PastVPresent

I really like that roof and chimney, nice work!

Looks geat, love those warehouses!

This is an excellent complement to the DO, the signage looks great, I really like the open back idea to save bricks and provide access, and all the minifig facial hair really helps make this feel like the hipster neighborhood-vibe you were going for, great work!

This looks great - feels very realistic and with the decals added and the modulars in the background!

Great work fitting so much into the space - I really like the elevated track with the vintage sets in the middle

Thanks everyone - I'll post an update if I end up lowering the height or adding stickers, much appreciated!

Thanks all for the great comments! Not sure how many pieces I used (didn't do LDD and ended up having to make a few inefficient BrickLink orders...) Definitely understand the comments on door and overall height and had similar concerns. Basically the size of the windows (the transparent panels, not the train windows in the doors) led me to some compromises. I thought those window panels should start one plate below the top of the doors (easy to see in the pic dr_spock added, thank you) so when i moved the doors down a plate the window panels started to get too close to the bottom of the train when they started two plates below the roof - same problem when I made the whole train a couple plates lower - the window panels started to look too big/too close to bottom. I guess what I could do is use a different part (not sure what) and/or a SNOT technique for those windows to make them less than three bricks tall and avoid all these issues (and to hide the bottom studs). Thanks very much zephyr1934 - I spent a ton of time trying to get the front right and I was thinking about a few more cars (although the required cost and time would definitely get me in trouble at home...)

My first Lego train MOC, a New York City Subway car: This is based on the NYC MTA's R142 (Original: http://www.imagesreplicas.com/R142-B%20NL.jpg). Im new to Lego trains so please feel free to comment/advise/question. I spent a ton of time trying to get angles on front right and am pretty happy with how this turned out but still need to find some stickers as a finishing touch I think. I designed this myself and then noticed New Brick City had done a similar NYC subway car before so I did use some of that design for inspiration on the bottom half of the car. Bogies etc were toughest for me and Im still thinking about trying to build custom ones that fit and look better. Anyway, enjoy and thanks for looking!

Any hope the metroliner reboot on elevated tracks (https://www.flickr.com/photos/legolago/16322420238/in/photostream/) will become an official set? It looks great!

Nice work ADGonline - looks like a cool modern Ferrari storefront! Do you have photos from the front (other angles)?

I think lego city has been officially out-citied by friends. The grand hotel, with some mods, would probably look better in my layout than the new city square. Plus it has great new parts for building Mocs and a pretty cool cab and piano. Still, I could see buying certain portions of city square on eBay once people start splitting it up

Feels like a slightly modernized version of the 8404 blue tram to me - maybe the sides fold up to open on this one though? Looks like we're seeing other parts of the set/box art in the background too?

Great work, cogahilla! I always enjoy seeing modulars that represent "modern" design and I think yours does a nice job capturing the real life building's key design elements and materials. I couldnt help but check out the building on google street view and it looks like the street and neighborhood is full of great looking "modern main street" style buildings that could provide inspiration for years of lego modular MOCs - if you do more, i would love to see them! Anyway, thanks for sharing cogahilla

Great to see this happening in real life! I think an elevated city/city with subway would be incredible but just haven't seen many out there so really look forward to seeing this one complete!

OTW, really interesting question - just did a little internet research and it sounds like a lot of these fire escapes were in fact add-ons (fire code-required retrofits to provide 2nd means of egress) El Garfio, thanks and great pic, thats the kind of building & neighborhood I was thinking of too seba123, thank you! The interiors still need work so I feel bad taking the thread too far off topic with them but I put a pic on my brickshelf (link: here) in case you just want to see the size of the mod floor area

Thanks for all the comments Off the wall, Dennan, VintageEraLego, and RogerSmith! Glad you like it but clearly I need to think about the fire escape a bit more. For what its worth, this is why I added it here: - I wanted this to feel realistic and all the old NYC buildings that this modular represents in my mind have front fire escapes, examples here - I also thought it had the secondary benefits of helping provide more of a visual break between the two buildings and it helped tie the mod back to the original design a bit Regarding the facade color, yes the back is still blue (didnt have enough brown bricks to change) - not really a problem for my display but maybe another thing to mod one day...

Thanks LT and Poisso3 - no mods inside yet but I'm continuing to mess with it, just threw on a fire escape:

I finally made some mods to my DO, please let me know what you think - I'm pretty excited: Quick background: I have all the recent modulars and have never felt the need to mod one. I really like the DO too but, weeks after building it, the Al's building still felt too narrow and blue for my street and I kept thinking about how good an earlier poster's photoshop of a wider and recolored Al's looked. I didnt have the room to go larger than 32x32 though and I didnt want to buy a 2nd set. So, with about $20 of Bricklink orders I came up with this. The biggest change (other than color and width) vs original is that I turned the alley into a lobby for the apartment building above Al's (so Al's door moved to the street side). Havent changed the interiors yet but the extra ~6x7 studs on each upper floor look like they'll provide plenty of room to do a proper apartment or two.

I really like this - it feels like a very rewarding modular to have built and all the real life-based spaces make it really nice!

Fair enough Off the Wall, I would love to see pictures of your expanded modulars, especially an expanded DO, if/when you have and are ready to share

I just finished building it and had the exact same though while building the ground floor - too many play features and too little "space." That said, I was very happy with the overall build and am really pleased with the finished product. Brickman's office had lots of interesting details and I really liked the creativity and parts use in some of the finishing-touch microbuilds (water tower and newspaper box). Now that my building is complete and in-place on my modular street, I think its small size and varied architecture is actually a plus because it does a nice job adding every day buildings that help visually "break up" some of the larger sets and make the street feel like a "real city." Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by this set and how it looks on the street so wanted to share the final installed pics in case anyone was interested:

My local store was packed yesterday too - for what its worth, some interesting anecdotal evidence and discussions there told me: - Part of the crowd (myself included) was driven to the store by the website problems and that may have made foot traffic higher than expected - Slave 1, DO, and Frozen Castle all seemed very popular - It looked like the DO was going to both AFOLs and a fair number of kids - They ran out of Slave 1 before DO

Finnbricker, nice LDD mods! I was sorry to see the small size of the official set because it seemed much harder to mod into modular scale than the previous Bike Shop and Cafe. Seeing your work shows that, with not much more than one set, a nice building can be designed - could be an affordable way to keep filling out the neighborhood. Regarding design feedback, the only thing I would say is that maybe the blue "hat" part isn't necessary. Thanks for sharing!

This is incredible! Too many details to compliment them all but I really like how the exterior is reminiscent of the classic town train station(s), your use of "glass" walls and roof(s), and the train station name and train design over the tunnels/platforms - very very impressive all-around!

Apologies if this is slightly off topic, but maybe this is how the water tower is built: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/132951