What's the best way to get from point A to point B? Why by vehicle, of course! Be it rail, wagon, horseback, sail or steam, it probably beats walking....
Take the train. While anacronistic in China, it was what opened up the west....
This is the Goldlok Express...It's often sold at Christmas time as the Holiday Express
though it comes in many other forms. The three sets I currently have are the aforesaid
Holiday Express (in red and white--looks like it should be going to Hogwarts! Hmmmm, now there's
an idea....), the more normal Passenger Express, and the Minecar Express, which comes with
more flatbeds, an ore car and a mine tower.
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| Another view, this time front on. NWMP ride in the background. |
A band of Crowsfeet try to make a raid on "Sir John's Graft". |
Take to the water, river, canal, or the open sea, sit back and let the shooting begin!
Here, the steam launch Treacle takes Sir Rand
McNally and his (extremely light) escort of RN sailors up the Moukao on a secret mission.
The launch is actually a wooden ornament. It originally came with three cross-beam "seats" and a rough piece of twine sticking out the back as a hanger. (As an aside, who on earth would want to hang this thing up? I mean, it's far to large to use as a Christmas ornament, so what else would you do with it? If you know, please mail me!) So anyway, after yanking out the seats, I cut the side strakes out of an old cereal box and layered them up to give some depth. Then, a quick shot of "navy grey" on the outside, white on the inside and Bob's your uncle, it was ready to go.
The boiler is an old cap from something, I'm not even sure what, with a straw added for a funnel, some floral wire painted gold and a small gauge made from white putty. The rivets are white glue. The boiler is also removable, mounted on a penny with a wire dowel to keep it from moving. This means that the boat can convert to a sail or even unpowered rig when required by the scenario.
The flagpole is a single ended cotton swab, with the cotton end snipped off. The swab stick is hollow, so it's mounted on a bent paperclip that fits into a small hole drilled in the aft-section. The flag itself is slid into a slot on the staff, so its possible to change colors on the pole or run without colors as well. As a historical note, the Red Ensign was used as a flag of the Royal Navy "Red" squadron until 1864, when the White Ensign was dedicated the the regular navy, the Blue Ensign to the Naval Reserve and the Red Ensign given over to the "merchant navy".
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