Farland National Railroad Locomotive M5 30328

The Class 30000 (Thirty Thousand) Series locomotive was a multipurpose duty engine designed for both passenger and goods service across the Farland national rail network. Prior to standardization, two variants of the locomotive existed, with one using standard gauge on the islands of New Britannia, NewHolland and Ryoshu, and the other using Cape Gauge on the islands of Tohshu and Ryuojima. The variants were unified in 1951 and served as a backbone to the national network until their retirement in 1977.

Idea:

This work represents two ongoing projects I have been working on as of late. The first is a revisitation of older illustration projects that date back to my time in university. My first revisited project was the SatBus 100, where I took old artwork of a fictional satellite, and used my modern illustration and design methods to make a new interpretation of the dated piece.

The next piece I wanted to tackle was an old steam locomotive illustration I made. In fact, it was the first real illustration I made using Adobe Illustrator. This time, I wanted to use my full-range of skills to create a new steam locomotive illustration. Folding nicely into that has been a small worldbuilding project I’ve been working on on the side. Hopefully you’ll hear more about it in the future, but the imagery and text in this new piece should serve as teasers for the project.

With time, my attention to creating detail and more intricate and well-developed illustrations has grown, and when you compare the 30328 to the piece below, you can really see how far I have come.

Process:

Like with all the other projects. The 30328 was made in Adobe Illustrator. Work was split into sections and organized by parts on the locomotive. This was also the first time I made use pathfinder effects to make more intricate shapes and forms. Unlike in my first illustration with the 65127, the 30328 used a myriad of reference images and blueprints. To keep with the theme of the worldbuilding, I had to carefully consider where and how the locomotive was built.

In my worldbuilding project, the fictional island nation of the Farland Federal Republic is a mixture of Japanese, European, and American cultures. Because of this, I referenced several images of Japanese, German, and American steam locomotives to achieve the final result with the 30328. Keen railroad enthusiasts may be able to pick up on the “motifs” that were used, like the red color of the frame and the design of the number board.