LACKSADAISY TRAINS

Header image copyright Tracey J. Butler and Iron Circus Animation, used under Fair Use for purposes of commentary and criticism

I have a bad habit, I know I am not alone in it. Whenever I watch a movie or television show and a train is in it my brain goes instantly to rivet counting mode.

It would probably be easier to enjoy things if I could just turn my brain off; but no. I want to know why the train prop in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is a mix of British Rails standard style steam pulling continental European rolling stock. I want to know what the game developers were thinking in Hogwarts Legacy by keeping the film series locomotive “Olton Hall” a very 20th century machine in their 19th century setting. I still haven’t seen Hell on Wheels partially due to its over-weathered locomotives that look like they are a sneeze away from a boiler explosion.

It’s worse sometimes even if it is a real train. I like to remind people I have been to the Cumbres & Toltec and ridden behind #484, the locomotive featured in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and also point out the real life distance between early 1900’s Moab, Utah and the nearest railhead at the time (modern day Crescent Junction which was/is standard gauge) which makes such a wonderful chase scene very much an invention of Hollywood fiction.

So let’s talk about Lacksadaisy now.

For those of you who have been living under a rock and not following the animation fandom, webcomics fandom and the “fandom of people who like animals that walk and talk like humans so much they wear heavy mascot suits to crowded conventions in the heat of summer,” Lacksadaisy is a long running webcomic created by Tracy Butler about anthro cats in 1920’s St. Louis running a speakeasy. Earlier this year a crowdfunded pilot episode for an animated series launched, and after garnering significant attention the series is now moving ahead to crowdfund an entire first season.

St. Louis as many cities on the Mississippi River are, is a heavy interchange point between east and west railroads. A map from 1932 shows countless railroads such as the Missouri Pacific, Santa Fe, Southern, Frisco, B&O, Wabash, CB&Q, Nickel Plate, and Illinois Central and many others all calling the city home. This is alongside local lines and terminal railroads which make St. Louis an interesting locale for railroad history.

With such a rich railroad history though, it has been interesting watching both the Pilot episode and series teaser for Lacksadaisy to walk away feeling like the railroads are a bit… plain. All the same rivet counting senses come up as I experience elsewhere, and I end up finding myself counting the number of wheels beneath the steam locomotive Rocky has hobo’d his way onto rather than paying attention to the action itself (“WHAT IS THAT EXTRA TRAILING WHEEL DOING UNDER THE CAB?” my brain needlessly asks). The faint echo of Thomas the Tank Engine creator Rev. Wilbert Awdry berating artist Reginald Dalby for being “too lazy to go down to a station and look at some real trains for reference” seems to cry out across the years.

Animation is a medium where exaggeration, anticipation and movement can escape the need for rivet counting detail. But in the world of Lacksadaisy where everything from cars, clothing, Tommy guns, and liquor bottles seem so finely animated to evoke that feeling of Prohibition Americana, it takes me out of the action to see the trains not getting the same level of detail (okay sure they’re all talking cats as well which isn’t exactly realistic, but that is supposed to be part of the charm)! Especially when St. Louis itself is such a real railroad hub both in the past and present day.

Most TV series don’t go through the crowd funding process though, and with plenty of time from now until the first season of Lacksadaisy is actually complete, I feel like it’s an opportune time to nudge the series production a bit to clean up the train models and produce something which helps to seamlessly complete the rum-running probation historical fantasy the series is working so hard to muster.

First, I would point to studying some of the classics of animation. Most of Disney’s “Nine Old Men” (particularly Ward Kimball) were all huge railfans. They’re the guys who wrote the “sacred Jedi texts” of the modern animation industry, and they had several techniques to either make their trains fantastical enough they could turn off the silly rivet-counter brains of their own peers; or do things with stunning levels of detail which remain impressive to this day. Ward Kimball’s work on Casey Jr. in Dumbo is a fine example of this, by taking some core mechanics of steam that makes it real while also shoving it into a much more exaggerated cartoony character with a range of expression beyond what a real machine could do.

The Jack Kinney directed The Brave Engineer released by Disney in 1950 also has several interesting art choices regarding its trains. Casey Jones’s locomotive is much more animated, while clearly based on reality (being identifiable as a stereotypical American 4-4-0); there is plenty of squash and stretch motion in play as he puts his machine through its cartoonish paces. In contrast at the end of the film a double-headed freight enters and approaches Casey’s train with a sluggish momentum. There is a real sense of gravity as this freight train slowly moves in on Casey’s train, and the animators achieve it by realistically animating the motion of the train wheels; illuminating the sparks as the two locomotives work their way upgrade, and give it a grounded heft the protagonist’s train lacks.

Secondly to follow up with what I have already said about wheels and motion, but for those who are new to steam trains; wheel arrangement is often a shorthand for the type of locomotive and its job on the railroad to match specific needs. While there are no solid rules prohibiting one or another, you likely wouldn’t see something such as a low-geared Shay locomotive out on a high-speed mainline alongside a crack shot 4-6-2 Pacific. Likewise you probably wouldn’t see that high-speed 4-6-2 hanging out with a Shay on a logging railroad either. A quick glance under the definitions on Whyte Notation on Wikipedia will give a brief idea of what each wheel arrangement generally does, and what kind of train a locomotive like that should be pulling. Trust me, railfans will notice when steam engine wheels look off and point to it right away.

As for the moving parts of the wheels, you can also see on Wikipedia GIFs showing how common “valve gear” (the mechanics on the side of a steam train’s wheels) moved. Common styles such as Walschaerts, Baker, Stephenson, and Southern represent some of the frequent styles of valve gear which could have been seen on railroads in 1920’s America. With today’s CGI animation tools, it would be fairly simple to set up realistic valve gear in both forward and reversing motions, and use it as an animation model. Avoid including random gears & wheels that do nothing if aiming for a realistic style, since mechanically minded audience members will note superfluous details.

Third, keep an eye on freight cars. While locomotives will always catch the viewer’s eye first; the cars behind it sell the train as a whole. The wood body forty-foot boxcar was a popular style for a long time, and makes a decent starting reference for what would be commonly seen in the 1920’s. I was disappointed by the containers on flatcars with High Cube boxcars with double doors which Rocky hitches a ride on in the series teaser trailer, and hope those models can be replaced before Lacksadaisy makes it to full production.

Fourth, and a sin which so far Lacksadaisy has mostly avoided, make sure your trains in America actually look like trains in America. Okay those modern style boxcars in the teaser clip looked a bit more like some Chinese examples than American ones, but that is not something I noticed right away since Chinese and American railroad design does share some common elements. Plopping something such as a British two-axle five plank open truck into an American freight train complete with buffers and link & chain coupling would raise eyebrows immediately. Most countries have unique railroad design styles and a distinct visual language.

Even in rail networks that interchange along international borders such as the Canada-US-Mexico system, weather concerns, national law, and other local considerations force distinct changes between each nation despite sharing functional commonality. Do plenty of research in historic railroad museum archives to find reference photos and footage which shows how the American rail system looks and feels, and if possible take a trip to a local railroad museum to do some field research. A convenient thing about 1920’s America as well, is many pieces of equipment from locomotives to rolling stock were based on WWI era designs made by the USRA, and many examples of USRA standards can be used as quick representations of post-war/pre-depression railroading in the nation.

I hope that this does not come off as overly critical of Lacksadaisy as it moves towards a full series production. The Pilot episode already showed a daring vision of indie-animated and produced content, with fluid animation and a distinct sense of tone. If somehow my little opinion piece makes its way to the production crew I hope they take my criticisms in stride, and polish up the trains as the series movies towards full production. There is a lot of good already in what we have seen so far from the project, and I am highly anticipating the full season release. I just don’t want to get distracted by trying to turn off my rivet-counter brain next time. I wish Lacksadaisy and its crew best of fortune as it moves forward to a full series release.

Crowd funding for Lacksadaisy season one can be found here.