Moving Masterpiece: The Making of a Parade Float [VIDEO]

The Needham Tercentennial Express got quite a reaction when it came chugging down Webster Street on Monday morning, steam puffing out of its smokestack and an enthusiastic conductor waving from the window.

The huge red-and-yellow steam engine and cargo car—made of wood, chicken wire and thousands of pieces of tissue paper stuffed over the past month by a team of volunteers—took the Needham Exchange Club’s 2011 Grand Prize Trophy.

“The train coming into the town of Needham was a huge reason why we are the bedroom community we are today,” explained Needham 300 member Judy Lambert, who along with husband David came up with the float idea. “It allowed for commuters to go in and out of the city. It allowed for cargo to come in and out of the town."

The steam engine, dubbed the “Tercentennial Express," measured about 35 feet in length and about 13 feet in height—just making the 13.5-foot limit set because of poles and wires along the parade route.

“At certain corners we will have some people walking beside it with sticks to lift up wires or trees should they get in the way,” Lambert said last week, as she and other volunteers worked to finish the float.

Among those assisting was Mike Retzky, a Park and Recreation commissioner, who promised the float was “going to be gorgeous.”

“I’d say the most challenging is the size of this one. This has been one of the bigger ones that we’ve done,” he said.

The train also featured a few special effects, such as steam billowing out of the smokestack and the sound of a train whistle—achieved with a crafty device involving a plain wooden train whistle and an air compressor.

“You’ll see some additional things moving. You’ll see a lot of elements that we’ve never added before,” Lambert said. “We have people here that are contractors, electricians, architects. […] We have every kind of profession here, and every professional brings something to it.”

Work on the float began the week before Memorial Day in May, when the Lamberts developed the idea and then began pulling in their core group of volunteers to begin construction.

“I work on the design element of it and [my husband] works on the actual construction part,” Lambert said.

With limited garage space, the group had to work in pieces—about 15 separate pieces, to be specific—putting everything together right before the parade. Pick Crane Service in Needham offered up space on their site to store the float pieces.

Along with construction, the project required a lot of stuffing—pushing colorful tissue paper into chicken wire to create the outer shell of the train.

“When we put out the call, everybody comes stuffing,” Lambert said. “We had a 97-year-old woman making tissue paper flowers for us the other night outside, and we’ve had kids as young as three putting in their little pieces. Saturday, I think we probably had 50 people at this garage working to put it together.”

She estimated they had used about 10,000 pieces of tissue paper on the float.

Designing Needham parade floats is a longstanding tradition for the Lamberts—a passion Judy Lambert jokingly refers to as “an illness.”

“I remember when I was young doing the parade with Frankie Gallello and Sandy Mangini with Needham Junior Football, and I remembered as a kid how much fun it was because we’d all get together, build the float, stuff it and when it came down the parade route how cool it was knowing that you did it,” she said. “So my husband and I years and years ago started doing one just because of that, and it’s kind of grown with our knowledge.”

Last year, as a preview to Needham’s 300th year, Lambert’s group built a huge birthday cake float for the Fourth of July parade. The year before, it was a Needham Field of Dreams float. Other past floats built for different groups included a life-sized doll house, a “Where’s Waldo”-themed piece and “a plane that was a replica of my father’s plane in World War II,” Lambert said.

“The parade’s always meant a lot to us,” she said. “I love the way that we are able to bring together different generations and do something that’s so traditional but put a little technology in it.”

A few of the other parade floats that received honors from the Needham Exchange Club on Monday included:

• Grand Marshal’s Award—Eliot School

• Anniversary Trophy—Lawton Road

• Community Trophy—Town of Needham Employees

• Independence Trophy—Carol Boulris and Family

• Spirit of America Award—Needham Republican Town Committee

• Theme Award—Condon Realty