> ... the children would
> like to make a train float. Someone brought in pictures of your amazing
> train with lights. I can see some photos online of how you did it...
> however, I have no clue what you used as far as lighting and exact
> materials.

The train itself was built on my tandem recumbent trike platform I
acquired in 2001:
	http://tricolour.net/gtvs6.html
using the organ trailer we welded together in 2003:
	http://hpv.tricolour.net/organ-trailer.html
I assume you have already found the project description at:
	http://hpv.tricolour.net/train.html

The train frame consists of a 2x6 board across the top of the overhead
racks on the trike, with a number of bicycle rims used for the boiler
shape and fake wheels, some 1/2" electrical conduit, a bit of 1x2" and
lots of 1x1" wood.  The uprights on the passenger car (organ trailer)
and caboose (kids' wagon) are 2x2" wood.

The wire itself was a combination of spools of 165' and by the foot:
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=168&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=S7-2.2-SPL-165
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=168&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=FWBTF-1262F
in "dark blue", "power green" and "red".  I cut into lengths as needed,
none longer than the 50 foot length supported by the specific inverters
that I got which were rated for a total of 25 to 50 feet.  This meant
that I had to group the wire strands connected to each inverter to be a
total of somewhere between 25 and 50 feet.

The inverters I used were 8 of these 12V:
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=IC1-1200-1500-CON
but there are many choices of inverters to choose from on this site.

I used one fader module for the whole setup:
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=M2-FADER

And it was all powered off one 7Ah 12V SLA lead acid battery.  The 400
feet of wire drew no more than 2-5 watts total so it would have lasted
weeks.

You'll need some connectors to solder to your wires to be able to
connect them to an inverter/driver:
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=2.2-5P

I used a number of these connector pigtails to make extension cords:
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=BYS-TNC

and a number of these splitters to feed multiple wires from one
inverter:
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=SPL2-5

It is also a good idea to get end caps to protect the wire from shorting
and to protect people from electric shock:
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=2.2mm-EC

I made a power harness to feed all the inverters using 2.1mm DC barrel
connectors and a standard 4-wire automotive trailer lights connectors
such as this:
	http://www.elecdirect.com/product/90ea9aa2-4e99-486e-a2fe-daf3b7648f8c.aspx

The crowning touch was a real diesel electric locomotive air horn that
was designed to be heard 8 kilometers away!

> Would you mind sharing some info on how you put it together and how long it
> took?

This video was quite helpful for learning how to solder EL wire.

	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/articleDetail.asp?articleID=16

They have a lot more videos to help in design and building:
	http://www.thatscoolwire.com/articlesforCat.asp?catID=6

It was put together mostly with wood screws, zip ties, bits of scrap
wire and dead bicycle inner tubes with a team of a half dozen people
over a period of about a week of evenings.