best way to plan my city?

[uitzetter]

Hello,

My name is Cindy. I'm new to this forum, but I'm a huge, huge Lego fan. Luckally, my almost six year old son loves his lego too. And I am lucky to have found this forum. What a wealth of information and reviews etc. Just great!

My husband has built a table for him to build his 'city'. It is going to expand because of his birthday in december and of course santa clause. He loves all city items, but fell in love with the new pf trains, so that is first on his list. The cargo train, the passenger train, the station and some tracks. He also has the garage, the fire station, and a lot of firefighter cars etc. He has more.

The table is 3.60 meters, but only 50 centimeters wide. I don't know how to plan a city with a train. I don't think it will fit. Do any of you have some ideas?

Oh, by the way, I,m hoping to expand my son's collection with buildings like the grand emporium, green grocer and the fire brigade. I fell in love with them when I saw them. Ohmpff, If only it wasn't so expensive...

Edited October 22, 2010 by uitzetter

[lightningtiger]

I see a few problems here, one is that measurement....50cm wide....the garage and fire station do take up quite alot of space, then you say about modular buildings plus railways...tricky...very tricky.

Might I suggest, stick with the city range for you six year old....they just want to play with the figures in role play (i.e. fire fighting)....modular is more AFOL.

Public transport (set no. 8404) from TRU running a long the front of a main street with said gargage, fire station, etc., would look real nice as too adding also TRU truck/shop and city corner 7641....if you can get it 7993 with give you a nice service station.

I, myself am constructing an entire country town, all MOC built and custom figures/detailing as well, so if you check out my MOC's hopefully it could some guide for your families city.

My link - street scape on BrickshelfOther members like 'sens1992', 'BlueBard' and 'TheBrickster', amoung others also build excellent city layouts, etc., I also suggest checking them out as well.

Good luck and I'm a conformist! !

Edited October 22, 2010 by lightningtiger

[prateek]

I'd go with modular buildings and a road. I don't think a train will be possible. You could also have open back buildings, as Tiger mentioned, with thinner profiles so you have more room in front. Sorry, but a train isn't possible

[uitzetter]

Hi lightningtiger and prateek,

Thank you so much for your reactions!

Well, the modular buildings are something for the future, but when my son is old enough, I would very much like to add them. And if he doesn't mom will, lol... I just think they are amazing. But for now, my son likes to build on his city collection. The city corner is indeed on his list for x-mas and for his birthday, he is gonna ask more vehicles from other family like grandma and granddad. The Public Transport set would make a great candidate. He already has the tanker 3180 and the the Combine Harvester 7636. There is a superpack deal here in the Netherlands I'm thinking of to buy for him for something we have here in december "sinterklaas". Anyway this set normally is over EUR 60.- and now we can pick it up for 39,99. It belongs to the farm set. They are: 7634 Tractor, 7635 4WD with horse trailer, 7684 Pig farm with tractor.

What I would like to ask is this. My husband can expand the table, so that there will be another table connected to the small width table. It can be 2 meters X 1 meter. Would a train be possible then? Do you guys know what the width of the train tracks are? Then I can build a city for him on the small part with the station and the train on the wider part.

And last question, we don't have any baseplates yet. How do you guys do it? Do you place the roads on top of the baseplate or side by side? I found a shop that sells the roads 7280 and 7281 for EUR 7,95 and the green baseplate 626 (32*32) for EUR 4,95 and the grey large one (32*32 centimeters) for EUR 8,95. What do you think? How should I build and are these good prices or should I look elsewhere?

And eh, oh these MOC's are great! I could only dream of these... I will check the others out as well, thanks... Do you figure them out yourselves or are they based upon another set or did you have buildingplans? I'm just curious.. And of course, the bricks are for sale everywhere, but what about the other parts? Can you buy them seperately?

I really hope to hear from you again... Thanks for your replies again!

[rriggs]

Sorry, but a train isn't possible

Why not? Surely a row of modular (or not modular) buildings and a road on a 50cm table would still leave room for a single straight track at the front or back of the scene? As he is looking at pf trains his track does not need to be a closed loop and straight track or pair of straight tracks with the station at the end would work fine?

There's always room for trains!

Cheers

Rog

Edited October 23, 2010 by rriggs

[Morpheus_vip]

Here is a simple layout (green plates are 25.5x25.5 centimeters) 22 straight rails and 16 curved :

You can download "Track Designer" and experiment .

[uitzetter]

Thanks for the replies rriggs and Morpheus_vip!

There will be a train then, I can't hardly wait until december. I don't know who is more exited, my son or me, lol. It's good to know that it will fit on the second table. I will check the track designer. Thank you so much for your effort and design. I was looking for something like that track designer to make a cityplan. I will play with it next week.

Based upon your sample layout, I assume that you guys don't put the road on top of the baseplates, but at the side, correct?

Anybody any idea's about that "superdeal"? - farm set; 7634 Tractor, 7635 4WD with horse trailer, 7684 Pig farm with tractor for EUR 39,95?

Does anybody know the best place to look for baseplates and road plates packs? Seems like I'm gonna need a lot of them...

[rriggs]

Anybody any idea's about that "superdeal"? - farm set; 7634 Tractor, 7635 4WD with horse trailer, 7684 Pig farm with tractor for EUR 39,95?

Does anybody know the best place to look for baseplates and road plates packs? Seems like I'm gonna need a lot of them...

The superdeals are good if you want all the sets included. They're not worth it if you only want two out of the three.

Baseplates you can get brand new from Lego but they're expensive. Otherwise, try Bricklink or eBay.

Cheers

Rog

[dhaas06]

If you're looking for a good computer program to help plan train and city layouts, try Bluebrick. Unlike Track Designer, it is more modern and currently supported with new updates and tutorials. Check out some of the Bluebrick discussions and threads in the Train Tech forum on this site for more information!

I'm glad to see a family so mutually interested in this great hobby!

[gotoAndLego]

If you are interested in the modular buildings in the future its in your best interest to buy them now. Once discontinued they become prohibitively expensive.

[absolutelylez]

I would always put the roads next to other baseplates, never on top. Unlike normal lego plates, it is not possible to stick baseplates on top of each other, there is no mechanism to actually hold one on top of another. So always next to each other :)

With regards to the baseplates, the prices you mentioned are pretty standard for the baseplates. As mentioned before, you might be able to get cheaper, used, baseplates on Bricklink, which is an amazing resale/secondhand online market. I've used it many times and loved it!

On bricklink, you can probably find some really good older baseplates, which have very specific printings, which might be something fun to add on for the future - such as airport runways, spaceship landing docks, island printings, rivers, etc, have a look!

For rivers etc: http://www.bricklink.com/browseList.asp?pg=2&itemType=P&catString=2

For roads and runways: http://www.bricklink.com/browseList.asp?itemType=P&catString=130

I remember, when I was little, it was my dream to have a massive city with a sea on one side (for docks and things like that) and a mountainous area with a gushing river.. with Lego, oh, there are SO many possibilities!

Edited October 23, 2010 by absolutelylez

[uitzetter]

Thanks everyone!

@riggs: I suppose it will be good then, thanks. Ideally, my son wants to collect every item from city. He has most items from the fire section and some from the others. But if we buy this deal, the farm section is almost complete.

@dhaas06: Thanks! I will look into it. Will give both a try next week

@gotoAndLego. I'm mostly interested in modular buildings, but my son is more into the fire, police, service stations, cars etc. Only logical of course, since he is only 5 (almost 6). But I would very much like to collect those modulars as well. If only they weren't that expensive . Do you know if the modulars that one can buy right now are the first of the modular buildings or do they go way back also? Like the city series was the city world series before? I think they are mostly recent though right?

@absolutelylez. Well that's clear then . Plates next to each other. I will checkout ebay. But can I use Bricklink also, because I'm living in The Netherlands? I have taken a look at your links and it looks great. But where can I see the prices and how can I buy? I don't see prices or buy buttons anywhere???

Thanks for all your tips and help!

[absolutelylez]

Bricklink is an international marketplace. So you can buy anything from anywhere, though it's probably best to buy from EU or from Netherland sellers.

On the links I sent you, under each item is a link with "Items for Sale" with colour boxes underneath - the colour boxes describe the main colour of the item. Click one to see the prices and stores that sell them. It's quite complicated to explain but quite easy to understand after a bit of experimenting. You can search stores by country and so on as well, here: http://www.bricklink.com/searchAdvanced.asp

For the beginning though I'm sure ebay will have most things you would ever need. Normally, AFOL builders shop on Bricklink to buy specific rare parts or massive quantities of parts. So it might be great if you decide you need to buy 20 road plates, but it might be not that good if you only want two or three, which you can buy new from a shop.

[meyerc13]

Do you know if the modulars that one can buy right now are the first of the modular buildings or do they go way back also? Like the city series was the city world series before? I think they are mostly recent though right?

Here is a wikipedia article outlining the modulars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Modular_Houses

They are fairly recent, but a few have been retired already.

[ACCURATEin]

You and your family are in for a world of fun! Figuring out how to organize the city is just as fun as building the sets. There are hundreds of different ways to set it up. But usually a train track will dictate what can and can not happen. Also consider elevating the track on columns.

[Captain Genaro]

I think that a train track is always possible. If you use Morphus' design, you could even add some swithing track on the inside for a station or freight yard. The possibilities are endless.

Lego no longer sells World City if that is what you were asking. If you go to this page, you can see all of the themes they sell and the products inside those themes.

I also see that you talk alot about different begginer sets. I would suggust buying sets like this. They have a lot of random bricks and allow you to build civilian structures such as banks, supermarkets, or other shops. Lego does a good job making police, fire, and transportation sets but those sets allow you to add civilian structures to your town with out destroying sets.

Best of luck with your new city. Great to see another Lego fan out there!

[uitzetter]

Hi everybody!

Great to see so many reactions! Thanks!

Last night I couldn't step away from my computer, and I decided to check and find out about your tips and recommendations. I've gotten way too little sleep , but it was well worth it! Had a lot of fun reading and trying. Lol!

@absolutelylez: One thing I did last night was a more extensive review of Bricklink. I totally missed the search tab the first time. I feel so ... Anyway, I compared a lot of items still on our wishlist. But I was very amazed that there is one shop here in The Netherlands that is cheaper most of the times, even compared to used sets. I must admit that I excluded incomplete sets in my build though... Then I looked at road plates and green base plates. But they also are more expensive on Bricklink. I couldn't find very large lots (30+ and over), since I need a lot of them. But no luck there either. When ordered more then one, the price per piece is still the same as this shop in the Netherlands: Superspeelgoed.nl. So I will be searching Ebay a bit further next week, but unfortunatelly, I don't think bricklink isn't for us. Maybe later when we are in search of specific parts. I've aded it to my favorites, so that I can check regularly. Thanks!

@meyerc13. Thanks for your link! I didn't realize that some modulars are retired already! I've been advised to pick up for example the Green Grocery fast, as they will become limited very soon. Various articles on the net also stated that. But which modular items do you think are the first I should pick up when I have the chance? I would like to collect the whole set eventually, but don't have the resources to spend a small fortune f.e. on three sets right now. Which are the first ones I should pick up?

@ACCURATEin: Yes, we do have a world of fun with Lego! My husband isn't as large a fan as my son and me, but sometimes at night, insead of watching tv fe., we both sit and build lego or our son. It's very cozy

About elevating the track on columns. I have thought about that one too. I searched it here on eurobricks and I saw one really nice one, but I cannot seem to find it anywhere. On the top of your head, can you remember who here has done such a thing?

@Captain Genaro: Yep, a train will become part of my son's collection. And there will be switching tracks also. I've got my eye on a set wich includes 7939 Cargo Train, 7895 Switching Tracks, 7937 Station and 7896 Straight and Curved for EUR 189.-

No I wasn't asking if lego still sells World City. Sorry for my sometimes clumsy english, sometimes I cannot put clearly in words what I'm meaning to ask or tell. I meant to ask wheather the new modular buildings were started as long ago as lego city. Since the city collection was begun a long time ago as World City. But the wiki from meyerc13 made clear when they first started with the modulars.

And yes, I talk a lot about beginner sets like police, fire, farm etc. Since that are the sets targeted towards my sons age. But it's a great idea to build my own moc's with the bricks in the set's you pointed out. But I must say, I'm more comfortable building from building instructions then using my own creativity on that. That's more my husbands and my sons department. I'm more of the computer person. In the past I did some visual basic programming for my work, but I have lost a lot of eye sight due to multiple sclerosis. It's hard to program with so many panels open, so I gave up that hobby. Although the NXT sounds like a lot of fun to programm But it has been years since I last programmed stuff, so I'm leaving that one go. But about the MOC's. I suppose there isn't a place where people leave building instruction for their moc's do they? I saw lots of photo's here, but not building instructions. Yeah, I know, that would be a lot of work, but you never know do you?

@dhaas. I'm totally in love with bluebrick. I have watched all the tutorials, installed it and played with it a bit. The resemblence to photoshop is visible. The functionallity is very easy and clear if you know ps. So I will stick with this one. I think it's great that the parts pane is sorted by itemnumber. Otherwise it would be difficult to find the right items. Would be great though if a tab could be added in the future which allows to search for partnumers and go to them directly. But other than that, just wow! One question though. I would like to be able to save the plans I have created as a .jpg. I assume that's under the 'export as' functionallity. It gives an error with me. Do you get an error to?

Thanks again everyone, great to have such a warm welcome! Hope to hear from you soon

[peterab]

Hi everybody!

Great to see so many reactions! Thanks!

@meyerc13. Thanks for your link! I didn't realize that some modulars are retired already! I've been advised to pick up for example the Green Grocery fast, as they will become limited very soon. Various articles on the net also stated that. But which modular items do you think are the first I should pick up when I have the chance? I would like to collect the whole set eventually, but don't have the resources to spend a small fortune f.e. on three sets right now. Which are the first ones I should pick up?

@Captain Genaro: Yep, a train will become part of my son's collection. And there will be switching tracks also. I've got my eye on a set wich includes 7939 Cargo Train, 7895 Switching Tracks, 7937 Station and 7896 Straight and Curved for EUR 189.-

No I wasn't asking if lego still sells World City. Sorry for my sometimes clumsy english, sometimes I cannot put clearly in words what I'm meaning to ask or tell. I meant to ask wheather the new modular buildings were started as long ago as lego city. Since the city collection was begun a long time ago as World City. But the wiki from meyerc13 made clear when they first started with the modulars.

And yes, I talk a lot about beginner sets like police, fire, farm etc. Since that are the sets targeted towards my sons age. But it's a great idea to build my own moc's with the bricks in the set's you pointed out. But I must say, I'm more comfortable building from building instructions then using my own creativity on that. That's more my husbands and my sons department. I'm more of the computer person. In the past I did some visual basic programming for my work, but I have lost a lot of eye sight due to multiple sclerosis. It's hard to program with so many panels open, so I gave up that hobby. Although the NXT sounds like a lot of fun to programm But it has been years since I last programmed stuff, so I'm leaving that one go. But about the MOC's. I suppose there isn't a place where people leave building instruction for their moc's do they? I saw lots of photo's here, but not building instructions. Yeah, I know, that would be a lot of work, but you never know do you?

Here's a link to the Modular houses on Bricklink. It includes their release date. The first two are now no longer available from Lego. The Green Grocer will probably disappear this year. After that if the pattern continues one will be added and the oldest one will disappear each year.

You might want to look at Creator houses instead of/as well as the modulars. They are cheaper than the modulars but are reasonably large buildings.

Most people don't create instructions for their Mocs, but some people use LDD or LDraw which are CAD programs for Lego, so in that case they may be willing to share the CAD file.

There are a few resources for instructions though. For current sets you can download them from the Lego Service section of the Lego website. For out of production sets you can get most from the Peeron website. The only large group of Moc instructions I know of is train related on the Railbricks website. Some train builders will also make LDraw files available on their Brickshelf folders, Ben and gambort are two users who I know have some.

Given that your sons table is so narrow, you might have trouble fitting a train loop. The smallest circle of track is about 70cm. You could have a dog-bone shape if you added a wider part at each end.

[uitzetter]

@peterab

Yes, the 10182 and the 10190 are hard to find here in The Netherlands. If you can find them you pay more then EUR 300,- for each. Not in my budget. Real bummer. I gues I will have to pick up the green grocer if I can soon. Thanks for the link though, I have saved it. And good to know how this works. Now I know which one to buy each year!

I also will look at the creator houses. They would make a nice addition to my son's city. Some of them also are hard to find in stores with high prices. The more recent ones are more affordable though... Thanks!

Yep, I found out about Lego Digital Designer. I have installed it and made it so it has utimate mode. I have imported some LDD's from this forum, whis is really, really nice! But, then comes the problem, when you want to build them, there are almost always parts which cannot be found. That's why I made it ultimate. I know that you cannot buy any parts from within that mode, but at least, I have more bricks then. Don't know where to buy pieces from though. Maybe part lego store, part ebay, part bricklink or something?? Very nice app though. If I have build some kind of a city for my son and if I have the time, I will play more and see if I can come up with a nice little digital moc myself. Lot of fun to do. Thanks! And thanks for the locations of the instructions for the sets.

And about the table. Well, there is going to be a second table. Not to bigg too though, 2 X 1 meters. But at least we can have a or some trains. And I would very much built a second platform above the city for the train. I know I saw a picture on this forum somewhere which I really liked, but I cannot seem to find it anywhere. Very stupid not to fav it when I saw it. I hope someone can remember which user has a platform above their city for their train.

Thanks again for all your help! Great community eurobricks has going on here!

Given that your sons table is so narrow, you might have trouble fitting a train loop. The smallest circle of track is about 70cm. You could have a dog-bone shape if you added a wider part at each end.

[absolutelylez]

Great! make sure you take us some pictures some time in the future to show off how it's going ;)

and a little word of practical advice. From my experience, Lego gets covered in dust very quickly if it's not being played with constantly. And it is very difficult to get rid of the dust because of the studs, etc. So when it's not being played with, i suggest you find a way to cover the scene to protect it, especially if it's not goign to be touched for a long time.

[peterab]

And about the table. Well, there is going to be a second table. Not to bigg too though, 2 X 1 meters. But at least we can have a or some trains. And I would very much built a second platform above the city for the train. I know I saw a picture on this forum somewhere which I really liked, but I cannot seem to find it anywhere. Very stupid not to fav it when I saw it. I hope someone can remember which user has a platform above their city for their train.

There's this 3 level layout

[Rapseflaps]

I too would recommend BlueBrick. It's quite handy.

And if you're going to get into modulars, don't wait too long. Expect Green Grocer to disappear off the market some time next year.

Oh, and pics please.

[Follows Closely]

I too would recommend BlueBrick. It's quite handy.

And if you're going to get into modulars, don't wait too long. Expect Green Grocer to disappear off the market some time next year.

Oh, and pics please.

If I where you I would pick up the Green Grocer ASAP, you will not regret it.

[uitzetter]

Hey everyone! Thanks for all your replies!

@absolutelylez. Ok, I will share my first attemt of a city with the parts I have by the end of this year, because I have a little more to show by then... Lol.

By the way, I have heard, if your Lego is real dirty and you cannot just dust if off, you could also put the lego pieces (when not assembled of course) in a pillow and just put in in the washing machine at low temps. The lego seems to handle it perfectly and it's very very clean afterwards. Any truths to this from your experience?

@peterab. This is a very nice layout. Really, really nice. Not practical for me though, as it would become hard to play with the city underneath it, but for train display purpases excellent! I like the tunnel and the grass and the trainstation and... Well you get the picture.... This isn't the layout I have seen though. It was more open, so you could play with your city underneath. Agrr. If i only could find it again...

@Rapseflaps and @Follows Closely. I will play with Bluebrick. I really, really like the app. First I have some measuring to do though... Once I have made a layout, I will post it here.. But I still get an error when I want to export a layout.

And the Green Grocer. I will get it if the money does allow it by the end of november/december. The holiday presents and birthday presents come first and if our car doesn't have to have a lot work done by it, the Green Grocer will be mine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[absolutelylez]

I personally wouldn't recommend that! The pieces are very small and I bet some could fall through the drum, though I guess if the pillow is zipped up there shouldn't be any problem... I used to wash the lego with the shower, it worked very well. I would put the lego in a bowl, so none of it could accidentally fall down the plughole!

Edited October 28, 2010 by absolutelylez