I decided to depart from my regular SP line of modeling and decided to go a different route. I've always liked the cover of the Stephen King novel Wastelands and decided to build a ghost train based loosely on the cover. I started with a Kato GS4, stripped it and painted it flat black. With a quick switch I can configure it back to 4456 to run on SP line. I had an extra shell and attached a pewter skull to the smoke box with a red bulb to accent the eyes. I went with a shortened CC baggage car to fit the length of the other cars in the train. I used MT heavyweight trucks, with the offset bolster, they worked perfectly. I used a stock MT Heavyweight RPO with a shortened easy-peasy light installed. I painted the LED and clear light board red to give a red hue to the windows. The passenger cars are stock Bmann shortys with the lights painted red. Three have the shadows on the windows which give them the appearance of ghosts inside with the red light. Since they are prone to flickering while moving, it adds to the train. Lastly, the observation is another shorty with a CC observation end spliced on and the roof sectioned from the CC donor. I'm probably going to use a Bmann shorty observation, have not made up my mind yet.
I like it !!! Got a friend whose favorite Bourbon is known as "The Ghost" !!! Really cool model, and great work, but I have a question. Is it a little late, or is it very early for Halloween ??? Next holiday is Valentine's Day !!! OH, NO !!! !!! I shouldn't have said that !!! If anyone shows up with a pink Big Boy, I'm leaving TB !!!
Ok...not a Steven king fan here...but...I Googled images 'Stephen King novel Wastelands'..and that locomotive you made is pretty darn close to the cover art !!! Spooky stuff !!!! :uhoh:
That is very awesome! I really enjoy the Halloween theme. We have haunted house. My gf want to install many spooky effects to it such as LED flicking, maybe smog/smoke effect, and so on.
With the bmann shorties, I was considering going the Polar Express route, but I didn't want to buy a berk that would only serve one purpose. This way, the GS-4 can do double duty since 4456 was painted all black with skirts and didn't have the SP hearald on the tender at one time. It is a little far from halloween, but the kids really get a kick out of the train when it rolls by.
