Space Hopper sighting!

Date: Saturday, 28 August 2021.

Time: Early afternoon.

Location: Havelock yard.

Comments: Why have ancient astronauts come to Earth in search of hoppers? What's inside? What's drawn on the other side? Why is the space hopper placed third from the end of a long train? What cryptic message is encoded on the side? Inquiring minds need to know.*

*Ok, maybe the sun and heat are getting to me, but there it was at the far end of what was a very long line of hoppers parked for the weekend. Maybe it'll show up again?

Christmas garden

Christmas garden: A layout-like display set up at Christmas that contains at least a creche and an electric train. A Christmas garden is often simply referred to as a ‘garden’.

Usage: It was a Smith family tradition to set up a Christmas garden in their living room every December.

Source: Jim Williams, in his December 1949 Railroad Model Craftsman article, A Rail Is Born, starts off his story about how he got into model railroading with a rather detailed description of the Christmas gardens of Baltimore, Maryland in the 1920s:

An old German custom, transplanted to Baltimore [1], made a model railroader of me. It happened 22 years ago [2] when Jimmie was only 2 years old. The old Yuletide custom is that of having elaborate “Christmas gardens” around the Christmas tree. For the benefit of those not familiar with the customs, perhaps it would be better at this point to explain just what a “garden” is.

Christmas gardens reproduce in miniature, any scene from an amusement park or farm but the absolute sine qua non of every garden is the Holy Stable and the electric railroad. Many gardens comprise only a circle of track, the Stable and a few cardboard houses - but the train has GOT to be there, let the anachronisms fall where they may. We haven’t lived in Baltimore for 15 years but I certainly hope that Father Time has not trodden such a delightful custom into the mire of disuse.

In the Maryland metropolis, everyone has some kind of Christmas garden; fire and police stations compete with each other for the approval of gaping crowds of youngsters and even greater crowds of oldsters. I remember the time a drunk fell into the garden at the Southern Police Station - but that’s another story except to mention that he really got the business in police court next morning.

But to get back to my muttons; nor is the garden custom confined to large institutions. Neighbors vie with each other in the production of super-detail buildings and scenery and in dreaming up ingenious mechanical effects.[3] During the holidays many sitting rooms and / or dining rooms are completely filled with the Christmas garden for the edification of all youngsters no matter how many snows have found lodgement in their hair. Dime stores are raided for miniature holy and lay figures and wheeled equipment. A regular rite of the Yule season in many families consists of a day or night devoted to a tour of the best gardens and among the super-detailers plagiarism of garden ideas sometimes leads to bitter passages.

To a great degree the yardstick of comparison is the amount of action presented in the garden. Ferris wheels revolve realistically, waterfalls splash merrily over little mill wheels, fountains fount and autos and boats sail majestically along their appointed courses in the grip of hidden magnets and belts. But always there is the ubiquitous electric train.

A Christmas garden in similar to the archaic form of Yard, and is more-or-less identical with Adolph F. Frank’s “Christmas tree yard” -  refer to the entry for Yard.

One will also note the further connection between the modern hobby of model railroading and the older folk activities of building Christmas tree yards, yards, Christmas gardens, and gardens in Mr. William's article.

Notes:

[1] Baltimore, Maryland

[2] Given the story was published in 1949, this would anchor the Christmas garden description in 1927.

[3] Adolph F. Frank describes how to build your own mechanical effects based on his experiences with Christmas gardens.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.

Testing the track plan, Part 4

Two 9" radius curves made from Atlas flex track

In parallel with thinking about how to display the E. L. Moore models I've continued to develop the new version of the Lost Ocean Line.

After finishing the test builds of the passing tracks, I went back to making a second 9" radius curve to complete the track needed for the city section.

All the special track work has now been built and tested, so I'm hoping to move on to mocking up the the whole track plan in the days ahead.

E. L. Moore's Cabinet of Curiosities: Comic Book Edition

It struck me that a few 9" x 27" displays could be stacked in a cabinet and the overall view would look a lot like a cartoon. Each 'panel', each shelf, would tell a little bit of the story, and one panel might narratively lead to the next. So, overall, the cabinet is a life-size E. L. Moore story in cartoon form.

Maybe the story would be a variation on The Adventures of E. L. Moore, Train Photographer, where each panel contains a scene where Mr. Moore's icon anchors the viewer's attention and the buildings fulfill supporting roles. Or maybe it's a remix of The Adventures of Baby Spumoni? Stories were a big part of E. L. Moore's mythos, and maybe story-centred dioramas / panels / shelves are the way to bring the models to life. And lighting. I can't forget lighting. 

Galen tells me Weston figures command high prices these days, so if I'm going to go the story route I'll need to be mindful of the costs associated with all those figures. Luckily E. L. Moore's photographer doppelgänger was a custom item he made, so that one I can probably cobble together myself.

One more time ...

I’ve had a lot of good comments both on and off the blog about the E. L. Moore display design. They got me wondering if a layout is the way to go. I tried a design with a small loop of track because I didn’t want the display to appear dead, and thought maybe an injection of motion from trains was the thing to do. But, like all layouts, it raises questions about how will it be stored and displayed in the house. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that concept and footprint wasn’t going to be practical. 

Also, I see all these excellent small layouts in the pages of Voie Libre and think that’s the direction to go. They have both life and small, manageable footprints. I’ve got traditional layout thinking so ingrained in me, it’s hard to knock it loose. Ok, so I’ve started to give my brain-box a shake. You might want to stand back a bit from the screen because whatever comes out might be a little messy :-)

We’ve got a few Ikea cabinets and bookcases around the house, so the first thing was to find a typical shelf size for one of those things as I’ll likely use something from that company for display storage. After a brief survey with tape measure in hand, it looks like 9” x 27”, which is approximately 229mm x 686mm, gives about the largest base footprint that could be set on a shelf and still have room to get my fingers around inside edges for adjustments, and close the doors without problems. A typical Ikea cabinet could possibly house a few of these sorts of displays. There’re questions about lighting, but I’ll park those for a bit.

I drew a 9” x 27” rectangle on the layout table and started fiddling. As well, I reviewed E. L. Moore’s Turn Backward, O Time article for a few pointers on how to proceed now that the loop was out. I think the linear design will better reflect the original. If you look at the article you’ll see a jog in the track down by McGee’s that services the industries, some intriguing foreground details, a switch and an interesting switch stand, as well as trackside fencing by Ma’s house to name a few things that might be included. 

I need to get some coffee and stare at this thing awhile. More later.