Modular Road Ramps

[boformer]

I don't have much room, so I'm planning to build a compact LEGO city. To make the layout more interesting, I want to raise the buildings in the back row. Therefore I need sloped roads!

To avoid having hard edges or gaps, I came up with the idea to use Pythagorean triangles, right triangles where all side lengths are positive integers. Some of the recent modular buildings such as the boutique hotel also use these to achieve their interesting shapes.

There are two triples that are particularly interesting:

1. 9/40/41 (3 bricks / 16 bricks / 16 bricks + 1 plate)
2. 11/60/61 (3 bricks + 2 plates / 24 bricks / 24 bricks + 1 plate)

Both have relatively shallow angles (12.7° and 10.39°), and on the bottom side they are multiples of 8 bricks, so they fit nicely onto baseplates (or MILS modules).

For now I went with the first option and doubled it (6 bricks height difference on a 32x32 baseplate).

The hard part is to figure out where and with what parts the sloped road can be connected to the baseplate, because it only lines up in a few places.

To figure out these points, I drew the ramp in Inkscape and overlayed 2 LDU (0.25 plate) grids for the straight and diagonal sides:

I was first planning to use the classic 3937 hinge, but the geometry didn't work out. Instead I went with the more modern tow ball + socket pieces. I also used the new 1x2 cheese slopes on the upper edge:

Here is the prototype. It turned out very sturdy with only 4 tow ball connections:

As you can see, the height difference is exactly 6 bricks, with no gaps.

I guess I need to order more of those cheese slopes in dark gray 

It would also be possible to use normal plates and tiles on the slope, and place the cheese slopes on the connecting module instead, like in the first image of this post.

It's also possible to add sidewalks with a curb, using the same technique, by simply raising the base by one or two plates.

Here is my plan for the city. You can see the 3 ramps with sidewalks. The one hidden on the right uses the even shallower 11-60-61 triangle, so I guess I need to figure out how to build that one too…

 

Edited March 17 by boformer

[Johnny1360]

I think this is a great idea and you seem to have worked out all the details, I have always thought a LEGO city looks much better when it isn't just laid out in a flat plane. 

I hope you don't mind if I use this in some far off future build.

[boformer]

6 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

I think this is a great idea and you seem to have worked out all the details, I have always thought a LEGO city looks much better when it isn't just laid out in a flat plane. 

I hope you don't mind if I use this in some far off future build.

Yes, having some raised sections can make a big difference. I heard there is also a clever layout in the LEGO house that makes use of comically steep road ramps, much steeper than mine.

Of course you are free to use this in your own builds. Otherwise I wouldn't have posted it.

[Johnny1360]

Yeah I wouldn't want to go much more of an incline. Also like the use of road plates because you can easily replace some of the smooth 2x4 plates with their studded counter parts. That way you can stick a vehicle on the incline without it rolling down to the bottom of the hill.

[Ts__]

Very nice! I especially like that there are absolutely no gaps—well done!

For a city diorama, I also think the big slope is good: it creates the effect of height and multiple levels.

Unfortunately, ramps with this slope won’t be drivable. But depending on the purpose, that’s not necessarily a requirement.

 

I also needed ramps for my project: a height difference of 4 plates over a length of 32 studs. So very flat (and there wasn’t a gap issue there either^^). I can drive my trucks over the ramps like this:

Ramps on the right side of the image leading down to/up from the track:

 

Ramp on the left in front of the building:

 

For a city panorama at home, I think your solution with the significant elevation works really well!

Thomas

Edited March 19 by Ts__

[boformer]

8 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

Yeah I wouldn't want to go much more of an incline. Also like the use of road plates because you can easily replace some of the smooth 2x4 plates with their studded counter parts. That way you can stick a vehicle on the incline without it rolling down to the bottom of the hill.

That's a really good idea!

2 hours ago, Ts__ said:

I also needed ramps for my project: a height difference of 4 plates over a length of 32 studs. So very flat (and there wasn’t a gap issue there either^^)

I guess for such flat ramps, you don't even need to think about length differences or cheese slopes. It looks like a really nice play feature!

[Feuer Zug]

Great engineering work to figure the slope of the ramps out.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

15 hours ago, Ts__ said:

Wow this picture is amazing! 

[boformer]

5 minutes ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Wow this picture is amazing! 

Then you should watch this video 

 

 

[ParmBrick]

10 hours ago, boformer said:

Then you should watch this video 

 

 

WOW! That's insane, this is superb  Btw, verticality in a city always manages to make it more credible and realistic, and the solutions in this thread are very interesting

[Ts__]

12 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Wow this picture is amazing! 

 

1 hour ago, ParmBrick said:

WOW! That's insane, this is superb  Btw, verticality in a city always manages to make it more credible and realistic, and the solutions in this thread are very interesting

 

Thanks.

 

12 hours ago, boformer said:

Then you should watch this video 

 

However, this great video only shows the status as of April 2025, with about one-third of the current facility...  ;-)

BUT: this thread is about the ramps in the city area, not my layout. I've started a new thread on Eurobricks for my project. I don't want to hijack this thread.

 

Thomas

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

23 hours ago, boformer said:

Then you should watch this video 

Wow,  the trains are wonderful but the initial part of the video where the trucks are motorized and containers are loaded onto the train is even more miraculous!

Great work @Ts__ Thomas! 

 

 

[ShawnEvans]

 

Nice idea! You could use plates or wedge pieces to create gradual slopes for the roads-works well in compact layouts.