Often in the modeling community there is no room for the people who are creative. I am guilty of only being able to follow a photo and if it is not there in real life it is not right. When I see what other people have done it can be easy to be judgmental. The friend who built this is one of those creative types who thinks very much outside the box (what box would you find this in?). He came to a swap meet with another model railroader friend and I and picked up the F unit for a couple bucks. He usually builds car models and had the chassis for a LeMans style car and the wheels started turning. I have realized recently there are as many approaches to model railroading and model building in general as there are people doing it. I can build a decent model of a locomotive, accurate down to the last detail, but I have no right to criticize someone who comes up with something like this purely from their imagination. I could offer suggestions on how to get the paint to lay down better (if it was needed) or some other aspect of the model construction but the content is purely the right of its builder. I guess what I am trying to say is this site, The Gauge, is one where people generally respect each other and offer help with the construction without being critical of the content and I appreciate that. So, it may be hard for me to see Thomas leading double stacks but if that is what you want to do, it is your railroad and I will be willing to help with other aspects.
Model Railroading is fun! whatever form it takes.
Hopefully my rambling made sense,
Paul