The Bat Out Of Hell Express

Here's my train of the damned. The Bat Out Of Hell Express. It's Death's train.

 

That's him there on the caboose. It's like his own little spot of heaven away from the damned. Hanging out on the platform with your cat, drinking a nice cup of steamin' hot black coffee in a red mug, watchin' the scenery pass. That's Deathkitty, he's from the Holiday train set. I have two other white cats of the same type, but they are a bit older and they don't have painted faces. I have a black one which I don't think is painted. I'd have to go look. LEGO has gotten really good at printing on real small parts. There's another LEGO cat that I don't have. Soon I'll need to get a Bricklink order going and I'll be keeping an eye out for one, or two, or five. I think it comes in more than one color. I might need one of each. Too bad LEGO hasn't made a tabby color cat. I could use a Crookshanks for Harry Potter scenes.

     

Engineer Max is from the Holiday train. Somehow he just seemed to fit right in. I suspect he's been a bad boy, roamin' around the countryside. He looks so happy in his new job. I didn't notice the face on the front of the train until I was taking photographs. It was totally unplanned, a lucky accident, subconsciously born from my love of symmetry. It looks dragon like to me. Maybe that's just wishful thinking. Most of the train was figured out on the fly. Before I started building I was thinking of making a train that wasn't just a regular train. If I wanted a regular train I could build the Holiday train and leave the presents off. I was free associating and remembered the Savoy Brown song Train to Nowhere, which lead me to the same bands Hellbound Train. That put some images in my head. I also figured I wanted to keep it rather dark. Black and red seemed the right combination. I hardly use any of the primary colors in the stuff I want to build. Nice to use some red. Everything on the train is red or black except the wheels and axles, people and animals, lights and chains. I started rooting around and grabbed parts that might go well with the train. Many parts made it into the final mix. Some sad parts got put back into plastic bags and containers. Maybe next time, guys.

I heard Train To Nowhere for the first time on a Winnipeg radio station that had a modern music show in the evening. I think it was called Now Flower. It was 1969 or 1970. I called to find out what that amazing song was. It was like nothing I had heard before. You can hear it on the YouTube link above. The Train to Nowhere video has a great bunch of old music show ads from shows in the UK. I remember a lot of those bands but haven't listened to them in decades. I sold all the Savor Brown albums I had years ago. I quit listening to records in favor of cds. I tired of things and didn't replace many of the records I got rid of. The cover to the Savoy Brown album of the same name has a train on it. It's more your old school train, steam, with a cow catcher, but surrounded by demonic creatures. Who else would live along the road to hell? I wouldn't!

 

I wanted a cow catcher. One with spikes and points. Sharp edges. The kind that cuts you if you aren't careful. And I wanted a bat or two. I managed six. I like the LEGO bats. That's a train window surrounding the bat, same as in the passenger car. I have a bunch of them from the spare Harry Potter train sets I got on clearance. The big long spikey things are from the Harry Potter set 4727 Aragog in the Dark Forest. Somehow I got a bunch of them on you know what. $20 sets for 7 bucks. I wanted the brown and green parts. That set had a lot of each. I also got eight legs in each set. I kept wondering what I was going to do with a quart baggie full of legs. I gotta remember to start stayin' out of stores.

The top of the passenger car has those parts I mentioned yesterday. Black here. They were used as the roof of the engine in the Holiday set and I used some on the caboose. I liked those arched parts and wanted to get some of those worked in there somehow. I decided not to have any tentacles on the passenger car. I did want to use those black rods on the top and the red rods on the side. The roof comes off to see inside. I didn't use any hinges to open up the train to get a closer look. Very common in many sets. I have baggies full of hinges too. The car has room for 6 and two special guests. You can see the guy chained up in the picture below. He bites.

I covered most everything with flat plates called tiles. I like the look of it. I wanted smooth sleek surfaces. Especially on the passenger car. It's a contrast to the engine and the caboose, which I feel reflect their place in the scheme of things. The engine, wild and chaotic power, the caboose, serene and reflective. Days later I almost feel I should build another passenger car, for further distance between the two end cars, but I'm out of the black arches. I used most of my red tiles. I just didn't have that many. I don't know how many pieces I used. I should have been counting as I went along, but sadly, it didn't occur to me until near the end. Close to a thousand. Maybe more. Nine minifigures. I bet it would be a hundred bucks if it was a LEGO set.

 

Here a shot of Deathkitty and his pal.