't that way back in '74 :-)

E. L. Moore's workbench

This is a high rez slice of E. L. Moore's workbench from his March 1971 portrait which will be used at his wikipedia bio. I've done a little bit of processing on it to lighten-up the shadowed areas on the shelves.

There aren't a lot of labels to read, but there is a box labeled KADEE roughly in the middle of the shelf. No doubt a box of Kadee brand couplers. As well there's what looks like an engine house casually stashed on the second shelf from the top, over on the right. There's a water tower on the bench across from his elbow. Is he working on it, or is was that just a convenient place to drop it? His bench looks like that of many modellers, lots of stuff and tools placed here, there and everywhere, and not too much space left for the model being built. He was also known to work from tv trays and an easy chair, so maybe the bench wasn't used for actual work, but as storage and staging area?

Take a look at the window in relation to the bench, and go back and take a look at the window corner in the window corner post. The spacing of the wall and window elements is very similar to those in this photo, if not identical, which suggests the photos were taken in the same location, in the same apartment. I can't prove this, but there you go. More food for thought in the ongoing investigation :-)

E. L. Moore's writing corner

To me it's fascinating the things one can see when photos are high rez scanned and enhanced a little. That's the picture hanging in E. L. Moore's writing corner. When I saw it, it reminded me of his Water Wheel Mill photo. 

This is the full photo from which I sliced the portrait used over there on the left to head up the E. L. Moore in the 21st Century Series column. It was also a possible candidate for the wikipedia bio. I have no idea when this was shot. I'm guessing it was sometime in the 1940s, but it's just a guess. It turns out one can find online interior photos of his 525 Oakland apartment  (I think he moved in there sometime in the late 50's or early '60s, and left in the mid to late '70s) because it's still a rental unit. Assuming the floor plan hasn't changed even though the finishes have been updated, I can't find a corner that matches that one. Maybe this was his Pine St. apartment where he lived prior to Oakland Ave.? But again, this is all guess work.

And an outtake :-) Regardless of dates and addresses, look at all the stuff in these two photos! I'm high rez scanning them to see if any of the wording on any of the objects can be read. 

In the bookshelf, I can only make out 3 titles so far. From the above subset of books,

1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Life of Johnson by James Boswell
3. The Still Hunter by Theodore Van Dyke

Nothing railroad related.

And for the calendar, that's the best I've been able to do so far. Can't read anything other than it came from The Bank of Commerce.

Those two photos of him at the desk are fascinating and raise lots of questions. Was he a writer at the time? Wanted to be one and was getting the equipment together? Maybe it was just the space he used for his photo business office work? The desk is a fine piece of furniture; look at the way the typewriter is stored in it when not in use. That's a nice desk lamp too. There's nothing junky or disorderly there. All I can say is that it's good to have more questions.