I love the German railroads and I've been a model railroader my whole life. Since I first saw the movie "Runaway Train" on the TV I'm a big fan of it. So a few years ago I decided to build the beast myself and while researching the Internet for inspiration I stumbled over your website (one of the best happy accidents). Now I want to share the result with you. I plan to change some minor things like the number plates or building and painting a little Manny to ride the beast to freedom ;0

 

I did not document the construction of the beast, so I can only tell the story.

I bought a Bachmann GP40, a LifeLike F3 (at least I think that it is a F3 not a F7), a Atlas GP7 and a LifeLike GP7. (they are in the pictures)

At first I completely dismantled and cleaned them, then I started changing all the little things that are special to the ARR and the locos in the movie using all kind of things that seemed to fit.

For example spare parts that I have because of another hobby of mine (Warhammer figurines). The grid on the lead engines roof is made from parts of a Warhammer tank and green stuff.

The plow on the F7 was just taken from another loco and the lights on top of the two leading engines are coming from truck models. I used products related to the Warhammer hobby to prime, paint, shade and weather (the snow effects) all the engines.

First I primed them black, then painted them with a dark metallic color, after that everything has been shaded with a mixture of water, black ink and a rusty brown shade.

And finally I made all the snow effects using "Valhallan Blizzard", a special technical color from Games-Workshop (the company behind Warhammer).

The debris on the front is removable so I can show every status of the beast in the movie.

First I made a frame that can be hooked to the front of the lead engine then I build around that using aluminum foil, wire, railway sleepers from an old H0 scale track and lots of super glue and green stuff.

When I finished the whole thing I recognized that the Bachmann GP 40 just doesn't fit my expectations in a technical sense (it looked nice).

So I bought a GP 38-2 from the Austrian manufacturer ROCO (I think they are somehow involved with the Atlas models) and started the whole building process again. (I have no picture of this one, and I can't find one on the Internet - it is a GP 38-2 from the CSX rail)

A friend of mine, who loves trains too, received the Bachmann GP 40 as a gift - it has found a place to stand around and look good ;)

Overall I tried to match the look of the engines used in Alaska not the ones on the movie set.

The ROCO and Atlas engines are still motorized, the other two are dummys now.

The motors were used to fix another broken loco and to build fictional "John Galt Line" F7 A+B units.