Last post for this year

Merry Christmas 

and 

Happy New Year

Thanks for stopping by throughout the year. I'll be back online sometime after Christmas or in the New Year, but I'll be around. If there's any breaking news I'll put down the egg nog and post about it here.

Now, where did I put my snowshoes?

Armature for Vickis tree

I worked up the branch structure on the tree to be planted between Vickis Veggies and the street. Now it's on to barking :-)

Coles on Yonge: The Shell

Left: Coles on Yonge St. near Edward circa late 60s to early 70s | Right: Its HO shell

I've wanted to make a model of this building for quite a long time. I recently realized I was stalled on modelling this building because I was fixated on the problems associated with making the Coles sign. The building itself is rather easy to make because it's basically just a box much like the one the A&A Records model is based on. So, I decided the way to kickstart myself was to go ahead and make the building's shell and worry about the sign later. I may eventually regret this approach, but I thought it was better to get started than to continue pondering.

My father took me to this store many times in the late 60s and early 70s. I seem to recall it was located on Yonge St. near Edward. I think it closed sometime in the late 70s when the company that owned the Coles bookstore chain opened the World's Biggest Bookstore a stone's throw away on Edward. I admit that the above geographical and chronological memories are on the sketchy side, so if you have more accurate information please leave a comment.

I thought I'd go digital with this project and draw up the facade in Inkscape. However, I got frustrated with all the hoops I had to jump through and graphic designer minutiae I had to master just to draw a simple white rectangle surrounded with a black border that I gave up, apologized to my T-square for abandoning it, and sat myself down at the drafting table and got to work.

I searched the internet and downloaded what images I could find of the Coles facade. I enlarged and printed them so I could measure and draw on them as my understanding of their overall dimensions developed.

To begin the sizing process I assumed the entry doors were the average size for these sort of commercial items: 36" x 80". I used that to figure out dimensions for the rest of the building. It was an iterative process of estimating proportions and sizes until I had laid out the major lines in a drawing.

I arbitrarily decided the building would have a square footprint. I'm only interested in the facade, signs, and some of the interior, so the rest of the model is fabricated straight from my imagination to make the building seem plausible under casual examination.

The walls were drawn on a sheet of scrap 0.060" thick sheet styrene. In the past I've had a bad habit of making my walls too thin. I felt 0.060" was thick enough to be substantial and strong for this relatively small model, but not too thick to cut and shape with my trusty #11 Xacto knife.

One can never be too experienced to make a newbie mistake and that photo proves it!

I was in such a rush to cut out the openings for the lower sign and front windows that I broke the facade at its weakest points. This was no cause for tears. It was glued back together, and since styrene glue actually welds styrene, it's as if the break never occurred. Well, ok, the facade needed to be handled carefully until it was glued up into the complete structure, but in the end it's as if the break never occurred.

The inside corners and top support edge for the removable roof are 0.080" x 0.080" styrene strips. I used Revell Contacta Professional glue on this structure, and use it for all jobs where styrene needs to be glued together. I find it bonds quickly and the resulting joints are very strong

At this stage the structure is quite rigid, but it'll firm up even more once the interior box and braces are added in a future step.

The final task was to glue textured styrene surface panels to the shell.

The top half of the facade and the sides are surfaced with Evergreen Scale Model's product #4529, Metal Siding. This styrene sheet is 0.040" thick, so the model is now rather thick where these panels are glued on.

You'll also notice that the side pillars below either end of lower sign opening have been faced with pieces of 0.020" plain styrene sheet.

The back wall and the lower halves of the side walls are panelled with sheet brick styrene.

That door on the back wall is one of the leftover pieces from the melted Superior Bakery. Stylistically it really doesn't fit in here, but I liked it, and liked having a piece of the Superior Bakery on this model.

If you look inside you'll see that I've built up the frame where the street windows will eventually go. The prototype photos indicate those windows are set back a little from the main plane of the facade.

To finish off, the top and bottom on the model were carefully sanded against a large sheet of sand paper placed on my workbench to even them off. This helps the model to sit squarely on the ground, and gives the upper edge a more even look.

Now I just need to find a source of miniature books :-)

Kelley's Folly and E. L. Moore in 1977

Left: Karl Osolinski's interpretation of Kelley's Folly | Right: E. L. Moore's original model

Back in July Paul sent me some photographs of a masterful interpretation of E. L. Moore's Kelley's Folly project by Karl Osolinski. Karl granted permission for me post his pictures here. 

Well, longtime readers will know I was on an extended hiatus in the summer, and when I returned to the saddle in September I had forgotten about Kelley's Folly. A few days ago Paul reminded me, and I started to feel bad that I had ignored this stunning model.

But, you know, I'm thinking it might have been good that I put off this story until now, even if it was caused by forgetfulness, because Kelley's Folly is a 1977 story. And a major one at that. Here's the headline:

Kelley's Folly was the last story E. L. Moore ever submitted to RMC

1977 was at the end of Mr. Moore's publishing career. He only submitted 3 articles to MR and 2 to RMC that year. The first one to RMC was The Firecracker Foundry, which became his very last published article appearing in the July 1980 issue, and the second, his last submission, was Kelley's Folly, which was published in the January 1979 issue. 1978 only saw one submission, and that was the North Conway Depot article to MR. E. L. Moore died in August 1979.

Hey, since we've come this far, let's take a trip back to 1977 to get a sense of how Kelley's Folly came to pass.

As I mentioned, Mr. Moore submitted the manuscript for the Firecracker Foundry to Railroad Model Craftsman sometime in 1977. There isn't a cover letter for this project in the archive even though the original typescript still exists. However, it looks like it was submitted in the spring of 1977. Later, on 26 May 1977, he sent a letter and photos off to Tony Koester at RMC to see if there might be any interest in the Kelley's Folly project: 

May 26, 1977

Tony Koester, Editor,

Railroad Model Craftsman,

P. O. Box Drawer 700,

Newton, N. J.

Hi Tony . . . . . . . .

Well, looks as though my "swan song" got side-track somewhere along the way. Anyway I'm sending you in somewhat abbreviated form, a resume of the beginning of KELLEY'S FOLLY, 2200 words, three photographs and four sheets of drawings, to see what you think of it.

My goddamed legs are going to remain numb but I can get around pretty well . . . worse is my numb finger tips . . . I gotta watch the keys pretty closely and still make mistakes . . . but I manage.

Why the hell do I have to spend all the time I do on those cussed drawings (except in the interests of accuracy) when you have them done over anyway. Still it ain't really work, just tedious, since I can sit in my easy chair and do them. But dammif I gotta move around a lot to photograph the stuff and printing the pictures is a helluva strain on the gut. I type a couple of pages then go lie down a while, then type a couple more but they eventually all get typed. It's much more fun writing longhand in bed. But hell, I got no complaints, much, I eat well, got plenty of leisure, lots of books and don't get up until I get damned good and ready . . . except to feed my cats. When they get hungry they won't let me sleep.

E. L. Moore.

525 Oakland Ave., Apt 3

Charlotte, N. C. 28204

Enc. 3 photos, resume on backs.

I believe the 'swan song' to be the typescript for the Firecracker Foundry. Mr. Moore was 79 when he wrote the letter.

On 10 June 1977 Tony Koester replied with a postcard filling in E. L. Moore about what happened to the Firecracker Foundry and expressing an interest in Kelley's Folly.

June 10, 1977

Dear E. L.:

We are indeed interested in the Kelly's (you said Kelley's?) Folly material. Frankly, after the MR piece on the fire, the other recently received material from you is too close at first-glance to publish right now. I will thus be happy to have something which is entirely different. The signs of weathering and age are also of interest.

The accuracy of your drawings is appreciate [sic], in that we can usually trace them directly. You could do them only in pencil, however, and save the inking time.

Thanks for keeping us in mind, E.L.

Tony.

The 'MR piece on the fire' is the infamous Cannonball and Safety Powder Works that appeared in the April 1977 issue of Model Railroader - yes, 1977 was a curious year for E. L. Moore.

Once Mr. Moore heard of RMC's interest in Kelley's Folly he sent off the complete article:

June 16, 1977

Tony Koester, Editor,

Railroad Model Craftsman,

P. O. Drawer 700

Newton, N. J.

Hell, it's not my fault M R chose to publish that thing in their May issue . . . they've had it in their files two, three years awready [sic] yet.

Anyway here's KELLEY'S FOLLY, 2200 words, three photographs, four sheets drawings . . . they ain't got nothing similar to this, although they've got stuff dates back six, seven years . . . . 

Hell man I couldn't send in a drawing just done in pencil . . . take these for instance . . . they wouldn't look right except in good black and white . . . so I guess I'll stick to pen and inking 'em.

You're steadily making improvements in the old magazine . . . it's come a long way in the past few years . . . more power to yez!

E. L. Moore

525 Oakland Ave., Apt 3

Charlotte, N. C. 28204

That stuff that dates back six, seven years I believe he is referring to are what we now know as his lost articles. 

E. L. Moore signed his Kelley's Folly model on the bottom

It's great to see what Karl Osolinski has done with this classic E. L. Moore project from '77.

As I keep saying, 1977 is the year that keeps on giving.

Trefoil knot as trackplan?

Since writing about Bill Schopp's investigation into trefoil layout boards I've been looking online now-and-then for information about trefoils.

One interesting page I found was this one on trefoil knots. It got me thinking that trefoil layout boards are all well and good, but the important thing is having an interesting track plan running on them. I started wondering if any of those knots could be the basis of a trackplan. Clearly they  would need to be adjusted to account for the physical realities of track. They also might have a bit of the 'rabbit warren' about them, but for something like a Mt. Lowe inspired layout, that might be a good feature to have. 

Anyway, I parked those thoughts until last week when Voie Libre #115 dropped in my mailbox. Inside there's a gorgeous HO-9 circular layout - size unspecified, but it might have the same diameter as an extra-large pizza - by Frédéric Blandel whose trackplan seemed to me like a variation on one of those trefoil knots. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the layout's trackplan against one example knot:

Left: One possible trefoil knot | Right: M. Blandel's trackplan

M. Blandel's trackplan is not a pure trefoil knot, but it certainly appears to be in the spirit of one. It's ingenious and allows for both continuous scenic running as well as a little switching fun for when the mood strikes. And there doesn't appear to be a need for overly complex wiring as there are no reversing loops. This layout might be thought of as a trefoil knot trackplan on a circular board. It might be interesting to see what a trefoil knot based trackplan on a trefoil board would look like.