Legopolis (Update: Roller Coaster Scenery WIP)

[randomboy]

Hi everyone, 

Thanks to a lot of reorganizing of our place this past week, I gained a huge area for my Lego layout. I am absolutely stoked to finally have more space than I know what I can do with, it seems for the past 2 years collecting Lego I mostly have just run out of space continuously.

This is the space I have available now. My boyfriend is building an HO model train on the top and I have the shelf below for my Lego:

 

Here is my current sketch of the layout. The short side is roughly 13', the longest leg is over 22', the 2 shorter legs are both 18', so lots of space to work with. The middle leg is wider than the outer ones (this sketch is not accurate in that regard):

 

So far the only thing I have actually decided on is the placement of the fairground - on the middle leg because it is the widest so I can have the ferris wheel face either way. I also have a lot of boats/ships so I want to have the fairground potentially sit on a board walk overlooking the water. 

Buildings in orange are ones I have (missing the Simpsons kwik e mart), building in blue are ones I am going to buy in the foreseeable future. I own a lot of other smaller Lego sets like coast guard boats, smaller boats, campers, etc. I am probably going to incorporate a camp ground on the long leg. 

Challenges:

- There is a drop in height of the shelf between the longest leg and and the rest of the layout labeled 'height drop' - this can also be seen in one of the images above in the back. Sadly the shelf pictured above already existed in the garage and we weren't allowed to take it out/it would have been too much work, so we have to work with the height it's at. I am looking forward to figuring that one out. I'll attempt to build a road up to there somehow, worse comes to worse the road will run off the layout and the height drop will just be a pretty staircase for pedestrians. 

- The corners are very deep so it is not very convenient to be used for buildings. My plan is to build some really nice scenery, hopefully incorporating a water feature (river or waterfall or both), which I have always wanted to try and build

 

I am going to stop here for now. I am very excited to keep you all updated on my progress as I work on this layout. It'll take years to complete and my largest constraint is definitely money and time. 

Please let me know your thoughts! If you have suggestions on where to put buildings, how to tackle the height drop or any other comments, they are all welcome! Also if someone knows of a simple drawing program like this for Mac (old OS - 10.9.5) that would be fantastic (pay for is fine, I just want to stop having to use my work laptop for my hobby). 

Best, 

Randomboy

 

Edited March 22, 2019 by randomboy

[deraven]

Very exciting - congratulations!  Sounds like you've got a solid plan.  I like the idea of a fairgrounds + boardwalk and the nature areas in those deep corners.  Looking forward to seeing more as it develops!  

[carebear]

That's a lot of room!

Enjoy!

Greetings!

[randomboy]

Thank you for your comments! I worked out a few more detail over the weekend:

- Instead of a separate Star Wars area I am going to incorporate the few Star Wars sets I have into the Fairground and have it be Star Wars themed overall (perhaps MOC the Fairground sets to be more Star Wars themed in the future?)

- Train will run from end of the long leg onto a bridge above the left side into a tunnel. The train will be the Metroliner train that my boyfriend played with as a child. I will have to acquire a few pieces of track and some of the missing pieces he lost as a kid.

- I should have enough room on the bottom short leg to display all of my coast guard stuff (the little tower, the big and small helicopters) plus the Fishing Store

- Added a campground on the bottom short leg to have space for all the RVs and Campers I have. I will use the Beach House (4996) that remains one of the few complete sets I have from my childhood as the campground main house/reception, whatever you want to call it

 

 

Excited to start buying some parts I will need starting this week! 

[jimmynick]

Hi @randomboy, I'm glad you're able to double up on space to have both a LEGO layout and an HO gauge model railway. That's an awful lot of room you've got there, and I hope you use it well. I look forward to seeing MOC photos soon!

[randomboy]

Thank you jimmynick! 

I finally bit the $$$ bullet and purchased the 10261 Roller Coaster. I absolutely love the set: it is very large, has a good amount of scenery detail and is a lot of fun to play with. On one hand, the build itself was repetitive with all the stacking of 2x2 round bricks it requires, but on the other it was very interesting to learn how they made the structure so stable. 

First thing I thought when I finished the build it is that I need to fill the empty space in the middle of the coaster: 

So I took what scenery and plates I could find and came up with this: 

  

I didn't think ahead and didn't take into account the cross bar/brace that sits right above the ground in the middle so I had to do some rearranging and ended up with this: 

    

 

Planned improvements include adding some trees, shrubs, building stairs over the cross bar and adding scenery to the space under the roller coaster structure. 

[GeoBrick]

Good idea on filling in the center space.
Make a Jungle Roller Coaster out of it!  

[Calvinw]

This is a really good idea to use that open space.  Next time I build my Roller Coaster back up for display, I'm going to do something like this as well!