Makes me wish I was still living in"The Land of Enchantment"...Granted Albuquerque was a bit of a hike from 'Cruces...

Very original.  Love to see "different."

Celebrate the Dead, remember the good times, sleep with the bones...

Greetings All

 

This weekend the New Mexico Garden Railroaders are engaged in our fall show at the Albuquerque Botanical Garden. Several old favorites are on the rails but there are a few new trains making their debut. Here is the "Day of the Dead" train by Ray Mosley, who is one of our members. He is a big Disney fan and has built his entire home layout based on various Disney movies and park rides. His Layout was featured in Disney magazine last year.

 

Staying with that idea his newest addition is inspired by the movie "Coco" and incorporates some vinyl figures of the movie's main characters. Ray has also included several traditional skeletal figures that he sculpted and cast in aluminum using the lost wax method. He is a custom jewelry maker by trade and has access to all sorts of forge and metal casting equipment.

 

 

The goal was to capture the look and feel of the movie which is animated in the modern CGI style. The cars are a mixture of types and eras pulled by a REA Rogers 2-4-2. The weathering effect is done with colored shoe polish artist wax to represent the surreal and colorful land of the dead.

 

 

The engine: This is the two motor version of the Rogers. It is DC powered. The tender was salvaged from a Costco RC Cola set.

 

 

Behind the engine is a 2 axle boxcar by Aristocraft. This is part of a rolling stock series that included a flatcar, gondola and tanker. The Hershey's and Teddy bear trains both featured them. 

 

 

These ghostly figures are dancing on top of a two axle short flatcar by LGB. Currently they are held in place with clay until a permanent fastener can be made.

 

 

Next is a pair of Delton coaches in 1/24th scale. They contain most of the vinyl movie figures and are still works in progress.

 

 

At the end is the caboose. It began life as a 2 axle bobber by LGB.

 

 

Finally it was time to put the train on the tracks.... If you look at the top of the frame you will see that a ghost family stopped by to enjoy the site.

You can tell by the angle of the sun this was taken facing east in the early morning with the sun to their backs. It is before the garden was open to the public. I assure you there was no one there when I took the photo......

 

 

Make of it what you will and have a happy Halloween or Dia De Los Muertos!!!!

Pete Thornton said:

Joe Zullo said:

I just read this fantastic thread that started before I was a member here. It is a fantastic model by a master modeler. Is there video of it in operation?

I'm sure Bruce has some video somewhere.  He put it up for sale recently.

Thanks Joe!   I plan to shoot some video, but I don't think I have any yet.   Us old farts find it really hard to get up to date.   (Maybe I can get my old movies upgraded to digital? )

Joe Zullo said:

I just read this fantastic thread that started before I was a member here. It is a fantastic model by a master modeler. Is there video of it in operation?

I'm sure Bruce has some video somewhere.  He put it up for sale recently.

I just read this fantastic thread that started before I was a member here. It is a fantastic model by a master modeler. Is there video of it in operation?

Very, very nice, Nico...  That is just great..  

Jerry Barnes said:

I'd like a 1/32nd scale regular size dome, if that is possible.

 

 

For what kind of car?

I'd like a 1/32nd scale regular size dome, if that is possible.

Michael Glavin said:

Thanks for the info Nico. My interest is specifically focused at Harriman arch roof replacements for Aristo passenger cars.

 

Michael

 

yes those can be done.

 

 

Thanks for the info Nico. My interest is specifically focused at Harriman arch roof replacements for Aristo passenger cars.

 

Michael

 

 play with Nico.

 

 

Sorry Rooster I don't go that way

Nico Corbo said:

Wayne Jardine said:

Nico

Question are you going to make them into kits for sale 

sure, how many would you like?

 

Would like to purchase a few myself to play with Nico. Don't give away too many secrets as you are a business man now and business is business and free is free .....

 

Will be in contact and once again excellent work!

Michael Glavin said:

Nico,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the printing. How long are the prints? My interest is in regard to printable length as I have noted Shapeways and others suggest 100mm (4") and longer can be problematic with such design/shapes. So at this juncture I have steered clear of taller prints with that in mind. Was this a vertical print, i.e.; printed from center to end cap (lengthwise) or horizontally from the roof deck to highest point or dome center line (perhaps as an end cross section makes more sense)?

 

Michael

 

 

Michael,

it was printed vertically, with the window end down and the connection point up. The length of the print is approximately 10 inches.

 

nico 

 

Looks good. Thanks for the tip on the Birney roof vents. I'm going to need them on a project soon to be arriving on my workbench. 

 

Later,

 

K

Nice !   I like it.

John Caughey said:

There should be plenty of sand.

 

Speaking of sand - where the 'sand boxes' were built outside of cab ends, (which are ends of HLW's Mack cab) the thought occurred that empty sheet styrene boxes could be kind of flimsy, might be good to stiffen them with something, hmm, what to use?
Ah!

Fill them with sand, really!

And harden it with thin super glue!

I agree you are making nice progress, as you can.

There should be plenty of sand.

Good thing you got the wheel straps on! Imagine my embarrassment when after working on the engine, I pulled a wheelie in the yard and dropped an axle!

Thanks Mke! Progress has been and probably is always going to be slow with gaps of months or entire seasons between times.