Layout: plan fo new layout

[Xris]

Hi Günther,

I really enjoy the photos of your more and more detailed layout. The waterfall and the pond are really nice eyecatchers.

The dead ended road leading to the pond - with its center line markings - looks like a primary road, which does not make much sense. You could try to eliminate the road markings and probably create a turning area at the road's end. Another detail is about draining the pond: Where does the water leave the pool? A small weir and an overflow/outlet (into an invisible) underground duct could be a solution.

I hope, both suggestions might help to further the realistic impression of the scenery.

Christian

 

[tmctiger]

10 hours ago, Xris said:

Hi Günther,

I really enjoy the photos of your more and more detailed layout. The waterfall and the pond are really nice eyecatchers.

The dead ended road leading to the pond - with its center line markings - looks like a primary road, which does not make much sense. You could try to eliminate the road markings and probably create a turning area at the road's end. Another detail is about draining the pond: Where does the water leave the pool? A small weir and an overflow/outlet (into an invisible) underground duct could be a solution.

I hope, both suggestions might help to further the realistic impression of the scenery.

Christian

 

Hi Christian,

thanks for your kind feedback! It is nice to hear that you like my layout.

Yes the dead end is indeed an issue, and was also addressed already in a German speaking forum. But I already have a solution: the road will get shortened of about 8 to 10 studs and replaced by some green and a wider  pavement. The road itself becomes a precinct more or less like the one I did beside the town hall. Perhaps with some small green lane separation. Unfortunately there is no space for a turning area.

I consider the water leaves the pond in a hidden cave behind the waterfall. So the drainage of the pond is invisible without scuba diving ...

BR, Günther

[patje]

I enjoy such nice layout
There are always things that other people build
What you must say waauw ..... really beautiful
Congratulations

[tmctiger]

Hi @patje,

thanks for your kind feedback! It is nice to hear that you like my layout.

Yes you are right, you'll always find great things built (not only layouts) with Lego. I think this is the magic behind Lego.

BR,

Guenther

[bricksnator]

On 7/10/2017 at 2:37 PM, tmctiger said:

Hy Guys,

there is a new small update from my side. This time it is not a landscape/building update (but stay tuned for the next, I am currently ordering the parts for the waterfall and rock area) but a rolling stock.

It is my version of a monorail modification of the tram of the set 60097. I bought this already with the intention to modify it towards the monorail track system. It took me some time to figure out how to do it.

So here is the outcome (don't mind the tan and white slopes they will be replaced with gray ones):

I have also done some pictures to enable you on recreating my version of the tram (since I didn't found a decent How To). You can find mine here:

http://www.bricksafe.com/pages/tmctiger/mods/lego-60097-tram---monorail-modification-how-to

The next task regarding the monorail is: find a solution on how the track should go through the town ... there I currently have no plan, but I promise you, the monorail will come to my town ...

As always please leave me a comment what you like or dislike or what I could improve.

Thanks and BR, Guenther

P.s.: Brickshelf finally forced me to use another site. Suddenly it isn't possible anymore to upload a bunch of files with a zip-upload ... --> I am now using Bricksafe...

 

I'm a little late to this party but want to commend you on everything, especially the monorail conversion! It looks great on the old track. Hopefully you can get some nice lift to it.

Someday I'd like to do something similar with a monorail that hangs down below the track. No idea how, but figuring it out is half the fun.

[tmctiger]

Hi @bricksnator,

I am very glad that you like the conversion of the tram. The conversion though, was quite simple. It took me just an evening to figure it out. For me it nearly seemed that the designer had such a conversion in mind ...

I can strongly encourage you to do your own conversion - it is really fun, but a monorail with overhang below the tracks unfortunately wont work. The reason are the start/stop rails and the points.

BR, Guenther

[ElectroDiva]

12 hours ago, tmctiger said:

For me it nearly seemed that the designer had such a conversion in mind ...

 

I think it's too easy a conversion to just be a coincidence. I'd love to see this trend continue the next time (if there is a next time) we get a set with a tram.

 

I really enjoy seeing your layout updates by the way- it's an inspired use of the space you have available and really shows what is possible in a mid size layout.

 

 

Edited August 31, 2017 by ElectroDiva

[tmctiger]

Hi @ElectroDiva,

I am glad that you like my layout. Tanks for your kind words. It is indeed fun to figure out how to place and do stuff with limited space available, though sometimes quite time consuming ...

BR, Guenther

[tmctiger]

Hi Guys,

I am back with a small update on my WIP Layout.

I have done some minor changes and one major change.

The first minor change is the shortened road to the small pond. It looked quite odd when the road directly ends only 3 studs beside the water. I reduced the length of the street about 16 studs and fitted a small park/forrest area in the free spot so that the road did not end as close to the water as before:

The second minor change is related to the Model Town House 4954: as I showed earlier, I have moved the garage directly inside the house and therefore I had to shift some windows, which resulted in a misalignment btween the windows in the roof and the windows in the first floor. This is now corrected, I moved the windows in the roof also two studs to the left:

The third minor change, was the placement of the Ninjago City:

The area in front of the Ninjago City is reserved to the Old Fishing Store. The whole left area in this corner will become a water area and both, the Ninjago City and the Old Fishing Store, will be surrounded by water more or less.

The fourth minor change was the temporal placement of the Haunted House. It will stay at this spot more or less, but I am not sure about the exact alignment. I have also improved the stone wall with fence and entrance door, so that it now looks more weathered then before and it is now integrated in the building itself:

The main change to my previous update however was the creation of a small modern city train station with three platforms. This station will be the smaller one of two stations I planned for the layout (the main station will be placed on the lower level). As you can see, the station is quite strongly architectural linked to two train station released by Lego some time ago:

"Train Station" 7937
"Train Station" 60050

A major issue, when building the station, were the switches in the station area. I had to narrow the platform there, to make it possible for trains who need a extremely wide clearance to travel to all switch directions.

Last but not least, I have also created a new update video, where I explain the layout in detail, give some insights in my MOCs and MODs, show you some trains moving along the layout and at last I'll give you some outlook what I have planned for the layout in the future. Therefore the video is rather long:

If you would like to see the images shown in their original resolution, follow this link to my Bricksafe-Folder: click me.

As always, I would like to hear your comments, suggestions and critics about my layout.

BR,

Guenther

 

[Trekkie99]

   Wow! Looking good! The mountain side with waterfall looks fantastic! Can't wait for the next update. Thumbs up!

[tmctiger]

Hi @LegoMonorailFan,

thanks for your kind words!

Especially Interesting for you : I have started experimenting with my Tram-Monorail conversion I presented earlier. To be precise, with the track layout. Currently I still have some issues to solve, but I am confident to have some material to show off in the next major WIP update.

BR,

Guenther

[tmctiger]

Hi Guys,

quite some time has passed now since my last layout update, however today I have some news for you.

I managed to finalize all roads in the city, especially the right side on the upper level, I also filled the big gap in the rockwall behind the town house, and I created the two tunnel portals in the middle of the layout.  Unfortunatly I do not have good pictures, but I have done a video with some comments:

The next tasks are, finalizing the rock walls on the left side of the layout and building some surface above the tunnel portals  (this should create some space for a park or some smaller buildings) and finding a place for the new roller coaster (Wow what a great and MASSIVE set!), which could become quite "interesting" ...

As always, I would like to hear your comments, suggestions and critics about my layout.

BR,

Guenther

[Capparezza]

I wonder where that Roller Coaster will go... but I imagine there is still some place left on the left side Good work, Günther!

Regards, Chris

[tmctiger]

8 hours ago, Capparezza said:

I wonder where that Roller Coaster will go... but I imagine there is still some place left on the left side Good work, Günther!

Regards, Chris

Hi Chris,

yes your guess is quite correct , at least on plan I have in mind will extend the second level on the left side to gain some space for the roller coaster.

The second idea is, to build a whole amusementpark on the right side where I previously planned to build a cargo terminal ...

BR, Guenther

[Chiaroscuro]

Hi Guenther. Have to say your work is inspirational to me. Great job! I started to build a layout for me too (very tiny compared to yours). But something escape me and maybe you can help me with a doubt: your roads are Brick-based (as I am planning my city too) so they are at least a brick thick. So you have to elevated the buildings as well to compensate it. I can see that some AFOLs use brick based bases for terrain as well, I imagine that your buildings sit on top of them. But how they are secured in place, since the original baseplates from the sets don’t have anti-studs on their bottom to grip on the base? 

[tmctiger]

Hi @Chiaroscuro,

first of all many thanks for your kind feedback, and I'm glad that my layout inspired you!

Yes you are right, the streets are one (layed) brick thick, the streets rests freely on the studless parts of an original Lego street base plate. The buildings rest on 2 2x2 plates stacked. If you lay a baseplate on the 2 2x2 stacked plates, this evaluates to exactly on brick high. But its rather difficult to describe it by words, so let me show you some pictures how I did it:

First of all this is how I secured the Buildings in place:

As you can see, laying a baseplate on two plates just evaluates perfectly to the height of one brick.

LLD Renderings (if you would like to have the LLD file, just let me know, but since I am currently not at home I can send you file earliest Monday next week).

Some real pictures during the construction.

I hope this will clarify how I made the streets and will help you to build your own. If you need additional infos don't hesitate to ask me.

BR, Guenther

[Chiaroscuro]

3 hours ago, tmctiger said:

Hi @Chiaroscuro,

first of all many thanks for your kind feedback, and I'm glad that my layout inspired you!

Yes you are right, the streets are one (layed) brick thick, the streets rests freely on the studless parts of an original Lego street base plate. The buildings rest on 2 2x2 plates stacked. If you lay a baseplate on the 2 2x2 stacked plates, this evaluates to exactly on brick high. But its rather difficult to describe it by words, so let me show you some pictures how I did it:

First of all this is how I secured the Buildings in place:

As you can see, laying a baseplate on two plates just evaluates perfectly to the height of one brick.

LLD Renderings (if you would like to have the LLD file, just let me know, but since I am currently not at home I can send you file earliest Monday next week).

Some real pictures during the construction.

I hope this will clarify how I made the streets and will help you to build your own. If you need additional infos don't hesitate to ask me.

BR, Guenther

Thanks for the very fast answer, Guenther!

I am quite a newbie on Lego (came from my dark ages in 2016) but the aspect of building a miniature city always apealed to me. Now I reserved a space to do so, but I have a lot of planning to do. Your layout inspired me to add trains to it (got the 2015 ones) but surely I will have to be pleased with a small less complex one.

Thanks for sharing your technics, I it always nice to learn something new. The way you make a “sandwich” of the baseplate between 2x2 plates is really clever. However the 2x2 plate that goes on top of the baseplate would not be on the same level of the tiles applied to make the sidewalk?

I see now that your layout have a fixed “ground” made of baseplates where you place the modules with houses and buildings. At first I was trying to make everything modular, like in blocks of 32x32 studs. In that way I could change or transport the layout easily. The sandwich of tiles does not work very well in that scenario, since it will add a stud to each side, makings the module 34x34 (which will keep the buildings apart).

One solution would be to build the modular buildings on top of plate build bases (like 2 layers of 4 16x16 plates) but it seems counterproductive if you consider the official Creator modulars (even worse that they are already build on baseplates). Another solution is to just lay the modulars on top of the 2x2 plates, without securing it with another plate on top.

It is easier to make those 32x32 blocks for roads, but it seens very difficult (if not impossible) to achieve when you add train tracks to the layout.

At the beginning of my project I was considering using road baseplates but soon at the planning stage it becames clear that they take too mauch space and are not flexible enough for a bigger layout. So I began to plan a brick based road plan. Most of the designs I found are made of bricks place sideways (studs on the side) secured by normal brick based borders. I am not sure it will fit my ideas anymore, since I was toying with the idea of mixing roads and train tracks side by side ate the same plate (so I can have a city tran running through the city streets). That seens easy to do with straights, but track curves seems a difficult mix. I may have to build tile based roads to achieve that.

As you can see, I am just at the beginning of my project, years of work ahead (just trying to be sure I may not face a dead end in the middle of it).

 

[Vilhelm22]

On 5/29/2018 at 2:52 PM, tmctiger said:

yes your guess is quite correct , at least on plan I have in mind will extend the second level on the left side to gain some space for the roller coaster.

The second idea is, to build a whole amusementpark on the right side where I previously planned to build a cargo terminal ...

Please keep the cargo terminal!  They're always one of my favourite parts!

[tmctiger]

17 hours ago, Chiaroscuro said:

Thanks for the very fast answer, Guenther!

I am quite a newbie on Lego (came from my dark ages in 2016) but the aspect of building a miniature city always apealed to me. Now I reserved a space to do so, but I have a lot of planning to do. Your layout inspired me to add trains to it (got the 2015 ones) but surely I will have to be pleased with a small less complex one.

Thanks for sharing your technics, I it always nice to learn something new. The way you make a “sandwich” of the baseplate between 2x2 plates is really clever. However the 2x2 plate that goes on top of the baseplate would not be on the same level of the tiles applied to make the sidewalk?

I see now that your layout have a fixed “ground” made of baseplates where you place the modules with houses and buildings. At first I was trying to make everything modular, like in blocks of 32x32 studs. In that way I could change or transport the layout easily. The sandwich of tiles does not work very well in that scenario, since it will add a stud to each side, makings the module 34x34 (which will keep the buildings apart).

One solution would be to build the modular buildings on top of plate build bases (like 2 layers of 4 16x16 plates) but it seems counterproductive if you consider the official Creator modulars (even worse that they are already build on baseplates). Another solution is to just lay the modulars on top of the 2x2 plates, without securing it with another plate on top.

It is easier to make those 32x32 blocks for roads, but it seens very difficult (if not impossible) to achieve when you add train tracks to the layout.

At the beginning of my project I was considering using road baseplates but soon at the planning stage it becames clear that they take too mauch space and are not flexible enough for a bigger layout. So I began to plan a brick based road plan. Most of the designs I found are made of bricks place sideways (studs on the side) secured by normal brick based borders. I am not sure it will fit my ideas anymore, since I was toying with the idea of mixing roads and train tracks side by side ate the same plate (so I can have a city tran running through the city streets). That seens easy to do with straights, but track curves seems a difficult mix. I may have to build tile based roads to achieve that.

As you can see, I am just at the beginning of my project, years of work ahead (just trying to be sure I may not face a dead end in the middle of it).

 

Hi @Chiaroscuro,

I can only strongly encourage you to build a city, this is allot of fun, although also allot of work, but definitely worth it. If you plan to add a train, I'd like to point you to following software with which you can plan your train an road layout: BlueBrick. (if you have questions don't hesitate to ask, there are also some threads regarding this SW here on Eurobricks.)

The top 2x2 plate is in fact on the same level as the side walk tiles on a modular building (the side walk tiles at modular buildings are directly on the baseplate).

Quote

"Another solution is to just lay the modulars on top of the 2x2 plates, without securing it with another plate on top"

This is exactly the way I did it. I can very easily move the buildings around due to the fact that they are not fixed. They are currently held only by a frame (with is a always a multiple 32x16 studs) in place and are not really connected to the road itself. The only drawback of my solution is, that the street itself is not modular (at least in my layout, perhaps with some clever modification you can also get the streets modular ... but since my layout is planned as a permanent layout I don't really care about this issue.)

My roads are in fact exact as wide as the standard Lego ones, so you cant save any space with the driving lanes itself, the only space saving is done due to the fact that the modulars overlap with the road base plates (you can see this in my LDD renderings).

Quote

As you can see, I am just at the beginning of my project, years of work ahead (just trying to be sure I may not face a dead end in the middle of it).

Unfortunately you will end up in some dead ends (at least I did) and you have to reconsider some decisions you made along the construction of the layout. But I think this is part of the fun to build and run such a project. In my case, this is already my second layout, the first was such a dead end, and for the current version I have incorporated all lessons learned from the first layout. An I already found some issues in the new layout I'll change if I ever start a third one ...

2 hours ago, Vilhelm22 said:

Please keep the cargo terminal!  They're always one of my favourite parts!

Hi  @Vilhelm22,

currently I am working on a solution to put the amusement park some where else in the city, I hope I can post some results not too far in the future. So I hope I don't have to sacrifice the cargo terminal since I have some ideas for it by now.

BR, Guenther

[Bmr4life]

Thank you for sharing this build log. I have a similarly sized area in my basement and want to build a multilevel layout very similar to yours. I have a few trains and want them all to be able to run simultaneously, but I also have large structures like the roller coaster and disney castle that I want incorporated into the display. This type of multi level layout will allow me to do that.

[tmctiger]

Hello @Bmr4life,

I am glad that you like my thread and that you find it helpful - thanks! If you need additional information on specific things, don't hesitate to contact me (here in the thread or via PM)! I am glad when I can help.

Btw., I am also currently in the process of incorporating my Creator Roller Coaster into the layout. Thats quite difficult, since this thing is so damn huge! I plan to expand the middle level (beside the Diner) to get the space for the coaster - at least I hope the space is huge enough then.

And thre is also the Ninjago City Docks waiting - there I have to gather some free space beside the Ninjago City. Perhaps I'll find another spot for the Old Fishing Store and place the Docks then on the free space. I hope this works out.

BR, Guenther

[tmctiger]

Hi Guys,

it has been quite some time passed since my last WIP update, but I didn't find enough time over the sommer to work on the layout. However, I have some small updates and changes made to the Layout, and I have layed the foundation for further updates and additions ("sorted the available space").

The main change was the removal of the Old Fishing Store and the Ninjago City from their former place, since the Ninjago City will soon get company of the Ninjago City Docks - and that won't fit on the old spot. And I have also got the Statue of Liberty which will also hit the layout as a landmark.

I also have a gas station and the car dealership from 60097 waiting to find a spot on the layout. I used the oportunity now, and placed them on the free spot where the Old Fishing Store and the Ninjago City were placed before. For this I combinded all three buildings to one (I took some inspiration from a Harley-Davidson Dealer near me, who has the Mount Rushmore faces on his building). This now looks like this:

(The full resolution of the image can be found in my BrickSafe folder: click me!)

I have also made an update video, which also shows the solution on how I plan to place the Ninjago City, Ninjago Citiy Docks and Old Fishing Store again on the layout:

 

As always I'd like to read you comments on my layout. Please let me know what you like and what you do not like or what I can/should improve.

BR, Guenther

[antp]

I like that station+dealer building, good idea.

I'm curious to see that Ninjago corner.

[tmctiger]

Hi Guys,

over the holidays I managed to work on my city layout. I also got the Ninjago City Docks for Christmas, which I also already managed to put into my city.

As I showed in my last update, the Ninjago City was placed where now the gas station with car dealership is placed. So the Ninjago City has to be moved away from this position. But where to go now with the building, especially when it should get company from the even bigger Ninjago City Docks. Last time in the update video (WIP update 7) I already mentioned the expansion of the upper level to the far right side of the layout:

(Image with full resolution can be found here)

Through this increase of space, I gained some construction area with the slight downside of sending the train a little bit earlier into the tunnel as previously. But I can live with this circumstance – and therefore the free area was filled with the new “China Town” immediately:

(Image with full resolution can be found here)

The rather strange triangular shape of the building area forced me into placing the two sets (Ninjago City and Ninjago City Docks) behind each other and not side to side as intended by Lego. The only problem was, that in putting the two sets behind each other, a lot of the Ninjago city would be obstructed. So I found the following solution for it: I elevated the Ninjago City about 10 bricks and introduced a different level. I then blended the both sets into each other with a small rocky path from the lower level of Ninjago City Docks, to the upper level of the Docks and finally to the lower level of the Ninjago City.

(Image with full resolution can be found here)

(Image with full resolution can be found here)

(Image with full resolution can be found here)

For me it looks far better this way as when putting the sets on the same level side by side. What do you think about my solution?

Another nice side effect was that I also gained some space for the Old Fishing Store. I think it also fits quite well there, since it is now placed beside a “bigger” water area. The blue baseplates will become brick built water like Lego did in the City Docks set.

There is also another big improvement of the layout: I have started illuminating the buildings with preconfigured light kits from Brick Loot and Lightailing.

I for now torn more towards the solution of Brick Loot than the one of Lightailing. The overall quality was not the issue, both kits are similar in lighting and brick (most time both use genuine Lego bricks) quality. The two main issues against Lightailing are:

• The instructions: however Lightailing adds a printed instruction booklet (rather a downloadable PDF as Brick Loot does), this booklet is quite small and therefore are the images quite small and it can be difficult to figure out how to route the wires through the building. Brick Loot also adds supportive text to its instructions, making the installation of the lights quit easy.
• Lightailing deceided to put as many as possible LEDs on one wire which leads to a very difficult installation because lights of different stories of the building are on one wire. And there is even a bigger problem – regarding the Pet Shop: as you know, the Pet Shop is basically two separate 16x32 buildings which can be placed independently in a layout (as I did). Lightailing however, decided to put all story lighting (the main room lights) on ONE single wire for BOTH buildings! So you are forced to put the two Pet Shop buildings side by side or modify the lighting. I did the latter because I am familiar with soldering and this was no big deal for me. Overall the light segmentation is better within the Brick Loot light kits.

For now I have lit up four buildings: the Palace Cinema (Brick Loot light kit, animated light kit), Detectives Office (Lightailing light kit, animated light kit), Parisian Restaurant (Lightailing light kit) and the Pet Shop (Lightailing light kit).

In the following video you can see how this actually looks like (first half is dedicated to the “China Town”, the second half to the lighting):

For 2019 my tasks are now to complete “China Town”, to light up more city buildings and building and placing the new 2019 modular “Corner Garage” on the layout (for this I have already an idea, so stay tuned for a future update.

I hope you like my layout so far and as always, I’d like to hear some comments, thoughts and suggestions for improvement from you!

BR, Guenther

 

[antp]

I really like what you did with these three sets!

Very good idea to elevate the city and put that rocky path (I did something like that in a much more basic way to separate the Ninjago area from the rest, and I had to split the docks to save space).

Also, these rocks go very well near the fishing store. Good work... Waiting to see the final integration with water :)

Edited January 8, 2019 by antp