WIP: town layout with underground monorail

[Martin_B]

You may remember I posted a thread recently about the possibility of using the old Airport Shuttle monorail system, but in the opposite way from how it was originally sold - running below 'ground level' instead of above it. TBH I've been mulling over the idea of raising the level of road plates to give room for things like basements (seeing them in modulars and MOC buildings didn't put me off the idea either) so after finally getting my own Shuttle set home and putting it together I started planning a 'raised' town layout.

I've attached a pic of what I've done so far...which is unfortunately taken on my camera phone, which seems to automatically add graininess and blurriness to everything so isn't as clear as I'd hoped. Anyway. I've done a simple loop around the edge of the layout, with two stations so far. The one on the left (green baseplate) is a slightly-modified 'Airport' station from the original set, with the track raised up in that corner. The route goes below street level everywhere else, running around the outer edges. The other station will be on the opposite side, underneath the old Shell car park/fuel station, and will be below ground level, as will the other three-quarters of the track.

I realised early on that the best place for the stations is on the edges. The main reason is that it's the only easy way to display an underground feature, but there's also the issue of access to anything underneath the 32x32 'street' plates. I initially allowed gaps in the middle of the layout for extra 32x32 plates (the right hand side of the main street), which will allow me to fit a row of modular buildings on their own 32x32 baseplates, possibly with their own below-ground basements or cellars. That main street is where the staircase to the underground station will go.

I know this is going to be an ambitious build, but since I have the monorail and 'surface' level mapped out already, all that remains to be done is setting out a subterranean foundation of 32x32 baseplates to sit the surface level plates and their support columns on before adding buildings. I'll start taking photos with my better camera from now on, since it's probably easier to understand with photos!

Edited November 5, 2012 by Martin_B

[Martin_B]

Sorry for a double-post, but I've taken separate photos of the street and monorail layouts...with my good camera this time so you can actually see what I'm trying to do! I absolutely LOVE that camera, but I digress...

Here's the monorail, prior to the second station (which will be a MOC in the style of the Tokyo Metro) and awaiting the 32x32 plates that will provide the foundations for everything else:

And here's the street layout that will literally sit on top of it:

For nostalgia's sake I'm incorporating my old childhood 'Weetabix' house and the early 90s-era Shell fuel station, multi-storey and car wash. Part of me wants to rebuild the monorail train, but the bricks are in such good condition for their age (honestly, I don't think it's been played with at all) I'm inclined to keep it.

I'll be modelling the underground station on the Tokyo Metro simply because it's the only underground rail system I've seen in real life, apart from the London tube which would be hard to recreate in Lego due to the walls of the stations and corridors being curved!

Apart from the obvious problem of getting 32x32 road plates to physically attach to any supports underneath, what do the rest of you think?

[lightningtiger]

Not bad w-i-p town there 'Martin_B'.....the Shell parking station actually came out in 1988 and that little row of houses is really cute and cool !

Keep going and Brick On !

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Here's the monorail... [snip]

Part of me wants to rebuild the monorail train, but the bricks are in such good condition for their age (honestly, I don't think it's been played with at all) I'm inclined to keep it.

Apart from the obvious problem of getting 32x32 road plates to physically attach to any supports underneath, what do the rest of you think?

I looks good, decent amount of space. I forget are you using both modern and classic sets with modulars, or just classic? Also, how are you carpenter skills? Whenever I can get to building my layout, I want terrain differences, including a partial underground system, as I said in your last post. To achieve this, I plan to build a wooden substructure (in sections, for ease) for the baseplates to rest on, and either cover them with bricks or paint. Have you thought about wooden substructures for a platform instead of trying to do it solely with LEGO? That way you can expand the city relatively easy

Here's the monorail... [snip]

Part of me wants to rebuild the monorail train, but the bricks are in such good condition for their age (honestly, I don't think it's been played with at all) I'm inclined to keep it.

If it were mine, I'd keep it as is. Especially since it's so clean!

Edit: replaced megabloks with as... Not sure how or why that got in there

Edited November 9, 2012 by LEGO Guy Bri