# Tribute to Edward Hopper pop-up building



## Bill C. (Jan 2, 2008)

I just finished reading the biography of Edward Hopper by Gail Levin. He's the painter best known for Nighthawks, set in a diner. So I decided to make a little scene for my pop-up railway based on one of his works.









The building it is based on is the Ryder House, which Hopper painted on Cape Cod in 1933. I printed it in two sections and glued it to black foam board. The vegetation along the base is moss from the dollar store. Hopper was famous for his bald head, so I added the figure to represent him.

Lots of other Hopper buildings to inspire use on a model railway. He loved trains and architecture too. Alfred Hitchcock, another train fan, also got his Psycho house from Hopper, as well as his Rear Window set.


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Very cool. Very nice work.


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## Bill C. (Jan 2, 2008)

Chris, thanks for checking out my little project. Here's what the original painting looked like. Always something out there to inspire us.

Incidentally, the current television show Better Call Saul has a lot of Hopperesque influence in it.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Bill;

Very nice. Perhaps you can work in a Nighthawks type diner scene sometime.

I had a short visit to the Reading, PA Reading RR station in 1977. It was like stepping through a time warp to 1955. The whole facility smelled of boiled hotdogs and sauerkraut (from the commissary), and the north and southbound RDC trains met face-to-face inside the station. Passengers continuing on to Tamaqua or Philadelphia were obliged to swap trains at that point.

Best wishes,
David Meashey


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## Bill C. (Jan 2, 2008)

Dave, Edward Hopper and his wife Jo used to enjoy eating in diners, and they are the couple depicted at the counter in Nighthawks. I already did one pop-up flat of the Boardwalk Empire diner that my wife and I visited on Staten Island a few years back. It certainly would be possible to add a Nighthawk-style look through the windows.










Here's my Jersey Diner that I kitbashed from an old LGB Euro diner that I bought for 20 bucks. 

Nothing like eating at diners when you're out on the road.


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Bill C. said:


> Here's my Jersey Diner that I kitbashed from an old LGB Euro diner that I bought for 20 bucks.
> 
> Nothing like eating at diners when you're out on the road.


Where's the cook? Can't have no stinkn' Diner without a cook.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

"Where's the cook? Can't have no stinkn' Diner without a cook"

Chris;

He's out in back of the diner with a hatchet in hand, chasing a chicken. (When the menu says "fresh," they MEAN it!!)  

Have fun,
David Meashey


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## jokensa (Dec 4, 2014)

very cool

i keep telling my wife that my trains are my art.

perhaps this will help


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## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

Bill
Great salute to an accomplished artist, one of my favorite.


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## Bill C. (Jan 2, 2008)

JKS, that is a great response to give to your wife. And above is another one of my artist-inspired buildings. I use the American Gothic house on my shelf railway.

Charles, I would have to say that Edward Hopper is in the top ten favorites of American artists. He himself admired the work of Thomas Eakins, who sometimes painted along the Cohansey River, which runs close to me. 

I also like Norman Rockwell, one reason being that my father's company manufactured the ink for the Saturday Evening Post when it was published in Philadelphia. I want to do a flat of his "The Street Was Never The Same Again." Yeah, Rockwell is considered to be just an illustrator, but like most people I like him.


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