[MOC] Newcastle Central Station LEGO display at Bricktastic

[BricksMcgee]

A few photos from my first LEGO exhibition at a large event: "Newcastle Central Station" at Bricktastic 2015 in Manchester, UK.

The layout was made from 4 sections:

1. Central Station (WIP). This is based on Newcastle Central Station in my current home town, though there are some obvious (to me) differences since I've re-scaled some sections to more neatly fit a standard base plate. The full model will be around 12 baseplates long and feature an arched glass roof based on the original Georgian station

2. Crop and cattle farm land: largely MOCed landscape wise

3. Industrial section with a LEGO warehouse/factory

4. Highway and mansion: comprises a slightly modified "Haunted House" set

Plenty more photos and a few videos in the Flickr album, too, where you can see details of some of the smaller scenes I set up to reward visitors who were paying more attention, as well as the small "treasure hunt" for Lego Minions (from Minifigs.Me) for smaller kids in an effort to keep their hands off the display.

Few things I'd change next time (not sure the mansion section worked too well but filled a gap as I ran out of build time / more interesting track configuration / maybe adding a hidden fiddle yard to make it easier to introduce a new train).

Also a few things I wanted to try but ran out of build time/bricks for (more landscaping/gradients, and track ballast which I had built, but abandoned at the last moment).

Overall, went fairly smoothly, even if one of the Horizon Express' did plunge spectacularly off the table on the Sunday morning!

Edited August 17, 2015 by BricksMcgee

[marook]

Looks really good. And what an impressive station!

Looking forward to see the roof.

And yeah, kinda know that sound for 8 HE parts going off tracks.. ;-)

[zephyr1934]

Great station and well proportioned. Your layout also has a lot of interesting things going on. The level of detail is very nice for a layout of this size. Keep up the great work!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Beautiful classic station, with amazing architecture and perfect colors!

I like also the docks area

Neat desig!

[BricksMcgee]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Had a lot of fun putting it together and running trains on it for 2 full days.

Yes, the real building is really stunning itself, and I've had fun replicating it in LEGO so far! Although I'll be glad to build something not in tan soon ;)

Yes, the sound of HE barreling off the table was nerve racking. All back together now though!

[leg01982]

Wow, that's amazing. Loving to goods shed area too

[BricksMcgee]

Wow, that's amazing. Loving to goods shed area too

Thanks! Is quite a simple building but looks quite effective

[Jay Psi]

This was very impressive up close with so many details, although I must admit I didn't recognize it the first time I saw it. There were plenty of details all around the display so I wouldn't worry about that. Watching the HE whiz round the track at ludicrous speed was fun as well! My mate did say to me that he was surprised that a train hadn't gone off the rails by the time we returned in the afternoon...

[BricksMcgee]

This was very impressive up close with so many details, although I must admit I didn't recognize it the first time I saw it. There were plenty of details all around the display so I wouldn't worry about that. Watching the HE whiz round the track at ludicrous speed was fun as well!

Thanks Jay Psi! Yes, it's not quite there at the moment. Any other ideas for scenarios welcome, as I'm exhibiting again in the next month or two and want to change some of the scenes.

My mate did say to me that he was surprised that a train hadn't gone off the rails by the time we returned in the afternoon...

Yes, just the one disaster thankfully ;)

[Feuer Zug]

Very nice layout. The station looks great.

[Jay Psi]

Any other ideas for scenarios welcome, as I'm exhibiting again in the next month or two and want to change some of the scenes.

Far be it from me to offer any ideas worth anything, but here's a quick two before I hop off to bed:

1) Away day fans - Getting a scale model of the stadium into your display may be too much work to soon (mind, it would still be a damn sight better than our attempt at building Old Trafford out of nothing but purple 2x4s!) but what about having a load of away fans exiting the station on their way to the match? You could tailor this to the local team(s) of wherever you exhibit next, minifigs notwithstanding. Or you could do a minifig hunt like with the minions asking visitors to help spot the fans who have got lost and won't make it in time for kick-off.

2) Angel of the North - I half-expected this once I realized it was Newcastle Station. It might be stretching things a little if you're a stickler for geography but I think most people would say Gateshead is close enough to Newcastle to not complain about it? I don't build System so I can't say much about what needs to be done with respect to scale but I think it would make the display much more recognizable.

[BricksMcgee]

Far be it from me to offer any ideas worth anything, but here's a quick two before I hop off to bed:

1) Away day fans - Getting a scale model of the stadium into your display may be too much work to soon (mind, it would still be a damn sight better than our attempt at building Old Trafford out of nothing but purple 2x4s!) but what about having a load of away fans exiting the station on their way to the match? You could tailor this to the local team(s) of wherever you exhibit next, minifigs notwithstanding. Or you could do a minifig hunt like with the minions asking visitors to help spot the fans who have got lost and won't make it in time for kick-off.

2) Angel of the North - I half-expected this once I realized it was Newcastle Station. It might be stretching things a little if you're a stickler for geography but I think most people would say Gateshead is close enough to Newcastle to not complain about it? I don't build System so I can't say much about what needs to be done with respect to scale but I think it would make the display much more recognizable.

Thanks Jay Psi!

Love that Angel of the North idea (no idea how I missed it!). Seen a few attempts at one but not a convincing rendition yet, so sounds like a few weekends of work ;)

The football one I'm less keen on (as I'm not a fan at all!), but I like the idea of finding the Toon Army football fans on the layout. May have a look in to suitable minifig parts for those.

Thanks again for the suggestions!