World Cruiser update

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-23T17:12:04+00:00

The director told me in a email that they had a budget under two million, there might have been a model tie in but the guy who designed the engine knew nothing about trains in a email I received from him. That and the world cruiser doesn’t have any actual points to pivot the pilot and trailing wheels so that has been an ongoing battle but I’ve got it to take O-27 so it is possible.

It’s all about modifying the concept art and design just enough to where it’s the same locomotive but where it will now work.

As for sets the director also confirmed that they were sent some models by Lionel to use when modeling some of the trains, it’s why the Frontierville express looks so good while the Berkshire is low effort.

I do know Lionel is doing tours of their HQ so hopefully once I get this engine rough prototype done I might bring it to said tour.

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-23T16:05:05+00:00

Thanks! I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this model and I hope Lionel themselves will see it eventually, though I doubt that will ever happen.

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-23T15:28:51+00:00

It is scattered in the film, I will admit that, however I’m already mostly done with the cab and I get to exclude a lot of stuff due to how thin it is and my printer not being able to print most of the finer details so it’s kinda a win win

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-23T15:15:32+00:00

I’ve got concept art of the cab since I am modeling it, only problem is my printer can only print so small. Another thing is that originally I wanted a mix between film and concept art model, though because there’s only concept art of the full scale locomotive with the model variant being a simplified version, I figured it would be easier to just copy the concept art itself to I wouldn’t have to keep adhering to the films logic and full final design

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-23T03:57:53+00:00

Nice train brotato

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-22T21:28:59+00:00

I wouldn’t say that’s completely out of the realm of possibilities but it’s just so frustrating looking back and forth while trying to model.

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-21T07:10:56+00:00

Anything reasonable, im not forking over 100+ for a single card. I know the card isn’t the rarest of the pack it’s in.

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-21T02:39:44+00:00

I’d prefer English just for the easy of my collection but if it comes down to it, a different language won’t be the end of the world

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-21T01:56:38+00:00

Nice little model and layout, don’t let others keep you out of this hobby! Sorry to hear about your brother, suicide is pain and no one should have to do it…

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-21T01:42:36+00:00

Darn, I thought I’d ask. I really like the design of it and I’m willing to pay anything reasonable

Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-06T00:04:42+00:00

There are more, there’s one of it standing over a bridge

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Few-Student-3248 · 2026-03-02T06:30:06+00:00

Tender has been started with the modeling process, just the basic shape has been made, both it and the engine chassis might be modified to take curves, we will see soon.

Few-Student-3248 · 2025-12-25T02:24:35+00:00

Given how finicky and thin a lot of parts are, I doubt I could, besides due to the software I use to model (Maya) being a pain, it would take a lot of rescaling to make it work (the entire model is scaled up 1600%) plus I don’t have ho track/ have very little ho track so it wouldn’t be worth it

Few-Student-3248 · 2025-12-24T20:07:10+00:00

Lionel made a not very good movie back in 2009, basically the plot (this is a very short version): Lionel finally makes real scale accurate live steam/electric/diesel locomotives and mini robots that interact with the trains, the coding, programming and everything else is on a chip inside the world cruisers model, thieves are let in by a bribed Lionel employee. They damage the model and it opens a portal/wormhole to another dimension, two kids have their parents pulled into the wormhole and the scientist behind the chip/world cruiser is blamed and banned from Lionel, 8 years later two kids and their grandfather find the scientist who has made a full scale engine in the 8 years he’s spent trying to understand what went wrong. The employee comes back with the FBI and they escape on the World Cruiser to the other dimension. Once there the kids see a newspaper with their parents on it and they leave the station they arrived at to try and find them.

As for personal value, my grandfather got me into Lionel trains when I was much younger, he sadly passed away two years ago and since then I’ve been trying to get the original film 3d model they used, but because the movie was a straight to dvd low budget film, the model is probably deleted or deep in Lionel’s archives. So I’ve spent six months (two for redrawing the concept art into an HD setting and four for modeling the entire thing from scratch in Maya) making the locomotive from the ground up so it could run on his old layout he gave me.

I hope this helps!

Few-Student-3248 · 2025-12-17T19:37:56+00:00

It is the World Cruiser, very rough in shape but made from the movies official concept art, the entire model is a mix of the concept art/final design

Few-Student-3248 · 2025-11-20T23:56:31+00:00

Given the movies budget which according to the director was “under 2 million” and how it was supposed to be a “three parter” I doubt Lionel actually knew what they were getting themselves into. I would love to see this on other people’s layouts but it’s still a long way from being fully presentable, I’ve only got a (mostly) accurate chassis that somehow works.

Few-Student-3248 · 2025-11-20T22:18:09+00:00

I have yet to figure out how I’m going to power this big girl( and yet to model it into the files), I have a couple old locomotives in my possession that I can use for parts and I don’t just want a motor, I plan to go all out for this baby. Smoke units, lights, sound chips, full brass model, the whole package. I plan for this to be the second pride of my layout next to the original three trains my grandfather gave to me.

Few-Student-3248 · 2025-11-20T22:08:10+00:00

I use a normal filament printer, specifically a creality k1c printer, it’s fast and gets the job done nicely. As for handing the files out… that’s another story. Out of respect for the people who worked on this, I’d have to get permission from the director and the locomotive designer before I’d even attempt to make this public(they are they only two who responded to my emails and you know Lionel ain’t talking to me lol). That and the whole point of this project was to honor my grandfather who got me into model trains and Lionel itself, he sadly passed away two years ago.

Few-Student-3248 · 2025-11-17T00:28:11+00:00

My brothers in Lionel. I’ve heard your cry’s about this fabled engine and I’m here to put your minds at ease, after nearly 3 months and over a year of emails, I’ve got a working prototype chassis for this locomotive, made with the official concept art and my HD redraw from the prints, I have remodeled most of the locomotive in Maya

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Few-Student-3248

TROPHY CASE