Locomotive - sort of

[DWest]

The last car is almost finished. One thing I have found is that the cars may need a little internal bracing or they may need to be printed on heavier card stock. They are pretty good sized and being tall and thin they may need a brace or two just to keep everything square. I guess the could be scaled down some and solve the problem but I am old and don't seem to have much luck with small models. Anyway here is a picture of part of the car.

[DWest]

Just an update on this project. This started out to be a locomotive and has since evolved into a locomotive and 7 cars most of which are drawn. I got the bright idea to scale them down to 50% but that proved to be way too small for my beat up hands so back up they go. I am in the process of making them big enough for me to see and handle and should have something ready to go very soon. I could post some of the small drawings if anyone would like to see them. Okay I'm done whining now.....lol

[DWest]

Okay, here is where we stand now. I built the caboose at the full drawing scale - yep it was way too big, so I scaled it down to 50% and yes it was way too small so now I have settled on 75%. It looks to be just the right size. Hmmm...doesn't this sound kinda like a fairy tale, something about 3 bears and a kid? Oh well, we are slowly making progress - at least that's what I keep telling myself.

[DWest]

Just another update - I am in the process of building the locomotive and so far it seems to be going pretty good and I have been able to make any needed corrections. When it is finished I will release it, probably on my Deviant Art site, so that anyone who wants to can build it. The caboose went together okay at full scale so it should be good to go at 75% so I may go ahead and release it in a B/W and a color version soon. Thanks!

[JohnM]

I'm looking forward to this model, but meantime this may be of interest to other Ride Modelers ...



There's a vintage card model of it on Toto's blogspot ...

Il favoloso mondo di carta di Totò: January 2012

I'll be having a go at making it up tomorrow.

Enjoy.

Johnny.

[DWest]

Thanks for the link, the model looks like fun.

[JohnM]

Anywhere near publishing your train yet Dan ? After a mis-spent youth as a roustabout, I still love all fairground rides, and I'm looking forward to building it.

I've nearly finished the 'Good Food Line' train. Pictures in a day or so, but building this little train is nowhere near as simple as it first looked. It was obviously originally designed with stamped pre-cut parts, tabs and slots, and much bigger than the size I've printed it at on A4 paper. Somewhere in the text it mentions that it is over six foot long, but I doubt if mine will be more than eighteen inches.

From the print, the stamp seems to have been substantially off target and the instructions are pretty vague too, so it would have been quite a disappointment to most child model makers.

Applying a little adult logic and experience to it is bringing it into shape, but you need to play around with the parts quite a bit to make sure you've got it right before you glue anything. The original design being a non glued build, but as I'm building it in gloss photo paper, gluing it together is very necessary.

I've completed the caboose, one truck and the tender, and am now working on the loco. Three more trucks and their loads to go after that, so maybe I'll be done around mid week, if real life leaves me alone for a while. I'm now just chillin' and recovering from visiting grandchildren over Easter.

Keep on snippin'

Johnny.

[DWest]

John,
The train is getting closer to being ready to go, I have built the caboose at the drawing scale so it should be okay at 75%, the lion car went together pretty good and the locomotive build should be finished tonight or tomorrow - it even looks a lot like a locomotive if the lights are dim and you squint some...lol. I still have to build the boxcar, elephant car, tiger car, and the passenger car and if that weren't enough for some reason I drew a circus wagon that will be hauled on a flat car. These first builds are all in B/W but I have colored them and, as my wife said, they are very colorful. I may go ahead and release them as I finish the test builds. There will be both color and B/W versions so folks can do their own paint work. As for instructions, they may come later but the models are pretty simple to build.
Sorry this has taken so long but all of the changes and corrections seem to take forever and my business is really taking off but keep the faith - it will be done someday. I will try to post a couple of pictures tonight.
Oh, and if I ever decide to do this again somebody just shoot me......lol

[DWest]

Here is a few pictures of what little progress has been made so far. The locomotive is not glued together and I dug the caboose out of the waste paper basket but this will give you an idea of what is going on with the train.
Thanks,
Dan

[DWest]

the caboose was built at the drawing scale and was way too big so everything was scaled down to 75%