Wanting to try the idea of a train-based Jabberwock but with more of a Dragon sort of a look, and inspired somewhat by the vertical-boiler crane at Llanberis, I once again delved into the bits box and threw this together. The basis is a Poundland train set, one of about two-dozen acquired over the years as parts donors for other projects. Detailing parts are the usual mongrel collection of bits from other kits. The locomotive is an experimental take on the 'Vertical Boiler' narrow gauge design once again, but super sized somewhat compared to real-world examples from the UK.
I also wanted to make this functional, just for fun. I had a vague idea of having the model operational as part of the exhibition showing the development of the project at the site.
PROS
It was a more manageable and ‘compact’ design, certainly, using a vertical-boiler, narrow gauge locomotive as the basis for a rail mounted crane, and it fit broadly in with the world of the Looking Glass where (as the book documents) there is at least one railway.
CONS
Well the main one was that there is no railway at Rydal Hall… Which would mean having to lay at least 10ft of railway track. Not being an engineer for Network Rail I don’t have that sort of thing lying around either, nor was I confident I could make a fake one. Plus it might have looked odd, having a short length of railway track just sat in a formal garden, going nowhere. I suppose the monster could have been built to lay its own track, but that would have been complicated to represent and in any case, a machine which lays its own tracks is pretty much a tank, when all is said and done, and I’ve already been looking at that angle…
Then there was the ‘logical’ problem. A monster that was mounted on rails could only ever run on those rails, and what threat is there in a monster which is effectively stuck in one place? Everything would just avoid it. So whilst this had been fun to develop the idea, it seemed something of a dead end...
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