Had an epiphany last night and my daughter agreed. Early on I bought a 4-4-0 that I just received. It turned turned out that I made one of my now famous nebee error and bought one built in the 20’s instead of the 4-4-0s built in the 1800’s.
So last night as I was working on the Hogwart’s layout I had an idea. By the way, Hogwarts keeps growing and changing and now we are working towards Hogwart’s fantasyland and all other trains keep out.
Anyway, it occured to me that Hogwarts had to get their supplies somehow and flying car seemed a little low scale. So Hogwarts had to have a freight train. There’s not other way. And it just so happens there is a 4-4-0 that they just purchased and have to paint it to match the 4-6-0.
So I need to find some decals. Any ideas? For the engine and caboose, cars etc. Switcher…hmmm…I hope my daughter isn’t thinking about Lil Guy.
I don’t rember seeing any freight cars - excuse me; “vans” in any of the pictures. Given that this is a British Isle type RR, take a look in the British (& Welsh, Scotish,Irish, etc) model mags, and some “heritage” publications (“British Heritage” can be obtained at some of the book superstores newstands) and design YOUR OWN. Then make them on your own computer. Several articles have been published in model mags., and there are several threads on these forums. [^]
It is only muggles that need freight trains. In the wizarding world materials are moved by magic. There are 2 reasons why the students travel by train. First, they are under age, and not allowed to appearate and disappearate, and second, nobody can appearate on the Hogwart’s grounds. By that reasoning, a Hogwart’s freight line is not prototypical.[swg]
I’d suggest you look for some British freight stock to use on these runs - ex-Great Western would fit best with the Hogwarts loco and US-outline models wouldn’t look right alongside the Hall class somehow, even in the Potter universe. Bachmann’s “Blue Riband” range has some superb models available, www.bachmann.co.uk has an online catalogue of what’s out there. Dapol ( www.dapol.co.uk ) also offer some good models, particularly private-owner coal wagons (they seem to have new paint schemes on a monthly basis!). Considering how many coal fires Hogwarts seems to have, they must get that from somewhere. A train of around 10-20 of these wagons looks pretty impressive and sounds good too if you fit metal wheels throughout. Hornby and Bachmann both have suitable ex-GWR brake vans (cabooses), of the two I’d say the Hornby model has the edge though they’re both based on late '70s mouldings (Airfix and Mainline respectively). Hope this is of some help!
Surely you will paint your rolling stock with prototypical names - boxcars of Bertie Bott’s All-Flavored Beans, hoppers with Flue Powder, and tankers full of chocolate for the frogs.
I’m having a horrifying vision of when SpaceMouse discovers car-card operation and the kind of cards he’ll have…
Oh yeah, about freight cars: You won’t actually need any “Hogwarts Freight Lines” cars (unless you really want them) since I assume that the Hogwarts line is a short one–all its freight could be received via an interchange with another railroad. Thus, you could use any railroad’s freight cars to carry freight from the interchange to the Hogwarts freight depot.
No, no, I’d envision the Hogwarts Line as a terminal railroad type of operation - receives cars at some interchange with Muggle railroads, and delivers to all the magical places like Hogwarts and all the businesses in Hogsmead. They’d have to have SOMETHING to ship out, as the Muggles might get suspicious if they only took in and sent nothing out. There could be a few on-line transfers, products of Hogsmead businesses that are used at the castle, so there would be a FEW home-road cars.
This is all great, but I can’t wait to see Chip build the moving staircases. By the way I did see a Quidditch arena from one of the euro companies. If I find it I will let you know how much and where.
As far as the decals, there are some threads, most folks appear to be unsuccessful unless they have an Alps printer, or take it to a printer. My LHS guy is getting ready to do some, and he has an HP inkjet. If his works, then I will be printing some up as well.
I’ll buy a Quidditch Arena when they have one that you can make the little people fly around in.
As for the decal printing, the reason the Alps printer is always specified is because it’s the only one that can print WHITE. Other inkjets can print all the colors, black, or leave a section of the decal film clear, but can’t print white.
Which is why the white-backed decals are nice–if all you need is the logo, just use an inkjet printer to print out a bunch on white decal paper, seal them up, and cut out the little circles. Other lettering can be done with dry transfers, or use a light background and use black-on-clear decals–this is a fantasy railroad, so the white-lettering convention is less important here.
A good way to get around the limitations of conventional decal paper and non-ALPS printers is to decal black cars. I have had great success printing “white lettering” on a black background (using a laser printer) and applying them to black vehicles–after some Decal Set and a little bit of touch-up paint, it looks very good indeed.
Making decals isnt so bad once you get a little practice. Go to www.micro-mark.com order some clear decal paper and a finishing kit. Also get some testors gloss cote and once you print your decals give them three (3) heavy coats of the gloss cote. Otherwise the lettering and/or logos will run. The decal finishing kit comes with instructions about putting them on cars. If you click my railimages link, you can see examples. The red and yellow cars that i painted and decaled were done using the micro-mark paper and finishing kit. I just printed them on my printer. Good luck!
