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wirelesswizard64 — The Polar Express
Published: 2009-02-22 21:57:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 7461; Favourites: 63; Downloads: 8
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Here it is, my biggest piece of work ever: The Polar Express! I LOVE the book and film- that Berkshire is one beautiful engine! So it was only fitting that I pay tribute to this magic train. Understand it is not done- as evidenced by the tree trunk jutting out. However, the engine is done as are the cars in the picture- the train actually runs for three more cars, but they aren't good enough to be shown yet. Rest assured I will finish this when I get the time. Until then, enjoy!Oh, and if anyone was wondering, this is the train I would make my flagship engine, so expect it to pop up from time to time in other art. All aboard!!!
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Comments: 19
Children sleeping, snow is softly falling
Dreams are calling like bells in the distance
We were dreamers not so long ago
But one by one we all had to grow up
When it seems the magic's slipped away
We find it all again on Christmas day
Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing
There's no time to waste
There's so much to celebrate
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
You have everything you need
If you just believe
Trains move quickly to their journey's end
Destinations are where we begin again
Ships go sailing far across the sea
Trusting starlight to get where they need to be
When it seems that we have lost our way
We find ourselves again on Christmas day
Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing
There's no time to waste
There's so much to celebrate
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
You have everything you need
If you just believe
Just believe
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Amazing great job love this drawing and the book and movie
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Hmm, looks nice.
I remembered watching that before, and I think I've watched it recently by now, from AMC TV channel.
Certainly a finely done movie - except some errors around the train including its consist keep changing throughout these shots.....
And somehow for reasons, I tried bringing up the logic behind the train and the railroad itself like, who the heck would've build a railroad with twisting tracks going up and down like a roller coaster, through a frozen lake, and even going through a tunnel with an EXTREMELY TIGHT clearance (1 inch between the rooftop of the cars and the tunnel's ceiling.) regarding the loading gauges of the locomotive and cars.
These counts as examples telling the logic behind the Polar Express train and railroad.
Don't forget how, almost to the end of the movie, did the train managed to arrive at Grand Rapids so quickly, regarding the crazy stuff behind including the lake, the roller-coaster kind of track, etc.
Oh, never mind.....
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Beautiful!
This is my favorite christmas movie ever!
Animation looks so life-like, and it has a beautiful soundtrack. Love the song believe by josh groban [link]
Amazing drawing!
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Brilliant! I love that movie, i watch it every year at Christmas time.
And i love this drawing, truly amazing.
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now THIS is GOOD!
just curious, but you seem to have drawn it as a 4-8-4 when it was a 2-8-4.......was that meant to be done?
(but who am I to complain, in the book it was a 4-6-2 and in the movie they changed it to a 2-8-4)
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No, you're right. It's a 2-8-4 Berkshire (modded- no sand dome or anything like that. I like it better this way anywho!) What you see is my error in starting on filling in the back set of driver wheels without finishing. I should fix that. I always had a hard time determining the arrangement in the book because of the under detailed drawings. Either way, I love my Berkshires greatly- the only other loco that gets close is the 4-4-0 American.
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have you seen 765 and 1225 getting together in michicgan latley?
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Yah! The 1225 is awesome- the real loco behind the Polar Express. I love the backstory to it as well. Someday, I'll go out and visit Ossowa and Lima and such.
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What is the backstory? I never heard it. also, that berkshire didn;t look much like 1225, the headlight was inside the smokebox door.......
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OK, let's take it from the top with some help from Wikipedia because I'm too lazy to type out all the text myself.
Basically, it sat on the scrap line since its retirement from the Pere Marquette railroad (which later merged in with several surrounding railroads). Retired from service in 1951. In 1955, Michigan State University was asked by C&O Chairman Cyrus Eaton if the University would be interested in having a steam locomotive (Eaton didn't want to scrap the engines but was having a hard time finding places that would accept them) so that the Engineering students would have a piece of real equipment to study. In 1957 it was brought to campus. The locomotive remained on static display on the Michigan State campus for a decade. A railfan group was started to restore the engine. In addition, the day the students stopped working on the engine was the day the torches come out. The locomotive was safe as long as the students kept working on it. The student effort was able to fire up the boiler in 1975 and blow the 1225's whistle for the first time in two decades. The MSU Railroad Club and supporters of "Project 1225" formed the Michigan State Trust for Railway Preservation in 1978 and soon after, was given ownership of the 1225 by Michigan State University. The 1225 moved under its own power in November 1985 for the first time since its retirement in 1951. The Trust was approached by the director of the Polar Express and asked to use the engine for the film. 1225's blueprints were used as the prototype for the locomotive image and its sounds (steam, whistle, clanking, sliding down a pile of coal, etc) were used in the film itself. Several parts were modified- sunken headlight, large pilot, no sandbox up front- to help it match the illustrations from the book. In addition, Chris Van Allsburg, who grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a child attended every home football game at Michigan State, next to which this engine was on static display. He recalls playing on this engine many times as a child saying, "I remember that train on campus,...I can't believe it's the same train! I climbed on that train. I actually stood on it." So there you have it- the whole back story to this nifty engine.
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very good! thanks for the info!
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Oh, wow. THAT is how I'd like to draw. Very beautiful, sir.
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Man, yes. 
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Yep, it's just one of those trains you can't help but love. It's so pretty and big and appears out of nowhere and does impossible feats- running on ice, 89 degree slopes, bending around mountains- just awesome.
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Holy shit John, nice job. (with the finished parts I mean, I'm not gonna critique the unfinished since their... unfinished)
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