How do you add figures (people) to your locomotives? For several years now most of my cars and trucks have drivers and passengers so that they look better while on my roads. The ones without drivers are parked and are not allowed in traffic lanes per my layout standards. However almost all of my locomotives except for a couple of steam locomotives are ghost trains with nobody operating them. So my question is how do you install figures into your locomotive cabs? My locomotives are mostly Athearn blue box SD40’s and Geeps, also some dash 9’s. I don't care about detailed interiors so much but seeing a face inside a window would be nice. Thank you for any advice.
In BB locos, I cut the guys legs off, and glue a little platform for the rest of him to sit on.
These guys (bottom picture) got mounted too high. Just dread taking the shell off to fix.
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewi ...I cut the guys legs off, and glue a little platform for the rest of him to sit on....
Even though my layout is based in the late '30s, like Mike, my railroad welcomes the disabled, especially when it comes to locomotive crews...
This fireman may not be the one which sits in the cab, but who's to tell from a photo...
Wayne
I used tweezers and Super Glue to put my train crew in all of the locomotives that I could fit them into. As for those I couldn't, I don't worry about it... I think as it's been stated, you'll have to remove the shells off of your engines and glue in a little bench then glue your figure to the bench and put it back together.
No photos but I like to use CA to attach brakemen and trainmen to cabooses and on the front of switcher trains like GP9's and GP16's.
p\answer, spend money on them! :p
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
As mentioned above, I trim off body parts that do not fit. I like to use silicone glue. It's a bit messy, but will fill voids around the sides of the figures. Don't forget the fireman / conductor.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I also "Hack" these poor people in half,then glue in a shelf and then the 1/2 person .
The "other 1/2 I "stratigecly" place so it look's like their under a car making repair's. Or under a porch... looking for Rover. ECT... ECT...
Rust...... It's a good thing !
Little TimmyThe "other 1/2 I "stratigecly" place so it look's like their under a car making repair's. Or under a porch... looking for Rover. ECT... ECT...
Little Timmy:
That's a great idea! The best I have done is to save the feet for a shoe store front window display but your ideas are much more creative.
My biggest lament is the relative lack of train crew in different poses. Repositioning arms and turning heads only offers a limited number of possibilities.
While I'm ranting, we need more driver figures that will actually fit inside an HO car or truck. (For some reason I always feel guilty when I am cutting their bums off.)
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I had this problem trying to populate a few dome cars. No way! They all had to have various amputations to come anywhere close to fitting into the tiny seats, along with not having their heads smashed against the dome glass when I reassembled the car.
Maybe the alternative might be the 1/100 scale people from China.
mbinsewi I had this problem trying to populate a few dome cars. No way! They all had to have various amputations to come anywhere close to fitting into the tiny seats, along with not having their heads smashed against the dome glass when I reassembled the car. Maybe the alternative might be the 1/100 scale people from China. Mike.
Mike
Figures should be easy to add. First what font are you using on your railroad. I use a laser printer to print the figures on a suitable background, print them on lable stock and then fastent them to the locomotive.
Here you can see the figures on this "LIRR" passenger car. Actually, I printed the entire side of the car all at once and applied it to the passenger car.
So as you can see I used different fonts and colors for the various figures.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
hon30critterwe need more driver figures that will actually fit inside an HO car or truck. (For some reason I always feel guilty when I am cutting their bums off.
You have to cut off their bottoms and sometimes trim their backs because the seats are hard plastic instead of soft cushion which gets displaced by their butts. I don't feel guilty doing it. They never complain.
mbinsewiIn BB locos, I cut the guys legs off, and glue a little platform for the rest of him to sit on.
I think that might be the answer I am looking for. I will try to make a platform for them and see how that works.
Who makes the most realistic engineer figures? I'm disappointed with much of what I see available.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
Jumijo Who makes the most realistic engineer figures? I'm disappointed with much of what I see available.
I like the ones from LaBelle, but if you have a fair number of locomotives, your BLE will start to look like a male version of the Dionne quintuplets.
In the photo below, the two guys in overalls are from LaBelle, while the two with their right arms and right legs raised are old Revell figures, from the interlocking tower models, I think. The seated guy might be Revell, too, but I'm not sure about the big guy with the bleached-out duds. He's in one of the photos which I posted earlier, trimmed down to size and ready for a job in the cab.
...and I'm pretty sure that the big guy is now the engineer of the 34...
...and that one of the guys from LaBelle is the fireman on the 37...
I put figures in my vehicles, too....
....but leave the car's body removeable, so that the parked cars don't all look like they're full of people scared to get out because they've got lost on the wrong side of the tracks...
The figures shown above are OO scale, from a garage sale find that my wife made years ago. There were 10 or 12 identical frets of various seated figures, unpainted, for a quarter. They're suitable in vehicles and passenger cars, and while looking for these photos, I found the one below showing all four LaBelle crewmen...they're the four in the top row, starting with the one second from left...
The passengers and crew in "The BEE", my road's diesel-powered railcar, are all from that OO scale find, and I think that they don't look too out-of-place...
OK, so now my pictures have vanished. I had them on Photobucket. This picture thing is getting to be a HUGE PAIN in the you-know-where.
EDIT: WOW, and they are back?????????
Lone Wolf and Santa Fe I don't feel guilty doing it. They never complain.
BroadwayLion Figures should be easy to add. First what font are you using on your railroad. I use a laser printer to print the figures on a suitable background, print them on lable stock and then fastent them to the locomotive. Here you can see the figures on this "LIRR" passenger car. Actually, I printed the entire side of the car all at once and applied it to the passenger car. So as you can see I used different fonts and colors for the various figures. ROAR
Route of the Dashing Dan er Lion
Joe Staten Island West
I use the Labelle figures for steam locomotives and I do have a couple of them in a pair of diesels but they just kind of hang out the windows. I have some engineers from Kato that are nice. They are expensive and hard to find.
For vehicles I use Preiser figures. Some of them are from the Truck Drivers set and others are from an unpainted seated figures set.