westracing01

Thank you! Give me some time and I'm sure I'll cook something up. There is a TV helicopter flying overhead. To my knowledge European tracks do not have Blimps. Trying to keep it somewhat realistic. gif hoster Thank you! Sure! Just remember this is the test bed I used to figure out how to do it. If you attach 1x2 end to end there is enough play in the tolerance to create bends that will hold together. The trick is getting the bend to blend to the straight or brick section. That part is tricky because you're only anchoring one end of the curve, the other is going to float between the bricks. The amount of arc you put in it can vary greatly and you can get a pretty tight radius without the plate snapping apart. The problem with that is it was hard for me to model it in cad properly because there's so much variation with what you can do. That's why I decided I will build the straights first then build the corners to suit. The ends of the straights will have to be built differently so the plate curve will be held snugly. gif hoster This is the example of how the plate curve will tie into the brick straight. The ends of the straights will have to be built 1 wide by 3 high where the third plate is actually a tile since the stud on a 1x1 brick is too tall. The other thing is the 1x2 plate curves bend better in one direction than the other, so you have to be careful if it's a tight radius and build from the inside of the corner out. gif hoster

This has been a work in progress for years. It started as just a race track on a 4x8 sheet of plywood in my parents basement 20 years ago.When I went away to college the track was torn down and stowed away. Fast forward 7 years and it was resurrected when my girlfriend and I moved to our then new to us condo that had a basement. Around this same time Cafe Corner and Market Street came out and I knew that they would be excellent additions to the race track. So I picked those up, torn down what I had, laid out something new and dialed up Bricklink for the things I didn't already have. This is roughly where we began. My original plan was a city oval with lights. This is a shot of the original front stretch grandstand that was an import from my original track from back in the day. Here we can see Cafe Corner, the Tower Crane, some vehicles (tow truck and safety truck) along with the big Ferrari Hauler. Here's an example of the runoff, the corner marshals, the Goodyear building and catch fencing. So, I don't seem to have any pictures of the middle between then and what I have now. Things were changed along the way as they always are, Green Grocer was added, the plywood was covered and it was just generally made to look like something more complete. At this point, if you haven't noticed, I want to say that this is not for a purist. I did cut some of the road plates to achieve the angles I wanted since building the track with 90 degree corners was realistic. It was also originally designed, and it still is designed, for 4 wide vehicles. The tow trucks and ambulances are 6 wide and the Ferrari Hauler is 8 wide but the rest was to be 4 stud. Now, on to the pics of where this currently resides... These are in no particular order... That's where we stand at the moment with the track. When these were taken it included all Modulars that had been released. I currently have Assembly Square sitting in the hall and of course the Downtown Diner just arrived. I do plan to include these, however, I have decided that the cars, vehicles and indeed the track itself no longer suit my vision, so changes are coming. For starters, the track will be disassembled and a new table built. After that, the track surface, pits and garages will be converted to brick built roads. The issue I always had with this were curves. Since I finally saw the Lego Monaco Hairpin model I took a Saturday and figured out how to build brick built corners. Armed with that, I sat down at work and designed the brick built straight away pieces along with new a new Indycar prototype. My favorite racing series is Indycar so it made sense to use that as the template. I also really loved early 90's F1 so the new car incorporates design elements of both of those. Pictures of the new car and brick built straightaway to follow. The corners I only have he test model I built but seeing as how I know the technique works, that will be an issue I tackle once the new track table is built. My thinking is to get the curves right I will first lay down all the straights and then build the corners to suit. Picture of the new Indycar Prototype. Picture of the new car on it's brick built road surface. The grand plan for this is a combination of what you see and the outer portion (through the woods) of the Linas-Monthelry Circuit in France. I'm not going to attempt to build the oval portion of that but, in my imagination, this city portion is built within the big oval and connects the two parts of the outer circuit. To do this, I will need much more space than a spare bedroom can offer and it will be a few years before it happens. The plan is to build a garage (in real life, I have other expensive hobbies) with a loft and the track will go in the loft portion. Until then, the new table will hopefully be built over the winter and the new brick built track constructed. Once that is complete, the cars, safety vehicles, ambulances, tow trucks, etc. will be converted to 6 stud width and the sand traps will be converted to all Lego. My plan is to a completely Lego track with the exception of the signage and the railroad grass where bricks won't be used. Anyway, there it is. Comment away and let me know what you think. I can take closer pictures of anything you might want to see better. I apologize for the blurry nature of some of them. Lighting is not great in this bedroom and my phones camera is probably dirty. Thank you for reading and looking!

Long time reader but just joined this morning. I have been building for years since I was a little kid with a, regretfully, fairly long break in the middle between then and now. A long history of technic builds but my current interest in the hobby lies with the Modular/Town/Speed Champions lines. I hope to put up a new thread in the not too distant future chronicling where my current build is and where it has come from and where I plan to take it. Anyway, hello all fellow Lego fans! I have gotten many great ideas from this site and I hope, perhaps some of my works will help out someone else.

I don't quite understand the discussion of worst modular. To me, it seems they all have a place. Of course some are better than others and each design is subjective based on the individuals taste. Taken as a whole though, the entire line paints a pretty good picture of what a town might look like. When I read, "such and such is the worst" I read that as the set isn't really worthy of inclusion in the line. The Modular Theme is going on 11 years. When Café Corner first came out I never dreamed that over a decade latter the Modular's would still be around. At this point, I will buy any new Modular that comes out. Having had the luck of starting with Café Corner when it came out I've gotten each one since. No reason to stop now.