Tweet
Before the Lilly Belle became the Lilly Belle, it was part of Disneland's first passenger train, known as "Retlaw 1." Back then, it was named "Grand Canyon."
The Grand Canyon, car 106, was distinctive in that on each side of the car, there were large oval murals depicting the view of the magnificent Canyon as seen from the South Rim. On either side of the ovals were painted banners bearing the car's name. The paintings were different on either side of the car as well.
A friend of mine in SoCal is building an outdoor railroad based on Disneyland scenes (his layout can be seen in the current issue of Garden Railways: Garden Railways Magazine - Preview the Current Issue of Garden Railways. But his latest project will be a scale model of the Grand Canyon, in all of her 1955 glory.
He has no problem building the car, but the two oval paintings presented a challenge. Good views are very hard--if not impossible--to obtain. Here's a shot of Grand Canyon showing one of her oval paintings. This is about as good as it gets:
Photo courtesy Daelandweb.com.
Being a glutton for punishment, I volunteered to paint the ovals for Dave. Dave had two ovals laser-cut from styrene plastic. They are a mere 2.75 inches long, by 1.25 inches tall. We blew up the photo above for the first oval. It looks like this:
Today, I got to work, using enamel paints on the tiny oval. The results of the first oval are below:
I placed the oval on a large blow-up drawing. Dave and fellow artist David Meek created the banner artwork and the scrollwork, which will be made into decals.
I will do the second oval tomorrow, and will post it here if anyone is interested. It is a different scene entirely.
I will see if I can post photos of Dave's car when he completes it.
The Grand Canyon, car 106, was distinctive in that on each side of the car, there were large oval murals depicting the view of the magnificent Canyon as seen from the South Rim. On either side of the ovals were painted banners bearing the car's name. The paintings were different on either side of the car as well.
A friend of mine in SoCal is building an outdoor railroad based on Disneyland scenes (his layout can be seen in the current issue of Garden Railways: Garden Railways Magazine - Preview the Current Issue of Garden Railways. But his latest project will be a scale model of the Grand Canyon, in all of her 1955 glory.
He has no problem building the car, but the two oval paintings presented a challenge. Good views are very hard--if not impossible--to obtain. Here's a shot of Grand Canyon showing one of her oval paintings. This is about as good as it gets:
Photo courtesy Daelandweb.com.
Being a glutton for punishment, I volunteered to paint the ovals for Dave. Dave had two ovals laser-cut from styrene plastic. They are a mere 2.75 inches long, by 1.25 inches tall. We blew up the photo above for the first oval. It looks like this:
Today, I got to work, using enamel paints on the tiny oval. The results of the first oval are below:
I placed the oval on a large blow-up drawing. Dave and fellow artist David Meek created the banner artwork and the scrollwork, which will be made into decals.
I will do the second oval tomorrow, and will post it here if anyone is interested. It is a different scene entirely.
I will see if I can post photos of Dave's car when he completes it.
)
Comment