Large Scale Central

The Railway Equipment of Middle Earth

General Discussion
#1

Hi Folks;

There are Star Wars geeks and there are Trekies (or Trekkers), but I am a Tolkie. For decades I have loved the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, and have read most of them, including the Silmarillion. A few years ago I decided to combine my loves for Tolkien’s works and for model railroading. I created an imaginary name for a railroad built during the reactively peaceful and prosperous Fourth Age of Middle Earth, the Brandywine & Gondor Railroad (billed as the Mainline of Middle Earth). The railroad runs from Minas Tirith to the Brandywine River, on the border of the Shire. I have had fun imagining what sort of equipment could have been built and used. Of course, there are no prototypes, so rivet counting is moot.

I may have to post a few times under this thread to get all the photos into it. This is also training for me on using the Freight Shed. Nothing is meant to be serious, so relax and enjoy. I will try to describe the “logic” per the saga of The Lord of the Rings, whenever it applies.

My first locomotive was built from a Bachmann Indy. Chris Walas made the dragon. I named her Smaugette, supposedly she was the only child sired by Smaug. Why are there dragons in Middle Earth again? When Sauron was still powerful, he found a way to put dragons’ eggs in stasis, and concealed them all over Middle Earth. After Sauron’s demise, the stasis wore off, and guess what? Baby dragons are friendly and trainable. Smaugette is a vegetarian. She prefers an especially potent chili that is indigenous to the Shire. The “fire hobbit” keeps an amble supply of these chilis on hand so that she does not run out of fire.

The second locomotive is an LGB. It is supposedly a dwarf built locomotive. Like its builders, it is chunky and strong. It is also crewed by dwarves. These first two locomotives are the only sparkies on the B&GRR.

the next locomotive is a “Dora” live steamer by Accucraft, renamed “Dori” for one of the dwarves in Thorin Oakenshield’s company. This little locomotive is seen pulling one of the Rohirrim’s horse cars. The car proudly proclaims “Rides of Rohan, the finest horses in all of Middle Earth.” The way car is lettered for the Short Line Railroad, the line that runs from Erebor to Lake Town.

This next live steamer is by Regner and is named for Thorin Oakenshield, himself. The locomotive is built to resemble a DeWinton type that was popular for quarries and other industrial railways. A Thorin figure is on the footplate, and he looks pretty dashing for a dead dwarf king. Somebody once asked my why I had a Klingon running a steam locomotive. HMMmmmmm! No brow ridges, but I do see a resemblance.

This photo shows My Roundhouse ALCO WWI trench locomotive, named Gandalf. Presently this is my largest live steamer, but I still have hope for bigger and better ones. Like most Roundhouse locomotives, Gandalf is a good steamer and runner.

Before I sign off for the moment, I want to show the B&GRR train protection vehicle - affectionately called a Balrog Catcher by the train crews. There are still plenty of nasties left in Middle Earth, and this car is designed to deal with them.

The stout poles on the rear of the carbody allow the carbody to be rotated over the chassis. This assures the car is facing the correct way for the return trip at branch line terminals that lack a turntable.

Well, I am at a stopping point for now. The next posting to this thread will feature rolling stock.

Keep on Trackin’, David Meashey

P.S. I kind of forgot this, but the “Balrog Catcher” was my entry in the Mik’s 2011 Challenge. It won a prize. Not sure if it was the top prize, but it was a really nice resin dragon. It had been an ash tray, only I got the dragon minus the glass ash tray. Still have it, somewhere in my model train project room. May need to send Indiana Jones on a search for it. Aw heck, it’s always so much fun when I rediscover something I forgot I had.

NMRA Panel Discussion
#2

Dave,

I have been a fan of your work for years, over at the other place, but have never seen the complete lineup and everybody in the dugout.

I’m glad you have chosen to show us your railroad thanks for the postings.

Rick

#3

As promised earlier, here is the rolling stock. First up is a caboose. The conductor is a dwarf, and he is wearing full armor. As I mentioned in the first post, there are still plenty of nasties left in Middle Earth. So, nobody frowns on the employees and the customers arming themselves. It is still a bit like our own Wild West.

Next is a private owner car for Longbottom Leaf tobacco. Good stuff. Pippin and Merry were overjoyed to find a small keg of the stuff among the flotsam after the ents overran Isengard.

Most likely Barliman Butterbur has leased this next car. It proudly proclaims his Prancing Pony Ale. There is just a hint of Madison Avenue in the slogan. Both of these cars and the caboose have Kalamazoo Toy Trains for their lineage.

This next car is a bit of both whimsey and irony. The homeless Nazgul is trying to sell Morgul short swords, and on the larger sign offers to “pillage and terrorize for food.” I really had to weight the bottom of the tip bucket to keep him from being tossed off the train. The load is supposed to be Mithril ore.

Another view of the horse cars from Rohan and the little Short Line way car. Interchange is not as formal in Middle Earth as it is on our own railroads. Cabooses tend to wander off their home roads. The horse heads are on a sort of gimble that keeps them bobbing in and out of their windows. This action delights children of all ages. Since the Lionel patent must have expired decades ago, these cars are by Bachmann.

Since I can’t always come up with a commercial model for what I want, many of my cars are either heavily kitbashed or scratch built. The Balrog Catcher was built from scratch. The hatchling dragon transport is another scratch build. I could envision it, but nobody offered anything even close. The little dragons are being taken to a training facility deep in Fangorn Forrest (with the blessing of the ents, of course). There they will be trained to become Gondor’s new Air Force. Flying Nazgul, or others like them, will never again be able to pose a threat to Gondor. The wood is unfinished, as the cars will be broken up and the wood repurposed once the last hatchling dragon is brought to the camp. Hatchling dragons cannot fly or breath fire just yet, but they will be able to fly back to Minis Tirith once their training is complete.

In the next photo of the same car, the hatchling dragon is being fed. He has to be calmed down because a steam locomotive working upgrade sounds a lot like a female dragon in heat. Hatchling dragons cannot fly or breath fire, but the males are sexually mature when they hatch. This was a means of preserving the species. Fully grown male dragons get too excited and tend to spout great quantities of flame when they climax. It doesn’t bode well for preserving the race if the female mating partner gets incinerated during mating (although preying mantises seem to have worked a similar problem out).

Presently these are my only two passenger cars. The baggage is LGB and the coach is Delton. I hope to convert two more LGB shorty coaches, but I always seem to have more projects than time. You will see a cage inside the door of the baggage car. There is a warg (really big and nasty wolf) inside the cage. I think I have a sign near the back platform door to the car that reads “Please do not feed or annoy the warg.” There is a guard on the front platform of each car. Could not find any weapons that looked fierce enough, so I made the combination pole axe/spear each or them carries.

Here is another heavily kitbashed whimsical car. The chassis came from an Aristo two axle flat car. The troll is distilling Loughbrau (pronounced “low brow” - after all, trolls make Neanderthals look like high brows) Trollish Punch. It “Packs the Strongest Punch in all of Middle Earth.” This was a really fun build. The main parts of the still were sparkling wine caps. The firebox is an old Crystal Lite tin. The “fire” is the wrapper from a Lindt truffle egg. The stove pipe is a bendable drinking straw. Finally, the coal bin is the clear plastic off some kind of blister pack. I had to make new stirrup steps, as his feet were way too broad.

This primitive tank car (nee Kalamazoo) carries Fangorn Forrest Water. This water really enhances growth in all living things. A small ent travels with the car to barter with farmers and gardeners for nuts and other staples in exchange for the water. Ents have no use for money. Could not find a figure of an ent, so I declared Groot from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie “close enough.”

Not all of the cars I use are lettered for the B&GRR. This was a PlayMobil car I kitbashed. It bears only number 62 - my age when I kitbashed the car. The second photo shows the “before” view of the car.

Well, that is the roster at present. Hope you had fun looking.

Best wishes, David Meashey

#4

… including the silmarillion…

a true fan, really.

do you know, that there are some keychain figures in about 1:25 ?

(mainly hobbits plus the companions and some “stars”)

#5

Great stuff Dave. I am a fan of Lord of the Rings. I read the book and of course saw the movies, several times. One of my favorite scenes is when Gandalf and the fellas are forced to go underground into the mines of the Dwarfes and the Balrog makes his incredible entrance. Last weekend I was riding the steam in the snow excursion out of North Conway NH and I captured video of the headlight glowing like fire through the cold gloom at dusk emerging from a truss bridge and the sight had me imagining that the steam engine had been destroyed and the Balrog was coming down the track. It was an incredible scene.

Here is the video link and the Balrog appears at the 3:20 mark. Let me know if you agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc0ttZeiNFg&t=1s

#6

Todd;

I have to admit the aura of that scene was in the bridge footage. Kinda’ wished that it included an old bearded fellow in gray raising his enchanted staff and shouting, “You shall not pass!”

Best, David Meashey

#7

Nice stuff, Dave! I always enjoy seeing people putting their imaginations to good use.