A brief summer hiatus

With this being the start of the traditional beginning of summer long weekend I thought I'd take a posting break for a few weeks and enjoy the weather before serious heat kicks in. When that happens I'll go back to hiding in the cool of the basement and resume posting. So, have a great Victoria Day long weekend and a great summer!

Did E. L. Moore read this ship modelling book? or Adventures in 21st century book hunting

2003 Dover reprint of 1942 original published by W. W. Norton

“I had put off this harbor-tugboat project for well over a year feeling that my hitch as a sailor long years ago did little to fit me for the role of shipbuilder. Then, later when I had begun some research on the subject, a chance buy of a marked down copy of a book on ship models, which seemed at the moment a good omen, added almost nothing to my scanty knowledge. From it, I did learn though, in a discussion of appropriate woods, that no serious modeler ever considers balsa.”

So notes E. L. Moore in the introductory paragraph to part 1 of the add a Harbor to your Pike series that ran in the January and February 1968 issues of Railroad Model Craftsman. This is the series where he builds the tug boats Taurus (from a kit) and John McKeon (scratchbuilt based on the Taurus), a barge, and a sail loft.

Model of the S.S. Prince Edward Island at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. She was a ferry that could carry 12 railway cars.

For long years I’ve wondered about the title of that ship modelling book. Mr. Moore never mentions it, and the only thing he says about the book, other than it being an omen, was that its author didn’t think balsa wood was a suitable modelling material. It’s a clue, admittedly a thin one, but still a clue. I’ve worked with less. 

I admire traditional ship modelling and consider it something of the apex of the model builder’s art. It’s beyond my abilities, but I admire it nevertheless. So, whenever there are ship models to be seen I like to have a look.

Information card associated with the model

Last year when we visited Halifax I had the opportunity to visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It’s a fascinating place, and has an interesting collection of both full-size and model boats. I’d say the model boat display is better than the Thomson collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. 

I think it's 1/4" scale given the size of those passenger cars.

Both museums have excellent models, but I give the Halifax collection bonus points for having what they call a ‘Visible Storage’ area right beside the main collection. This is where they have stashed in glass fronted cabinets unfinished models, models not currently on display, nautical odds-and-ends, and other memorabilia related to the main model collection that are easily accessible to museum browsers. 

Some cabinets in the Visible Storage area

Maybe this was just a way to cheap out on offsite storage, but being a model maker myself, I much appreciated this ‘behind-the-scenes’ window into the museum's collection.

A typical cabinet in the Visible Storage area

I also like that the museum notes on cards strategically placed throughout the exhibit area information about the model builders whose work they have on display. Those model makers don’t remain anonymous. and the cards give some background on their lives as craftsmen.

Some issues of Model Ship Builder from 1982. Bought at BMV

Well, fast forward a year or so and I’m wandering around BMV and see copies of an old magazine called Model Ship Builder. I’d never heard of this magazine and decided to buy a few issues.

Each issue has an interview with an expert model shipbuilder. I found the one in the September / October 1982 issue with Bruce Hoff interesting, and especially the comments on how he got inspired to start ship modelling:

"It all started sixteen years ago on a Sunday afternoon at the Winnetka Public Library. Bruce was looking for something to read and picked up V. R. Grimwood's American Ship Models and How to Build Them. "This is a perfectly remarkable book. It contains just about everything anyone really needs to know about building solid hull ship models, and I was very lucky to have stumbled across it as a foundation book.""

So, if the interview was conducted in 1982, sixteen years prior would land us in 1966. E. L. Moore had his article published in 1968, and he submitted the typescript to RMC on 27 October 1967, soon after finishing the project, so it's conceivable he stumbled across his book in '67 or '66. Now, these mid-1960s dates are all just coincidence, but for me, they got me thinking again about the title of the book Mr. Moore leafed through. 

A few paragraphs later Hoff mentions that Grimwood's book was one of the most important books he'd owned as a ship modeller. I later learned it's considered a classic in the field, so that clinched it, I had to find a copy.

On the trip we also were lucky to see the Bluenose II in Lunenburg. When we arrived some of the young, 20-something crew were discussing the musical merits of Miles Davis through the ages as they went about their chores!

Well, this is the 21st century and there isn't a huge used bookstore a short walk from my house, the public library isn't as well stocked as it used to be, and BMV is 450km from my desk, so I called the internet into action. I couldn't find a 1942 edition, but I did find a Dover reprint.

When it arrived I skipped all the niceties and immediately looked for a section on woods. There is one, and I wasn't disappointed:

"Wood is the indispensable material. A different variety grows to fit almost any need. Avoid woods that are fuzzy in texture. The novice dotes on balsa because of its ease in working. For the modelmaker it may have its uses, but I have never found them. Here is a list of woods generally used to advantage by the modelmaker."

Just to emphasize the dismissal, balsa wood doesn't appear in the list.

Does this prove this is the book? Of course not, but what it does is make it a candidate. It's a fairly famous work in its field, so that helps it stick around, even into the 1960s (a print history would help here), and it does scold about the use of balsa (but, many experienced modellers do as well), so it's a candidate. Maybe one day I'll figure out the title of the book E. L. Moore consulted, but until then I'm going to enjoy this one. It's a great find.

Well, any sustained thought on boats always leads to this song popping into my head at some point, so I'll leave you with it.

Work stoppage at the tree factory

Back in March I made a start on twisting up trunk armatures for the trees that will appear on the Mt. Lowe layout. Since then I've been following the procedure for finishing the trunks that I used on the Loonar Module.

Once I had coated the trunks with 2 layers of sand to give them texture I started in on painting and trimming branches.

As I was working I started to test out tree placement on the layout to see how things might look. I quickly realized that just about every tree is going to need some custom trimming to make it look like it actually grew up in the area where I planted it. 

That being the case I figured I should stop working on trees until I was ready to install them as it didn't make sense to build up generic trees and then wind up trimming off a lot of work to get each one to fit. 

So, I've stopped work on trees and started making uprights for the circular bridge. Once the bridge is done, the layout's basic scenic components will all be in place and I'll be ready for adding details such as trolley wire support poles, pterodactyl petroglyphs, and trees.

My chat with François

If you've had a chance to crack open the latest issue of Voie Libre - #121, April / May / June 2025, that is - you may have come across an article called The Spumoni Flyer where the editor and I discuss the ins-and-outs of building a small self-propelled coach (in styrene!) that's an homage to E. L. Moore. As they used say on tv, "Don't delay, get yours today!" :-)

Book Talk

On Browsing by Jason Guriel

On Browsing inadvertently captures many of the themes I have in mind for the ‘Taronna’ layout. It’s the first book I’ve read that celebrates and reflects on browsing for books and music in Toronto’s brick-and-mortar stores in the pre-smartphone era. The only difference I guess is that for me browsing is also strongly linked to the physical act of being transported to those stores by bus, subway, streetcar, or my own feet. 

Surprisingly, On Browsing’s author is 19 years younger than me, although his mention of his father’s birth year puts him 5 years older than my father. So, maybe an appreciation of browsing isn’t limited to the very old demographic - although it will be soon enough - but maybe there’s also some influence due to the era one’s parents grew up in as the author seems to illustrate with a number of anecdotes. I didn’t just spontaneously start a book browsing habit, it got started tagging along with my father on his excursions. Maybe there’s some clue hidden in the fact that both fathers were children during The Great Depression that inculcated something. Whatever its cause it was passed on to me.

I guess the only minor discrepancy between the author’s browsing experiences and mine have to do with him growing up in the west end and me in the east. His suburban experiences feature Sherway Gardens and Square One, and mine Scarborough Town Centre and Cedarbrae Mall, although when the scene shifts to downtown, there’s pretty much a one-to-one mapping, especially at The World’s Biggest Bookstore when it comes to book browsing.

TWBB has been gone for over a decade now, and a condo has been built on the holy site, but a few steps down Edward St., closer to Yonge, is BMV, a store that sells used and end-of-line Books, Magazines, and Videos as its acronymic name spells out. I browse there when I’m in Toronto, trying to conjure up those old good feelings I’d get at TWBB. Sometimes I get a tingling, like I did a few weeks ago.

I was eyeing some books on a rack and as I peeked over it I saw a book entitled The Architectural Model on a nearby shelf, way down near the floor, and just as importantly, it was wearing a loud red and white sticker proclaiming it cost only $14.99. Normally I don’t pay much attention to modelling books for architects and the construction industry as they have other reasons for making models, but this book looked quite interesting and I thought it might answer some questions I had about the history of using cardboard to make model buildings. As far as I can tell the first book on making cardboard and paper architectural models for architectural purposes was The Art of Architectural Modelling in Paper written by the architect T. A. Richardson and published by John Weale of London in 1859, so I thought maybe there’d be something here that might help out with some questions I had. Oh, and the price was right :-)

I had high hopes for The Architectural Model, but things got off to a bad start when I read something of slight to model railroaders right in the introduction that put me in a foul mood:

“Indeed, the selection and interpretation of modeling material are fundamental to the entire nature of the architectural model. In certain kinds of modeling, such as that for model railways, reality is miniaturized and pebbles are used to depict stones and so forth. Unlike this naïve realistic approach, architectural models use materials such as wood or cardboard to represent building materials.”

This told me the author doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and his knowledge of model railways is stuck at the level of 1950s children’s play with a setup on a rec-room ping-pong table. Yes, it’s often true that real model railroaders make use of found, natural materials like pebbles, stones, twigs, sand, lichen, and so on, but these materials often yield astonishing results because of the fractalness of the natural world. That is, what we see at a large scale is often also present at much smaller ones; that is, self-similarity is present at a variety of scales. It’s actually a rather sophisticated approach to modelling, making careful use of the self-similarity characteristics of the natural world. If you’re a regular reader here you know I often use natural materials when it seems appropriate, so the author’s comment carries a little extra sting.

Then there’s the statement that implies architects aren’t naïve like model railroaders because architects use modelling materials like wood or cardboard to represent actual building materials and aren’t stuck piddling around with only what nature has to offer. Well, model railroaders represent real building materials with modelling materials too, and have done so since the beginning of the hobby, and before that well into its folk art roots. Model railroaders aren’t naïve children.

Well, I stumbled across those sentences on page 2 (!), so I didn’t get off to a good start :-) My frame-of-mind as I proceeded was: what else has this guy got wrong and what don’t I have the background in to recognize whether it’s true or false? So, my trust in this book was low.

I thought I was having a flashback in BMV when I saw those monster kits sitting on the top of a shelf. That's how the Aurora monster kits were displayed in the Painted Post smoke shop.

I jumped ahead and looked for Richardson’s book in the Bibliography as well as references to passages on using cardboard and paper as model making materials in the index. It turns out Richardson’s book isn’t mentioned anywhere, nor is the early history of using card and paper. There are a number of passages on the use of card and paper models by some famous architects, but nothing that amounts to a coherent history. My questions remain open.

You know, this is how it goes sometimes with browsing in the real world. Sometimes a winner turns up and sometimes not. I’m not getting rid of The Architectural Model. I think it’s one of those books I’ll set aside awhile and then come back to later. It has lots of interesting photos that I’d like to investigate further, and some passages I’ve dipped into at random are intriguing and need more study. Maybe in the summer when the winter has fully worn off I’ll dip in again :-)

Contrary to my Toronto experience, I did have some springtime browsing success in Kingston a few weeks ago in a store called Bookland. I found a copy of The First Spike: The early railways, tramways and roads of eastern Ontario by Steven Manders, published in 2017. It’s a beautiful, well researched book full of interesting pictures and stories. The subtitle summarizes what you’ll find inside fairly well, and I assume the title is a riff on Pierre Berton’s classic book, The Last Spike. For $17, it was a great bargain and should make for interesting summer reading out on the back porch.

Well, when it comes to browsing, I never know what will turn up that I didn’t know I needed, even if some findings chafe a bit. That’s the thrill of the thing.