03-12-2012, 12:44 AM
Scifi fan Wrote:Yes, it is for a futuristic low-budget indie.
The 44' is what I've been told by model makers who work for film, though 22 inches can work in some cases. But, as a general rule, the bigger the better.
I want to film the train as it arrives and leaves. The background will be a rocky wall, like the interior of a mountain or, in my case, an asteroid - the station is carved into an asteroid, so there will be an internal atmosphere. Some of those carriages will be for humans, others will be for cargo. Obviously, the more futuristic, the better.
Do you know where I can get models of trains like those in Atlanta?
Yes. You can pay a professional model maker to build them specially for your film (at some cost). Then you can construct from scratch a large scale station - also at some cost. Or try to find an enthusiastic friend willing to work for free for many hours to create something like that.
There is no mass market for ready made large scale models of automated people movers. Heck - there isn't even much of a market for such trains in the scales most model railroad hobbyists work in - i.e. 1:160 scale (North American/Western European N scale) or 1:87.1 scale (H0 scale).
If we estimate that a real 1:1 scale car is about 60 feet (= 720 inches) long, then a 44" long model would be about 1:16 scale, while a 22" long model would be about 1:32 scale. The closest you would get with ready made trains and tracks would probably be garden type trains at about 1:20 or so. You would then have to take off the superstructure of the train, and replace it with one scratch built (typically in styrene plastic) for your people mover. But at least you would not have to build the moving parts of the train - the motors, power pickups etc.
Smile,
Stein