Buildings for my layout

[jabz10]

I'm doing an elevated rail layout on glass shelves in my computer room, this however means I will be height limited for buildings. In the main part of my layout I have about 19cm in height before hitting the ceiling, so I was wondering what Lego building sets can be accommodated within this restriction?

I love the City modular town hall, emporium however I don't have the space.

I already have 60050 Train station which I am building for my layout. I'm now looking for shorter buildings please advise if you have anything in mind.

Edited January 2, 2015 by jabz10

[MusicaRibelle]

19 cm is more than enough for two floors, each floor is approx 8 or 9 bricks high, and about 8 cm.

While the modulars sold by TLG are typically three stories high, i.e. three floors, you can just take inspiration and build similar pieces with one less floor.

Look at some new and old creator sets that, while not actual modulars, are a good source of inspiration and have dimensions that fit your space: the new toy store, new beach house, the old apple tree house, the old yellow beach house.

For reasons of playability and visual perspective, the first row of buildings in my layout is also two stories only: I have built a station, a police station / firehouse combination, an office building, and a 'bed and breakfast' building with a restaurant downstairs and bedrooms upstairs.

The grand emporium could be recreated with one floor less and still look pretty grand :)

Best of luck!

[Dan-147]

Actually, it would be very easy to take the third floor of the Grand Emporium and spread it out between the other two floors. The longer look would work quite well.

Dan-147

[woofmcmoose]

I also have a high level layout on shelves around my computer room, though with 24cm from the ceiling. I have done much as those above are suggesting with the modular pet shop, with the pet store modded to 2.5 floors (about 21cm, http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=95715 for pics) and the house next door MOC'd into a small 2 story restaurant (http://www.eurobrick...topic=96935&hl= for pics). I plan to do something similar with the Detectives Office when I can afford it later this year.

If you do go the modular route I recommend build to the instructions first to see what techniques are used the modify from there and see what details you can preserve/reuse whilst reducing the height.

If you want to build only to the instructions then 60026 Town Square will have suitable buildings, though the majority of parts in that set are in the crane which may not be so useful for your layout. 30126 (3-in-1 Bike Shop & Cafe) is also a good one to consider and unlike 60026 has minimal superfluous action elements (only 1 small car). Some of the other creator buildings may also work as most are 1-2 storey, though some are lacking in depth and features of may look out of place depending on the theme of your layout.

Hope this helps!

[jabz10]

Excellent thanks for the suggestions. I think getting at least a couple of the modular City sets and build them, then modify to lower the set height is the way I will approach it.

I also have a high level layout on shelves around my computer room, though with 24cm from the ceiling. I have done much as those above are suggesting with the modular pet shop, with the pet store modded to 2.5 floors (about 21cm, http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=95715 for pics) and the house next door MOC'd into a small 2 story restaurant (http://www.eurobrick...topic=96935&hl= for pics). I plan to do something similar with the Detectives Office when I can afford it later this year.

If you do go the modular route I recommend build to the instructions first to see what techniques are used the modify from there and see what details you can preserve/reuse whilst reducing the height.

If you want to build only to the instructions then 60026 Town Square will have suitable buildings, though the majority of parts in that set are in the crane which may not be so useful for your layout. 30126 (3-in-1 Bike Shop & Cafe) is also a good one to consider and unlike 60026 has minimal superfluous action elements (only 1 small car). Some of the other creator buildings may also work as most are 1-2 storey, though some are lacking in depth and features of may look out of place depending on the theme of your layout.

Hope this helps!

Wow I love how your layout is progressing, hope you don't mind but I'm going to copy the idea of reducing the size of the official Lego pet store etc modular buildings. Thanks for the other set suggestions I will look into them.

[jabz10]

Well I am progressing slowly, I have a basic loop layout already built, have posted a test vid here with the Horizon Express running 3/4 speed.

My bridge design was inspired by Bob Lilly

. Edited February 6, 2015 by jabz10

[jabz10]

Here is the

. I can see it is slipping in a couple places, doesn't seem to be as fast as the HE.

[MusicaRibelle]

nice work.

The emerald night will be slower since its xl motor is geared differently from the train pf motor that the horizon express uses.

[LoneBrickerSG]

Here is the

. I can see it is slipping in a couple places, doesn't seem to be as fast as the HE.

Well, in reality the HE should be faster anyway, and to me the EN still has a nice pace to it. Your video really makes me wish I had some operable steam engines of my own, though. Only diesel and HE for me right now.

Edited February 9, 2015 by LoneBrickerSG