Girls Train

[Anonymous]

Would like to create a girls train set for my daughter.....have all the stuff to do it, but dont know a source for the right paint ....or the dry transferes to do it with, since i heard Janice Bennett wasn't doing it anymore. Anybody???[?]

[brianel027]

I'd say just use some creativity: forget trying to duplicate what's been done and go for your own effect. First off, there are plenty of lesser expensive trains out there to start with. Plenty of beaters too. The steam engine is easy enough to do in pink or pastel. Pulling apart the steam engine is the hardest part.

Do you live on the east coast somewhere? The Norfolk Southern horse logo is something girls seem to relate to with the standing horse. You could use those decals (made by Mircroscale).

Kids love their favorite cartoons. American Greetings Corp. makes a whole variety of acid free stickers in SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer, PowerPuff Girls, Winnie the Pooh, Seasame Street, Barbie, Bugs Bunny etc. You could take some simple cars like old gondolas or the inexpensive K-Line Keystone Classic Cars, repaint them and add these stickers. This is a great way to easy make some new cars without the trouble of decaling. And a great way to spark your daughter's interest. Even a Lionel Lines gondola with the little grey cannister... you could avoid painting the car and add the stickers to the cannister load.

Some of those McDonald's Happy Meal toys are pretty cool and clever. I've adapted a few to use with the trains. Seems I've also seen some small Barbie cars... a neat flat car load. Again, you could avoid the repainting and use a normal Lionel Lines flat car with the Barbie cars as the load. I've also bought these sort cartoonish cars with Seasame Street characters driving them. They're just the right size for use with the trains. There's one with Cookie Monster drving a school bus and Elmo driving a taxi. Somewhere I got all these small Seasame Street characters. I have Cookie Monster munching on some cookies, sitting inside one of those silver "cookie box" Denver & Rio Grande box cars. I also replaced the little blue man in one of my "beek-a-boo" operating box cars with both Elmo and another with Mickey Mouse.

What can I tell you – I'm still a kid at heart!

Or how about your own Circus car. A brightly painted gondola with small toy animals in it. I've bought small elephants and giraffes that are just the right size.

And keep your eyes open for any one of the Lionel cars with the horses that bob in and out of the stock car door opening... girls love horses. The Lionel operating aquarium cars are another sure fire kid pleaser... and they recently made a little mermaid one.
I've also seen these small characters (about 1-1/2 inch tall) done for SpongeBob and friends and Bugs Bunny and friends. I've seen these in vending machines at Wal-Mart for 50¢ each... kids love those machines. Let your little girl put in the quarters and get the charaters. Tell her you're going to use them for her train.

I've made a couple Spongebob cars including an operating one. I've seen these small Winnie the Pooh figures in a birthday party blister pack at K-Mart. Pooh is hanging on to a little parachute. I rigged one to hang above the train and to swing out of the way when the train comes.

So in other words, you needn't copy the existing girls trains... you can come up with your own. Let your daughter make suggestions and chances are, she'll connect a lot more with what you are doing.

I can give you some pointers on cleaning up old cars for repainting if you need help. Good luck and have fun!!