Has anyone ran across a trackplan for an HO scale Polar Express layout?
Thanks,
David
Interesting question…
Although I don’t know of any plans, I would think you could make your own. You would have a town with track going down the street, a countryside, mountain, frozen lake, more mountains, and the “north pole” area.
Just like with Harry Potter’s railroad, you could pretty much make it up on your own.
BTW, the Polar Express is one of the dozen or so must see DVDs my wife and I see every December. We are in our mid 60s, and still get a charge out of it.
Hi mobilman 44
I beg to differ on Harry Potter
With Harry Potter you cannot make it up Goathland is a real station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, that is Hogsmead in the film, Kings Cross is a real terminal station in London…
The Glenfinnan viaduct is on the West Highland line again real so with Harry Potter you would have to pay the same attention to detail as you would with you favorite real railroad.
If you don’t the Harry Potter fans will pull you up very quick smart.
I can see room to move with The Polar Express as this is a cartoon, but I would still think a level of care would be required to keep the image true.
Is The Polar Express available in HO I rather liked that film myself but have never seen an HO version advertised.
regards John
PS Oops sorry seem to be hijacking here
There use to be some really nice polar express layouts on You-Tube. I remember one in particular that wound its way up the mountain just like in the movie.
Do a search.
Brent[C):-)]
Hi Bluegill1
Not HO but this might help http://www.hobbiesplus.com.au/polar_express.htm.
regards John
Hi again,
I may have mis-communicated on my earlier post, so let me re-state…
I do not believe that plans are published for Polar Express or “Harry Potter” layouts. However, anyone that has watched the movies (as many times as I have) should be able to lay out their own track plan. Of course Polar Express reflects entirely fictional places, while Harry Potter reflects real locations. And those real locations would be included in a realistic true to form trackplan.
BTW, I have all the HP movies and have seen them several times. I also have all the HP books (hardcover) and read them twice. So I am one of those “diehard fans” mentioned…
Hi mobilman44
I bought the Hornby train set and extra coaches to make the full five coach train, but wasn’t quick enough getting all the bits for Gothland station so a couple of bits short ouch pricey [:'(] .
So thats that plan out the window.
Have seen on another forum a very nice rendition of Hogsmead station that included a hand made by the builder Hagrid.
The job this same guy did on scratch building the castle is impressive to say the least, wish I could scratch build that well.
Have the books and movies spend too much on trains so only the soft cover books except one.
I don’t have the bestiary which explained all the magical creatures only recently found out one was printed
Any way I better stop this I have hijacked the thread enough.
regards John
The “Polar Express” engine is a real engine, Pere Marquette 1225, a restored 2-8-4 that they used to create the CGI graphics. Bachmann makes an HO model of it, not sure if it’s ever been offered in Polar Express livery.
There is no HO Polar Express. We are modeling the Polar Express trainset and have the loco(Bachmann Spectrum) done with sound. The cars are a lot more difficult. For one thing if you watch the movie carefully and have some screen shots you will notice there are differences in the cars from scene to scene. For one thing just look at the number of cars in the trainset from scene to scene–varies widely. So we have decided to match the key cars–baggage, coaches, observation car(about 4 or so) with as much match as possible(starting with old Life Like). Such as matching color, windows, seats, trucks, roofs, etc–should be painting them soon. But, the observation car with that very round end will be tough and require some serious modifications. We will probably tackle that one next year.
We run it around the tree with a Zephyr DCC system.
Richard
It would be a challenge to model the scene where the Polar Express runs across the ice without rails.
How would you do that???
Not very easily thats for sure.
Might be able to do something with suitably very precision cut plastic “ice??” to minimise the amount of rail that shows
But that would probably cost a bit and have to be very precise in measurement and cut.
Not sure it’s a job that could be done at home and the resulting ice level crossing effect would not be good…
regards John
I would pay REAL MONEY to see someone model that 600’ drop roller coaster scene in HO …or any scale for that matter [:D][}:)] [;)]
David, check out the Classic Toy Train Issues of December 2006 has a three times around tree layout based on Polar Express!
Why would one want to? Talk about totally unbelievable stupidity. I think that and the part where the conductor takes the little girl over the top of the train ruin the whole movie.
BLI and Bachmann models of PM berks would be a very good starting point for such a project. Just reletter and number them.
You could probably find some similar cars by looking for old Athern passenger car kits. I have a combine and seems to match the cars as far as decoration very well (minus the paint, of course).
Texas Zephyr,
Just remember that this movie was for kids, and they aren’t going to really care about things like that.
I have to agree, it is a fairy tale and one must not expect logic or reality in fairy stories. Minus that out of control runaway train part of the movie. From a strictly technical point of view modeling the rails embedded in ice wouldn’t be much different than rails embedded in roadway. Just use the same materials for modeling lakes and with the right coloring