Builder: zephyr1934
Region: Americas
Category entered:
Year entered: 2022
Brand of building bricks used:
LEGO
Since 2026, the Brick Train Awards have accepted models created with other LEGO®-compatible construction brick systems.
About Katy Caboose by zephyr1934
This MOC pays homage to the title character from Bill Peet's fantastic book, The Caboose Who Got Loose, published in 1971. "When Katy caboose rambled down the train tracks, the engines were steamers with puffing smokestacks. She was a caboose who disliked being last." With just a door and a pair of windows for a face, Katy is amazingly expressive, with various features serving as a "mouth" at different times throughout the book. Mr. Peet was an animator from Disney from their heydays, and Katy's fluid curves reflect his background. The thin arching roof was one of the most challenging features (tiles, on top of curved slopes for the shape, with plates in "tracks" to keep the tiles on). The walls consist of stacked plates snotted to give a wood paneling look, and while it is hard to see in the photos, they include many jumper plates to accentuate the vertical grooves. Katy's "eyes" are 2x4 tiles that can be swapped out so that she looks either left or right. She is usually frowning but occasionally smiles, these expressions are captured with half a plate height, brick built black line visible at the bottom and left of the door. So viewed from the right she looks as if she is smiling and from the left the vertical line is hidden and she seems to be frowning. All of this is packed into a diminutive 6x16 MOC.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/192052252@N07/52350467510/in/album-72157719957357173/