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WesternOutlaw

Terrible Train Town Tragedy

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A True Account of a Terrible Train Town Tragedy:

Tonight, I had a burning desire to extend my Train Town by adding a second layer of track for a City Metro or other high-rise train. I had done this once before, several years ago, and faintly remembered how I had done so. To make sure I was on track, I began searching my computer media for pictures of the display, but couln't find one that provided the details of the two-tracked table.

I eagerly started by disassembling my quaint little town that I just couln't leave well enough alone.

Frustrated after several attempts to add a second level of track raised 14 bricks high, the mishaps began...

The first unfortunate event occured when I attempted to pick up my new Lego farm set, and it collapsed in my hand landing on one of my most favorite new pieces, a black and white cow. A minor scuff to the head did not de-rail my efforts.

As I was getting close to completion, I backed up to look at my achievement, stepping on my World City Train Station. After reassembly, which wasn't too bad, I picked the set up to drop it on the floor completely shattering it to pieces (even on carpet).

Well, I ran out of space for part of my Train Level Crossing (recently reviewed), and couldn't find any space at all for the Train Engine Shed. I had to separate the farm and various farm vehicles (mainly the large blue tractor), but did have some nice roadplate space for a few additional city vehicles.

My World City Train Station now serves the town as a cargo set far away from the track (due to placement of the raisers for the metro/raised-train, which I never got around to building).

The result is this poorly layed out Town/World City/Farm/High-Rise Train Town:

terribletown.jpg

Aside from the bridge, which I've always wanted to add to a train layout, I absolutely hate everything about this terrible town.

Tomorrow evening, I plan to disassemble and build my original Country Town Scene once again.

Share your thoughts and disappointments with Terrible Town Tragedies.

EDIT: Also note the proximity of the 2nd floor restaurant to the metro track. The chef is about three inches from the track. Do you think that he should charge extra for the train-side table?

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I don't have enough room to make a city like your one, so I'm not really concerned^^ but I think that you must start by putting less road, see your two roads, they're so close from each others that you just can't put anything in the middle! ( plus the metro pillars stands on it) maybe just one road is enough^^

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Well, at least we know the food in the World City train station will be piping hot and fresh, since the Farm is dispensing it straight to the shop from behind! :grin:

The main thing is you have good documentary evidence of what your Town looked like before the disaster (ie photos) so you can always recreate it :wink:

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I just think you need 1 or 2 boxes of standard bricks to make some more buildings. Any way to get the rail off the roads?

Grey baseplates make towns look alot better so perhaps a visit to Ebay some day?

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but I think that you must start by putting less road, see your two roads, they're so close from each others that you just can't put anything in the middle! ( plus the metro pillars stands on it) maybe just one road is enough^^

But it's all about roads. Roads add fun and excitement to the town, and a place for you to "swoosh" the vehicles. Less roads... Actually, I agree with you a bit here. I wanted to cover every square inch of the table with road plates and/or green grass plates (for that country look), but it is a bit busy. I will be removing a number of these plates (some of which I opened new just for this crappy town. BTW: you can always go buy a few inexpensive boards for the floor and build a Floorville (if you don't have space for a Tabletown).

Well, at least we know the food in the World City train station will be piping hot and fresh, since the Farm is dispensing it straight to the shop from behind! :grin:

:angry: Thanks for pointing that out. Another reason I don't like this town. Piping hot just until the draft of the train a few inches away blows it cool. :laugh:

The main thing is you have good documentary evidence of what your Town looked like before the disaster (ie photos) so you can always recreate it :wink:

Sure, like I would have taken a few quick seconds to take a photo... That would have been way too easy. No, actually I have a few. It won't be too hard.

Grey baseplates make towns look alot better so perhaps a visit to Ebay some day?

Believe me, I've got a stack of the old grey baseplates. I've been collecting Lego since the late 70s. I actually like the green better. As a ghost town builder, I like a little color, esp. with green baseplates and lots of trees. This is not a good example though, but I wanted more a classic country town vs. a "big city" look. I suppose I can't have everything.

EDIT: I like the bridge.

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BLOGGED!

Noooo, I'm kidding. :laugh:

Wow, that's a mess, but made up of lovely individual pieces. It's like an explosion in an art gallery. *huh*

Please update us when the public works department gets that straightened out and we can safely return to the city. :laugh:

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Yikes! *oh2*

Really, it's not horrible. Although I've overdone the crashy smashy thing while trying to re-arrange/sort. It often goes something like this: Should I take that Harry Potter Castle down? I know I'll farm it form parts the next time I make a modular city building. Should I just avoid the inevitable and take it down now? Ah, I should just continue with the re-arrangement and take it apart later. Who has the time to sort it now. Now where did I put the bley plate tub? That's weird. I thought it was right here. Why did I hide it on myself? How do I always misplace things? What did I just step on? Oh, the Harry Potter Castle. Great, now I have to sort it. Where's that bley plate tub?

Here is my suggestion for your town. Let me start by saying it looks great and I really appreciate the dedication to the Classic Town feel. That being said, for that bridge to work the town needs to be on two levels. If it was just a raised rail the bridge pieces from the transport truck wouldn't appear there. They would appear when a regular track goes over a road or a river or something in a lower level gully. So, either a. invest in some green PaB and build your entire layout up a level to provide a gorge for the train to go over, or b. build a table with a trench or build some boxes to raise things up one level to position for a gorge. Think I'm crazy? Well let the seed plant itself in your brain and see how far it takes you. :wink:

Secondly, as previously mentioned, the pillars for the elevated train are on the road. That would make it difficult for people to drive on. And as my favorite example of why the classic 4-wide vehicles are unfair to minifigs-imagine poor Bill driving Mary to the hospital when she's ready to deliver her baby. Not only does she have to ride on the roof, now Bill has to dodge these columns. So, two things for the elevated train to work. a. Plan it out first. Draw a map for the way you want the Town to layout before you start putting it together. b. Check out some pics of real elevated trains to get an idea of how they work in with a City landscape.

So, lastly I will warn you that you're opening up a door to spend some money on this. Once you start getting this ambitious, if you let your ideas form into reality, it starts to cost. There are ways to keep it down, for sure-but I envision you browsing Bricklink this weekend. :grin:

Can't wait to see the project progress and future tragedies, comedies and accomplishments.

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imagine poor Bill driving Mary to the hospital when she's ready to deliver her baby. Not only does she have to ride on the roof, now Bill has to dodge these columns.

Mary is having a baby? Um... I wasn't even in town that week. Whatever week it was. :look:

You might have been in town, but that doesn't help either. :grin:

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The worst thing that's ever happened to my town is probably when I dropped a Imperial Star Destroyer on my farm, catapulting a cow through the half-built and very weak window of my new restaurant, causing untold havoc and destruction inside as my carefully placed tables and ornaments all collapsed simultaneously.

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-imagine poor Bill driving Mary to the hospital when she's ready to deliver her baby. Not only does she have to ride on the roof, now Bill has to dodge these columns.

And I thought I was just building a simple Lego Town... all these things to consider. :cry_sad::laugh: I suppose I have to consider adding a hospital for delivery now. :hmpf:

I wasn't even in town that week. Whatever week it was.

Sure! - but your yellow Postal Delivery Truck driver was there. :grin:

The worst thing that's ever happened to my town is probably when I dropped a Imperial Star Destroyer on my farm, catapulting a cow through the half-built and very weak window of my new restaurant

Reminds me of cow flinging - oh, that's Castle. :laugh:

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you can always go buy a few inexpensive boards for the floor and build a Floorville (if you don't have space for a Tabletown).

there is only one room in my apartment, and I live with my girlfriend, who makes cosplays , so I have a square of 2m x2m to store and moc( she have approximately the same space, if you add these two space you have approximately 10m² , wich is the third of my apartment^^ ) if I put a little town in it, I'll never be able to do anything else than this, and I'll have to jump over it to go to bed! ^^ so that's sadly really not possible, when I'll get a job and move on a bigger apartment ( I want a bedroom! ... to store legos! ) I'll surely make one, but Pirate themed!

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Really, it's not horrible... for that bridge to work the town needs to be on two levels.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with Hinkley on this one. :wink: "A brief hierarchy of disasters". All examples are mine, except for #1 which I saw online.

1) Tragedy: House sitters kid decide to have a large scale war on your layout while you are on vacation.

2) Minor Trajedy: Dog scampers through, large Pirate Ship MOC and chews a few minifigs in to unrecognizability

3) Severe Annoyance: Destruction of trains station and farm

4) Annoyance: Town layout is deemed unpleasing

That said, I feel your pain. A couple of time's I've spent serious time on layouts or MOC's and the results were just "meh". It stinks. The key is to keep it in perspective. Try to think of this trajedy as just one step on the way to the fantastic layout that it will become! :classic:

However, I congratulate you on your efforts to add new level to your layout. One way to add some elevation fairly cheaply is to build a raised section supported by duplo. You already stated that you have plenty of baseplates, and Duplo is often available used for not much $. The clifftop section of my layout is supported this way, and it saves a TON of brick.

Keep up the good work, the best is yet to come!

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And I thought I was just building a simple Lego Town... all these things to consider. :cry_sad::laugh: I suppose I have to consider adding a hospital for delivery now. :hmpf:

Well, duh.

... I live with my girlfriend, who makes cosplays ,

makes what? *huh*

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makes what? *huh*

I think that besides trying to make us jealous, Guss was pointing out that in a 1 room apartment, space for sewing costumes for Cosplay takes up a considerable amount of space that would otherwise be used for LEGO.

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i dont quite understand whats wrong, beside the scuff on our cow :look:

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Well, I'm back on track with my old town...

terrifictown.jpg

What I've learned is that sometimes less is better. By eliminating many of the roadplates as well as that 2nd layer of track, I was able to add the buildings that I had in a manner that works (Farm on one side, World City on the other), plus a switch track with shunting yard. Now I've got to break out some of my 9V rolling stock to fill it in.

This is the first time I've gone back to a previous layout.

I received my new train station, so I plan to swap it with the futuristic World City station.

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I'm just jealous that you have a table town. Like Guss, my place is too small and while I live alone, I have incredible amounts of stuff (shoes, clothes, books, etc) and I have no room for a sizeable town. I do really like the bridge as well and it saddens me a bit that you've gotten rid of it. When I lived in Mississippi, there was a bridge like that over a river and I almost had a couple of wrecks staring at it. It wasn't in a good place in your town and the columns were blocking Mary from having the child at a proper hospital, but since you don't have one, I guess that part was ok too. Eventually, I will be able to have a table town and I hope mine is half as good as your "Terrible Train Town Tragedy". :classic:

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that's way better like this, Even if there's a road under the train tracks! ( Yes I know I'm boring ^^ )

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It looks much better now. Even though I like the thought of raised tracks I don't understand how the people would get on or off the train :tongue: I think it's pretty funny that you don't have a hospital though because I don't have a fire station or a police station and my hospital has 1 bed :tongue: Though I don't have the same problems as the people who don't have space. I have 3 dining room sized tables in my town a piano I build on top of an old clothing chest a desk and a lego table :classic:

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"Hey there. I heard you just got a new job!"

"Thats right! Its the best in the world!"

"What is that?"

"I am a Metro Link driver."

"Where at?"

"On the 2nd Level Railroad."

"Wait, isnt that the one that runs right over McGullen's Farm and Old Town?"

"Yep"

"and isn't it true that the pillars that support the track are planted right in the middle of the street?"

"Yep"

"AND I have heard that the Chef at the Train Station keeps complaining about the rumble of the Metro as it passes by?"

"Yep"

"So...what DO you do anyways?"

"Well, first the people have to climb onto the roof of one of the Old Town buildings, then they have to wait on the bridge. We didn't have enough room for a station platform on the 2nd Level, so we used the bridge instead."

"How much is admission"

"Well, the admission is $100"

"WHAT!?!?"

"Yea. The only currency we have are $100 bills. Everyone keeps on losing their coins when it drops onto the carpet and the vaccuum cleaner comes by."

"Ok, so after the people pay their money, where do they go?"

"Well, seing this is a small continent, and the only stop is the bridge, they get on board the train, take their seats, drive them around a couple of times, then drop them back off at the bridge again"

"..."

"They like it..."

"So all those heavy taxes put upon the citizens were to build that Metro that just takes people around in circles?"

"Yep"

"You know what, forget it, I'm backing my bags and moving to LEGOLAND. I heard the land value is really high at the moment..."

"You mean your leaving?"

"Yes"

"Don't leave me! I'm the only pale skinned minifigure around here! People will think I am weird!"

"Sorry, but I am moving! Besides, did you read BRICK-JOURNAL Yet? They said that some of the best women are headding to the LEGOLAND beaches to catch some sun. I cant miss this!"

*huh*

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