MOC - City of Studney Fire Station

[Criga88]

Hi all, I just wanted to start this topic to let everyone know about a project that has been on my mind for quite a while now and is slowly starting to come to fruition. While I love the Fire Brigade and it has served me well since I first bought it, it does suffer from a lack of space for modern fire engines. I bit the bullet ages ago and bought a second Fire Brigade to add another garage and for an assortment of spare parts but now I've outgrown the two garages. Since I'm moving house I figured it'd be a good time to start from scratch so I've chosen the City of Sydney Fire Station as my reference building and here's my progress.

While there's still a lot of work to go, I have a solid plan for what the ground floor layout of the building will be, and will try and get the facade as close to the real building as possible, although I have left out a large section of the original building to try and save a bit of space. The masonry side will be access to the upper floors, a room for the firesuits, the mandatory fire pole, as well as two bays for fire engines. The newer section on the right will house three fire engines side by side as well as some smaller support and logistics vehicles behind.

My fire engines have been getting updates for the new facilities as well, with a permanent fleet of two pumpers, one rescue pumper, one heavy rescue, one aerial and one small vehicle planned to take residence in the station.

The Scania chassis will make up the brunt of the stations responses, with two vehicles as pumpers and one as a rescue pumper. The basic truck features seating for four firefighters, with three of them being able to wear breathing apparatus in the cab on the way to calls. These three trucks will be almost identical on the outside but will have different loads in in the back to suit their allocation.

The Isuzu is fitted out with pneumatic tools for responding to structural or vehicle accidents where a minifig may need to be cut out. Since this is a rescue unit, the two firefighters don't have a need for breathing apparatus or full firesuits so the cab is a little bit less crowded than the other trucks.

The Duty Commanders vehicle is for providing quick responses to calls for the supervisor and is built on my standard SUV base. It has room for one minifig driver with a full breathing apparatus set and a small assortment of tools in the boot.

A new aerial apparatus is still on the drawing boards, which will be more accurate compared to the previous incarnations. The biggest hassle is trying to get a functional and realistic boom and outrigger system into a City scaled vehicle.

Comments, criticism and questions are welcome, and keep an eye out for updates.

[scottwb2010]

Your station is looking good so far Cirga88. I like your use of the 'brick' bricks on the façade. I know what you mean about the bays in the Fire Brigade set not being big enough for city sized fire engines. You have done a good job with your Fire Engines giving them a very Australian feel with the red and yellow square checkers. Good luck with creating a realistic aerial appliance.

[lightningtiger]

Oh, man that first truck is so NSW Fire & Rescue........Brick On Rescue On 'Criga88' !

(note - I find 8 wide doors for vehicles not enough......hence in my Cox Rural store I just have the opening there. )

(oh, pardon me asking.......xlf file for the first one I that truck design ?)

[Criga88]

Thanks guys, I guess the hours of staring at reference photos of the trucks paid off . While 8 wide doors are pretty tight for the trucks LT, the real ones are by no means spacious, and on the inside of the building there's cutouts in the supports where the cab doors line up. I put the Scania LXF up on my brickshelf as well but the rear lockers are empty except for a spinal board so feel free to load the truck up as you see fit, it'll take a couple of hours for the file to be public though.

[ecmo47]

Looks like a great start on the building. The tan/red/black color combo works very well!

[zeki]

I love the brick build door! Can you post some more pictures on how do they open etc? The fire trucks also look awesome!

[Criga88]

Thanks Ecmo and Zeki. The black/trans doors in the first render are just placeholder for now to determine the height, I have a design for them that I'll show in the next render when I've done a bit more of that side of the station.

[wilson3a10]

They look nice . I wonder if the pumper can actually sit 4 ppl inside.

[Criga88]

Thanks Wilson. The Scania and Isuzu both have half stud offset seating in the cab so two figs can fit side by side, you can just make out the fourth firie in the back of the pumper render. It's a tight fit with the three sitting in there in all their equipment but it is possible.

[Kristel]

I like where this is going! The contrast between the old and new looks like it will be nice detail.

[gazumpty]

Really nice work so far...I really like your Fire Engine build. The building itself looks really good and I can't wait to see how it progresses.

[Criga88]

Thanks Kristel and Gazumpty. I'll try and get more of the facade done in between packing sessions, but the new side may have to wait until I get eyes on the real building.

[ER0L]

Looks great, I always like the combination of old and modern styles on a building. Looking forward to the further development of this!

[Criga88]

Cheers ER0L. I'll smash out more of the garages and get renders up of them after I get more packing out of the way, a lot of the new side is just structural supports with very little greebling so it shouldn't take too long.

[coghilla]

Awesome. without reading the tittle I knew it was CoS straight away. Cant wait to see it finished.

[LittleJohn]

This is looking great so far! As others have said, the brickwork and colorscheme look excellent!

Can't wait to see it completed

[Criga88]

Thanks Coghilla and LittleJohn. I've put in a bit more filler in between packing and had my laptop running a couple of renders of the garages while getting everything ready for removals. There hasn't been too much more progress made but my priority is obviously moving.

This section above was built in 1907 as offices but was converted to garages for motorised appliances in 1928. It'll be home to two Pumpers ("Flyer" and "Runner") and will have the main access to the upper floors on the right as well as the fire pole and turnout clothing.

This is the most recent extension completed in 2003. The Rescue Pumper, Salvage, Aerial, Duty Commander and any other Logistics vehicles will operate out of this side, with the firies private vehicles parked out of the way along the back of the station. For Zeki, the doors have a technic pin with a stud at the bottom edges to run up and down tracks on either side, and plates with slides protruding halfway up the front to pull the middle of the doors out and upwards.

Comments, criticism and questions are welcome, and keep an eye out for updates.

[lightningtiger]

Wow, now that's a decent build inside......keep going 'Criga88' and Brick On !

[Criga88]

Cheers LT, it's almost up to 1300 parts for that level of detail, but I do love having no restrictions on the parts count

[zeki]

Nice use on the doors i must say! Can't wait for another update.

[Criga88]

Hi all, just a quick update for now. This week I started to build the fire station and the trucks that operate from it as I start to make my own City. The extra Scania trucks were the first to be thrown together as I already had the design for them finished, I've yet to find good references for the lockers though so they are still empty for now. The Varley and Mustang in the last two bays are just placeholders until I finish the Isuzu, Bronto Skylift and Nissan. The Isuzu is sitting on my desk at about 75% complete but the parts for the Nissan are buried under my collection of police vehicles so I'll have to dig them out over the week.

I've assigned firies to all of the vehicles and there's still a dozen or so extra minifigs to put around the building when I get the interior done. I'll be using the stations open day next month to get an idea of how to fill the rooms up but in the mean time I'll keep going with the facade.

Comments, criticism and questions are welcome, and keep an eye out for updates.

[lightningtiger]

Looking good so far 'Criga88'.......though those baseplates can bow eh ?

Keep going and Brick On 'Criga88' !

[Criga88]

Looking good so far 'Criga88'.......though those baseplates can bow eh ?

Thanks LT, I'm hoping the weight of the rest of the building and trucks will flatten out the baseplate a bit more

[lightningtiger]

Thanks LT, I'm hoping the weight of the rest of the building and trucks will flatten out the baseplate a bit more

That does sometimes works.....fingers crossed.

[Feuer Zug]

That's a great start for a fire department. You've got a number of apparatus in the bays and the station façade coming along swimmingly. Nice to see some 'Down Under' perspective on the fire side.