RDC-X

I greet the new owner of RDC-X.

One of the commenters on the video for Le Grand DEFI noted words to the effect that it was good to see an RDC that wasn't being used for alien autopsies and such as he had seen on the X-Files. I didn't know any RDC had made a guest appearance on the X-Files so I used the commenter's hints and went to look for the episode.

An image from episode '731'. The RDC is a lab carrying a human-alien hybrid.

It turns out RDCs featured in a 2-part story in Season 3: episode 9, 'Nisel', and episode 10, '731'. According to the story there appears to be two RDCs in use. The one in 'Nisel' has the number 82594, and the one in '731' is numbered 82517. I suspect the tv show production crew used the same RDC for both, but switched car numbers as necessary?

An image from 'Nisel'. This one had a lab that seemed to be the site of an alien autopsy 

I don't know what RDC variant they used on the show other than it appears to be an all passenger one as there aren't any cargo doors on the car. I didn't have anything similar on hand to build my own version, but I did have this:

The Athern RDC-3 before conversion

It's the Athern unpowered RDC-3 brush painting victim. In the show the RDCs never appear as the self-propelled vehicles that they are; they're always seen being pulled around like any other freight or passenger car, which makes the unpowered Athern a good choice as the candidate model. I speculate the show's team picked an RDC because it's an odd looking car and seems a bit weird to most people, so turning it into an alien lab I guess wasn't much of a stretch - being self propelled was probably irrelevant. And there must have been an old, broken down one rusting away on a siding somewhere that would be cheap to convert. Well, at least make over its exterior. I assume the interior scenes were shot on a set.

I decided mine would merely reference styling cues of the X-Files "prototype" instead of being an exact replica since I didn't have an all passenger version on hand to bash and didn't want to buy one. The above picture of the conversion is fairly self-explanatory, but I'll note I used 0.040" thick styrene sheet for all the interior filler panels and 0.020" on the exterior ones. I also panelled over the unsightly notch in the body that secures the chassis - that's the panel beside my thumb in the above photo.

The prototype's ends appear to be in different styles. To make things easy I decided to fill in the side windows and leave the door's window a window. Once the body was painted I glued in a piece of clear plastic.

The only markings on the prototype appear to be large, black numbers on a white roof top panel. As I mentioned earlier, the numbers are different in each episode.

For those number panels I attached a small piece of 0.010" styrene to the roof. The numbers are rub-on, dry transfer items.

As for painting I sprayed the body with Krylon Fusion Metallic Silver and over coated with Testor's Dullcote after the silver had dried for a few days. The vents and grills were painted with thin applications of Tamiya Black Panel Liner. The chassis was brush painted with Revell Aqua Color Matt Black. 

I also installed a pair of Kadee couplers so RDC-X could be used with the rest of the fleet. Er, well, used with its cousin the Space Hopper.

The disturbance in the force caused by these two popped the roof off the lifeguard station!

The writers ended the 2-parter a little too E. L. Moore-like in my estimation. Similar to the way Moore concluded his Cannonball and Safety Powder Works, the RDC "blowed up real good" as they used to say on the Farm Film Report:

Rest assured this will not happen to RDC-X.

Well, who knows what my grey friend has in mind :-)

Space Hopper sighted in Belleville, 16 July 2023!

Havelock Yard on YouTube alerted me in a comment to one of my videos that he had made and recorded a Space Hopper sighting in Belleville, Ontario. Apparently it has been there awhile, but this reporter was no doubt asleep when he passed through its landing site recently :-( 

The truth is out there - but only if I'm awake :-)

And one other thing, Havelock Yard has lots of excellent and well produced videos at his YouTube channel. I recommend having a look.

Space Leprechaun and friends from planet Havelock?

Space Leprechaun?

All summer I've looked up and down the Havelock yard for a reappearance of either Space Hopper or Son of Space Hopper. No luck. Ok, technically summer doesn't end until 21 September, but I'm not hopeful they'll show up in the remaining days. 

But, I did see this. A Space Leprechaun? An emissary from a far away world come to celebrate the 6 month anniversary of launching the E. L. Moore eBook on St. Patrick's Day 2023? Inquiring minds don't need to know.

Space Leprechaun doing its duty in the Havelock yard.

Other sightings of note include this ancient Boston & Maine covered hopper. I think these cars were manufactured around 1980 or so, and if true, that's one long service life. Does the Havelock yard also hold the secret to longevity?

AEQX 3044 seen July 2023

Who knows? Here's another Boston & Maine covered hopper I spotted in Havelock yard back in June 2020.

AEQX 3013 seen June 2020

And look! There're two more sighted in August 2021.

AEQX 3020 & 3035 seen August 2021

An ancient Templar pyramid?

I don't have any sightings from 2022, but that doesn't mean they weren't there. For me that was the year of an injured shoulder, derecho, and a wrecked car, so I didn't get out much.  

Here's a photo to tide you over until I can find another B&M covered hopper. 

Is this structure, found while exploring the lakes near the Havelock yard, an ancient submerged stone Templar pyramid ?

Of course not. That rock was likely deposited by a retreating glacier about 20,000 years ago and shaped in accordance with its molecular structure by years and years and years of being submerged in moving water.

Ok, found one, here's another from just a few days ago.

AEQX 3025 seen September 2023

Ok, there are a lot of those old B&M blue covered hoppers in Havelock, but they weren't the only anomalies. Other sightings this summer included a big name:

Some protoplasmic lifeforms:

Here are what look like some spermatozoa doing what they do:

 And I couldn't resist shooting this one paparazzi style from the passenger seat of a moving car:

In case you think planet Havelock is only populated with covered hoppers I'll leave you with this teaser:

The search continues.

I got excited there for a minute ...

 ... but no, it wasn't some sort of new space hopper sighting in Montréal.

Although this ape and the black loading door with a bulbous pseudo star field painted on induced a 2001: A Space Odyssey reaction in me. Wishful thinking. 

The search continues.

Interplanetary Space Hoppers still missing

We looked for you in Montréal, but you weren't there.

-

On t'a cherché à Montréal, mais tu n'y étais pas.

Calling occupants of interplanetary Space Hoppers

 We didn't see you in Oshawa.

We left out some chairs for you in Gananoque, but you were no where to be found.

You were a no show in Smiths Falls.

We'll keep looking.

Space hopper dreams

Extra! Extra! Read all about Space Hopper sightings!

In the December 2022 issue of the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders’ newsletter, The Interchange, I have an article about last year’s space hopper sightings. It’s the first article I’ve had published there (and might be the last depending on its reception :-) )

I was reading the Oct ’22 OVAR newsletter and saw a request from the editor for articles. I got to wondering if I should submit something. I waffled a lot, but it was a dream that made the decision.

One night a few days after reading the newsletter's request I dreamt I was working in an office tower in an older downtown section of a city like Toronto or New York - it seemed like a downtown from the ‘40s or ‘50s, and my tower had an Art Deco feel. I had just moved to the city and hadn’t worked at that office long. On my first day I was surprised to learn that at precisely 5pm the entire tower knocked off work and headed home. When I got down to the sidewalk I decided that since it was a fine afternoon, and since I lived only 5km away, I’d walk home. 

Next day, same thing. Work ended at 5, and I again decided to walk home. This time though I made a wrong turn somewhere and got lost. I stopped and looked around, but the buildings didn’t look familiar. Across the street I saw a ’50’s-60s style, single storey, glass, stone, and metal building - it was some sort of cross between a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie style house, Philip Johnson’s Glass House, and the original McGregor Park Public Library. I decided to walk over, go in, and ask where I was. I thought once I knew that, I could figure out how to get home. 

I couldn’t tell what sort of business this building housed - there weren’t any signs. It was outfitted with Danish modern furniture, and there were lots of shelves lined with books as well as desks and tables and offices. I saw what looked like a reception desk with two women standing behind it. I approached and asked one woman where I was and how I might get home. She said she’d go get a fellow from down the hall and he’d help me. 

She walked down the hall. I then turned to look at the second woman, who as soon as I made eye contact said, “Mr. Lowe, you are a b.s. artist.”

I was a little hurt by that, but thought about it a bit and chuckled. I replied, “Well, maybe I am, sort of.”

She didn’t let that go, looked me straight in the eyes, and followed up with, “You are and you know you are.”

At this point the first woman returned accompanied by a man in a tweed jacket carrying maps and documents.

Then I woke up. 

I couldn’t let this message from my addled psyche pass, so I collected up some of my choicest b.s.-y posts, the space hopper ones, and made a story out of them. As you know, the space hopper facts are factual, but their presentation is fanciful. Although, it turns out somewhere in my brain fanciful is wedged tightly beside b.s.. 

In Search of Ancient Space Hoppers

It's not over here.

Ancient space hopper theorists believe that what we today think of as mere railway hopper cars are in fact chariots of ancient railway space gods. The key to the mystery of the whereabouts of those ancient space hopperists can be found written on freight cars, especially hoppers, in railway yards around the planet. The Havelock yard is an especially potent site, but this investigator has been unable to replicate last year's sighting either of Space Hopper or Son of Space Hopper.

Nor is it here.

One wonders though what sort of railway vehicle is being transported towards Havelock early on a Sunday morning down a remote highway under a shrink wrap cloak? Oversize load indeed.

Who knows what lurks underneath the shrink wrap?

Oh, where oh where can my Space Hopper be?

That's not it.

Last Thursday was the first time this year I could get out of the car and have a look, albeit a very quick look, up and down the Havelock yard. I was looking for the Space Hopper, but didn't see it amongst all the parked hoppers. Maybe it has returned to its home planet :-)

That's not it either.

Model vs Art Piece

Abduction! A new Space Hopper-ization candidate?

I was talking about the Space Hopper conversion with 30Squares' Head of Research a couple of days ago. At one point he mentioned that it was interesting that I had ground off the hopper side detail in the areas where the decals were placed so they would adhere better. It seemed that by removing detail this transformed the project from being an exercise in model making to one of creating an art piece, something lower down in the hierarchy of miniatures. It's true the Space Hopper would never win a contest, be featured in a magazine, or be taken seriously by real model railroaders, but it was fun to build, and brings back some pleasant, light-hearted memories. So, although it isn't a model, or an art piece for that matter, I think of it as a significant object built in the style of Casualized HO, in so-called HO^c.

Why did you leave your hopper so far from home?

You gave us the greens of summers?

 

The Space HOpper has landed!

Son of Space Hopper

I was looking for a little change of pace and decided to go ahead and see about making a Space Hopper. All the necessary materials have been staring at me all winter long, so I thought, enough is enough, I've had enough with the staring :-)

The hopper is an HO scale ACF 2970 Covered Hopper by Athern that I picked up last year on the resale table at a local hobby shop. It was a little beat up, but I figured that added to its character. Although, I did do a little prep work on it.

Body preparations done and awaiting decals

The first task was to grind off the molded on tank reinforcements where the decals would go. I wanted a smooth surface, and and didn't want any details that might prevent the decals from properly conforming. Sanding sticks were used to smooth the surface. Once clean and flat, some clear acrylic floor polish was painted on to produce a shiny surface to improve decal adhesion. To finish off, the under carriage was painted a sloppy black mix to de-emphasize its detail so it wouldn't visually compete with the decals.

Decal sheet after spraying with clear fixative

I took my reference photos (this one and this one) and using trial-and-error adjusted them to fit my hopper using Apple's Photo, Preview, and Keynote. If you look closely at the photos, and compare them against the finished model, you can see I took a few liberties during sizing.

Once that was done I printed the images on a sheet of white decal paper designed for inkjet printers. After the ink had dried for 24 hours, I sprayed the sheet with some Testors clear gloss sealer to fix the pictures. Once that too had dried for 24 hours I cut out the decals. There was a little fiddling and trimming that needed to be done to each one to improve the fit before they were applied.

Space Hopper

I used Microscale's Micro Set and Micro Sol to apply the decals, following the directions on the bottles. It worked out fairly well, although the top and bottom edges of each decal crinkled while drying. However, the edges are flat, so that part is good. Those rough edges don't appear on the prototype, but they actually look alright on the model. I'll do a little bit of additional weathering and finish up with a flat sealant. I'm hesitating on the sealant as I recently had a problem with my flat spray sealants causing decals to peel and paint to craze. Other than that, it's done.

Calling HO occupants of interplanetary space hoppers: It's here!

It's here!

 

Space Hopper Distorts Space-Time Continuum

Space Hopper image soured from Google Street View

Galen sent me a message mentioning that the Space Hopper could be seen in Google Street View's images of the Havelock yard. 

My photo

And that wasn't all. The string of cars was the same, as was their arrangement and yard location, as those I showed in my photo.

It turns out I took my photo on 28 August 2021, and posted it on 31 August 2021. The Street View image is simply dated September 2021. So, maybe the cars sat in the yard for awhile, and were still there when Google's camera vehicle drove by in early September.

But wait, here's the part for all you X-Files aficionados: as you use Street View to move from the Space Hopper in the west end of the yard, down along highway 7 towards the station in the east end, you'll notice the date stamp on the images changes from September 2021 to August 2021 somewhere in front of the Circle K. And once you've crossed into August, in that mass of Saturday afternoon traffic you'll see a vehicle that looks all too suspiciously like mine! The 30 Squares Security Chief has advised me, out of an abundance of caution as they say, not to reveal which vehicle so I don't alert authorities that we've discovered a breach in the space-time continuum outside the Circle K in Havelock :-) Is the Space Hopper a space-time hopping vehicle from another dimension? No wonder those aliens used a hopper car. The truth is out there, but it'll have to wait 'til next summer.

Son of Space Hopper?

While cruising by the Havelock yard today I caught a glimpse of what I thought was the space hopper, but no, on closer inspection this was much, much more.

This one is apparently an homage to the alleged 1947 flying saucer crash in Roswell, New Mexico.

Is this by the artist who created the space hopper? Is this the mysterious 'other side' of the space hopper? Is Havelock yard the Bermuda Triangle of space hopperness? 

Questions, questions, questions.

Canvas for an HO Space Hopper

I was out making the rounds of the hobby shop, art supply store, and Canadian Tire shopping for supplies for the E. L. Moore dioramas and stuff for the new layout when I stumbled across this HO-scale Trinity hopper on the resale table at the hobby shop. It's a Walthers item, a bit beat-up, and it looks like an attempt at painting was made, but it's in good enough shape to see if I can turn it into a Space Hopper. Watch this space :-)

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?