RIP, Earl Smallshaw

I never managed to meet him, but I was saddened to hear that Earl Smallshaw has died.  He published many interesting articles on modeling over the years.  He was always a pleasure to read, because he was a craftsman who could explain his techniques without becoming didactic or boring.

His family has generously consented to keep his website online so visitors can see and enjoy his Middletown & Mystic Mines Railroad, which is a curious but strikingly effective amalgam of Western mountains and a Connecticut river town.  There's a definite "Ash Can School" quality to his city scenes, which capture the crowding and dirt of a New England mill town at its height, and I am also partial to his bridges, buildings, and masonry: he could make a prosaic retaining wall into a thing of real beauty.

This is a great example of 'modeling as folk art,' but it also highlights how sadly ephemeral a model railroad can be.  They sometimes outlive their creator, but not often; usually, the buildings and rolling stock are dispersed among friends or at an estate sale; the rest winds up in the alley.  That's understandable; after all, it's a lot to ask the family to give up a room to the trains when the builder is alive to work on it.  After he's gone, people want or need to turn the page, and  it's a lot of work to keep the railroad running.

For all these reasons, the photos are nice to have, particularly when someone was as good a photographer and modeler as Mr. Smallshaw was.  I always enjoyed his articles and pictures, so even though I never met him, it's nice to have access to these photos for a little while longer- they give you a wonderful idea of his skill and his sense of humor.