RDC crazy

Proto 1000 RDC-2 after alterations for the diorama

Even though I had an idea for a diorama, I didn't own an RDC, so the first thing I did was scour my usual internet model railway stores for one. I found one, and after a bit of a mix up with the seller, I was the proud owner of a like new Life-Like Proto 1000 RDC-2 in Baltimore and Ohio markings.

Life-Like Proto 1000 RDC-2 straight out of the box

I know that Rapido is today's leading manufacturer of RDC models, but for this project they cost much more than I wanted to spend, and I felt they were too beautiful for what I wanted to do. I knew I was going to cut open a baggage door so I could stage a canoe unloading scene, add some passengers, and apply some light weathering, but I sure didn't want to take a knife or brush to a Rapido item. Also, I didn't want the beautiful detail of the Rapido product to steal the show and become by default the diorama's focal point. The RDC was to be one element in a bigger picture.

Once the shell had been freed from the chassis it was relatively easy to pry off the baggage door and use some fine sand paper to get rid of the B&O markings.  I added a piece of black card inside the shell where the baggage door used to be to block the view of the motor. I also painted the inside walls in and around the baggage door opening black to kill stray reflections. Black Tamiya Panel Liner was used on the various exterior grills to give them a little depth.

Texas Plastic Nipper Massacre aftermath

I had some unpainted Model Power figures in my scrapbox and decided to use them as passengers - er, well, I used half of them as passengers. I took a few, painted their top halves black, cut them at the waist, and glued the torsos into the seats. Well, one figure, the one that's walking down the aisle, nearly survived the carnage and was cut off only at the knees before being glued down for eternity. This modelling technique is straight out of a horror movie, but it does produce some convincing window silhouettes :-)

Some passengers; some crinkly decals; some light weathering

I bought some VIA Rail decals for this thing. They turned out very difficult to apply as they were quite brittle and unwieldy. I won't name the manufacturer or discuss my technique as both are obscured in my memory by a blue haze of family unfriendly obscenities :-(

As I've noted many times before, the digital camera is a harsh mistress. The crinkly blue VIA stripe in the above photo is an irritant, but you know, when I look at the diorama, without the digital camera's unforgiving screen acting as an intermediary, it looks just fine in its setting. To me the defects seem to work to enhance the rough-and-ready wilderness look. Some sort of Schoppian thing maybe?

My $15CDN swap meet Athern RDC-3

Late in March, when I was a little more than halfway through this project, I stumbled across the above RDC-3 made by Athern at the annual model train swap meet here in Ottawa. It was one of these I had hoped to start the diorama project with, but I couldn't find a suitable one. I wanted to design the diorama around this version because it is unprototypically short for an RDC and would fit better on the base. I had calculated that an RDC of prototypical length would only be 2 or 3mm shorter than the base. So, it was a bit of a nail biter waiting for the one I ordered to show up so I could confirm it would fit. Luckily, it did. Also, the RDC-3 has its baggage door a little closer to the centre of the vehicle, so it would allow me to place the diorama's focal point closer to the middle. Well, when I stumbled across the Athern it was a bit too late to make adjustments to the diorama, let alone re-badge the CP marked RDC now that the Proto 1000 version was done.

Cornering performance on the Wayout Layout

The Athern was part of an estate sale, and its original owner had done an excellent job of re-motoring the model. It even has a nice custom flywheel in there for smooth stops and starts. All that for just $15CDN and it runs very well on the Wayout Layout to boot. Again, its short length is a great feature because it can take the sharp corners I designed on the Wayout for streetcar operations without any trouble. 

An unpowered Athern RDC-3 brush painting victim

Also at the swap meet I found an unpowered Athern RDC-3. Its windows were yellowed and had developed dimples, so I've discarded the window strips. Being a little ticked off with the decals I bought for the Proto 1000 model I decided to try my hand at brush painting some VIA Rail blue stripes on this one. I masked them off with Tamyia tape and went at it. Disaster. It turned out worse than the decal job. You can see the crummy results in the above photo. I'll eventually strip it down and spray paint it.

I was obsessed with RDCs, so when I stumbled across these two shells on eBay at about the same time I had bought the swap meet RDCs I immediately bought them too. Again, they are Athern RDC-3s. I thought I could use them to build a hotrod RDC! I've got some ideas, but I'll likely need a lot of coffee before they take shape :-)

That's a long story just to arrive at this scene: a fellow pulling a canoe from an RDC while a rail employee admires the view across the lake and a photographer takes some pictures of the action.

Well, once I'm done my coffee I'm off in my canoe to look for RDC barn finds for hot rodding :-)