Been having a bad day so to brighten things up...

[Emettman]

It was a matter of "choices":
The cowcatcher *is * angled: a good 15 degrees or so from the plane of the cylinders.  The boiler is straight but the cab is angled to it, and the tail of its roof angles more.
(see the earlier plan-shot.  That it doesn't show that much is just a factor of *how* curved the track is.)

The lamp and the skull are from a Playmobil Steaming Mary which also provided, much cut-down, the boiler and cab.

I did consider making a single curved bogie coach, but that was going to be a lot more work, and I wasn't sure it would look better.

Thanks for the all the feedback!

Now to start sketching for "The Ghost Train"?

[dmaynard]

Emettman, well I think it looks great, and I love the rock work. Maybe when I grow up I can be as talented, except that I REFUSE to grow up, grown-ups are boring and grumpy.   

[adrian]

G'day Emettman
As there appears to be some different views on the angle of the head light why not connect it, through gears, to the motor so that it swings back and forth as it travels forward ?
Then everybody will be happy !
Personally I consider the whole train/layout to be pretty good and I wouldn't be changing anything.
Cheers
Adrian

[Vitto]

Very very cool work, I love the look of that micro

[Emettman]

Adding here rather than anywhere else as the Pizza layout's "first hat" pictures are already here earlier in the thread.
The Pizza has just acquired its "second hat" as a Halloween layout. Now complete unless I can acquire/make a couple of convincing terrified passengers.  Will go into my window on about the 15th so I have a week and a bit.

The bits... Scrapbox, some urethane foam pieces, a polystyrene life-size dead pirate's head, A skeleton, a skull-and-tooth necklace, and a packet of creepy-crawlies.  £8.00 in all. (£4 for the head!)





I'm really quite pleased with the way this has come out, and the transformation from the "Round the Mountain" version. 

[trainboy]

that's just plain creepy, in a GOOD way!!

[Rowan]

Runs with a skeleton crew I notice...
 

[Emettman]

Runs with a skeleton crew I notice...
 

Choices, again: a normal driver, scared... a ghost or skeleton driver or, ghostly, no driver at all...
The footplate being too high really made the last choice the easy one, having considered the "sheet with cut out eyes" ghost option.

I'll try a car boot sale this weekend to see if I can find a few human victims to butcher to fit.
Muhaahahahaaaaa!
Hmm... Maybe some Scooby Doo ones might turn up.

[G-man]

Cool, Cool, very very Cool. I love it. If you can find some human figures to butcher, maybe a headless passenger or two would be in order.

[bkbates]

Perhaps in today's climate, the large skull should be a mortgage banker rather than a pirate.

[Emettman]

"Perhaps in today's climate, the large skull should be a mortgage banker rather than a pirate."

But on the whole they have got away lightly chastised, compared to being hung in chains on Jamaica Quay
till their bones fall apart.
Now there's a thought.
But I don't think we'll see "The reckless accountants of the sub-prime mortgage" as a ride at Disney any time soon.

I did see, I think in AWNUTS, a proposal for a "Gravy Train" for corrupt politicians.

[crackingjob]

You could always do what Mr robinson, the owner of a number of general trading stores called Trago Mills did, and that was to erect statues to those who upset him, in the grounds of his store at Liskeard in Cornwall.

Unfortunatly i cannot find a picture of the Tax man (bowler hat with horns sticking out....and tail at the back), but his take on the local council who kept blocking his building plans is worth a look.
Crackingjob

[Emettman]

Ah, Trago Mills is something else indeed.  I've never met anything quite like it.  It's heading towards bizarre.

For our readers not in the West Country:
I go to the Liskeard one, but the Devon one is even bigger, with it's own large model railway and impressive 10.25" gauge live steam line.
(which had it's first derailment in twenty years this summer, but has been cleared of negligence:
http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/Trago-cleared-negligence-miniature-train-crash/article-1332485-detail/article.html)

They sell just about everything, clothes to concrete, toys to chainsaws to plants to carpets mainly leaning towards the cheap and tatty end of the market, but with occasional major surprises.

On the statues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q97lH76n3FY&feature=related

On the steam railway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSEswxhrpsQ&feature=related

Spot the peacock early on... Both big Trago sites have wandering fancy birds.

[crackingjob]

Ahhhhh, Trago Mills...where else can you go for a train ride, anti european union political propaganda and a bag of cement!!!!!!....dare I say it...beat that yanks!!!
(now i've said it!!!)

Thanks for the videos, especially for the 'Time flies by as a driver of a train' music from the childrens tv programme, Chigley (tied in with Camberwick Green and Trumpton)...in fact one of my future projects will be 'Bessie' the loco for which the tune was written...if interested all easily found on You tube and web

On a wet day...cheered me up

Crackingjob

[G-man]

Can't beat that. Then I'm a Johnny Canuk. Can't beat that either. Would love to come over and see that place but at 62 and in the poor house, it ain't gonna happen. Love his statues.