Behind the Scenes: The "Flying Kipper's" Rolling Crane

A viewer recently asked how I made the crane in the Flying kipper sequence. The rolling crane has always been one of my favorites, so here are the photographs:

Studying from the video, I made the main body out of balsa wood, using the Atlas track knife to make smooth cuts. White glue was all that was needed for assembly. the crane's base is the grey card-stock.

I must say it was a challenge to make the wheels!

I wrapped strips of card-stock around a pen, then glued it together. Next I glued the roll onto paper, then cut it into a larger circle on each end to make the roll into a wheel.

I had to punch into the wheel holes to insert the axle into place, which is made out of cut toothpicks! Gluing the axle onto the axle boxes, leaving the wheels unglued, allowed the wheels to actually roll!

This was tough, but it was well worth the effort:

Here is the finished product! I made the cab the same way as I do with the buildings, assembling it with tape and using balsa wood braces to make it square. I also made the crane hoist out of wood and paper. You can also see both the cranes I made based on those used at Brendam Docks' quayside, as well as the warehouse seen in the original "Flying Kipper" story in the Railway series.

The track which the crane rolls on is also made from balsa wood. This allows the crane to cover longer distances as it loads the trains and ships with their cargo.

So this is how I got the crane to move. I taped fishing line onto the base of the wheel supports...

...Then looped the string around the coupler of an engine for very smooth motion. This worked really well and it came out beautifully in the final footage...

As a special surprise, here is a picture I took while filming the scene. Henry looks on as the workers load the fish into his Bachmann Branchline and Dapol vans, the light from the ship's cab flaring, cargo lying alongside the track, and the moonlight generated from a large office lamp looms over the quay. I put a light in the ship and controlled it with a cheep remote controller.

If only I had fog!

This scene is actually from "Thomas and the Spaceship," when Thomas was trundling along the forest with his long line of mail cars. That reminds me of those gorgeous promotional posters of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, and how beautifully modeled the diorama was made with the colorful lighting. Cool stuff!

There is a long, thin wooden plank wit a strip of textured green paper, which lies underneath the loosely ballasted track and protects the afghan quilt. I usually just lie the track on the quilt I use for the countryside, especially for branchline scenes, but for mainline sets like this, I had tried using this method, which looks much nicer! The Woodland Scenics Trees have their bases popped in place through the large holes of the quilt, and the dark green lichen is from A.C. Moore craft store.

Never Stop Creating!