So I cut out the Plastruct HOLIDAY letters and before sanding them down and gluing them on I realized that the bottom car(the newer version!) does not have the painted top (silver) and is definitely more orange than red. The top car, from 2004 is darker red and even looks higher quality based on little details. The top car looks much closer to the real cars. Thanks to HiRailSteve here on the Forum I have two more cars coming that are from 2004 but I will definitely need a few more if anyone has any or knows anyone that has any. The letters take sone time to cut out with a combination of scissors, exacto and dremel and then require sanding, but I think it is necessary as I will glue either EL wire to them or laser wire. Either of those run on batteries which will be inside each box car.
I am going to build my CP Holiday Train (hopefully for launch by Christmas 2017!) and I need some advice. Here goes:
1) Should I pull the train with what is most current (GP20C) which means I go with a Railking locomotive or pull it with what CP used to use (AC4400CW) which means I can use the most recent Premier engine? Obviously both are prototypical, but there is something that tells me the new MTH Premier AC4400CW would look amazing pulling that train. I will likely have 8 High Cubes plus a custom made Stage Car, but will likely not add the passenger cars.
2) I know I can get most of the led lighting I will need from Evan Designs, but I can't seem to find small rope lighting. If you look at the actual train they use a lot of that, and it would make much of the build very easy. Does anyone have any ideas on where to find rope lighting that small or any idea how to even make it myself?
3) Having never done anything this ambitious, am I better off just using battery power to run the lights or can a novice bite off connecting to track power?
Thanks for any advice! Here is a picture from this past weekend....I finally got the font and size correct.
