brickgrrl

Sounds like fun, but maybe you could allow use of either the old or new set inventory?

This is lovely! My first thought was: Ugh, sand blue. That's gorgeous, but totally unaffordable. Then I looked at what I'd actually need (especially if I didn't care about the stripes on the sides), and it is actually quite affordable. You got a lot of color out of not very many bricks! Are you selling directions? :)

Nacho, both Bricklink and Brickowl will let you pull up set inventories, which can be very helpful if you have some of the color and want to know what it is called. Good luck! Watch out - Bricklink doesn't use the colors Lego does, which makes ordering from Bricks and Pieces treacherous sometimes!

Kivi, Sorry to bump this old thread. I've looked at your gorgeous roads, and they're almost exactly what I'm trying to do (with train track recessed in SNOT roads), but I cannot for the life of me figure out how you made the transition from road to track without a half plate offset. Any hints? What part am I missing here? I've got a huge pile of brackets and snot bricks and technic, and cannot work it out!

The dark red building's facade is kristel's, from her free instructions, with minor modifications, as built by the 8 yo KFOL -- it's actually on my to-do list for more modifications - I think I want the stories one brick shorter, and the door assembly is flimsy - not sure if that's the KFOL's error or the original directions. But yeah, it's a real looker, isn't it? I'm working on collecting enough bricks in nougat (?) to give it a neighbor. Edited to add: here's the link to kristel's directions: http://modularsbykristel.com/downloads-modular-buildings/ - you'll see that we swapped in white for the solid color sides.

Sure! There were once stairs that came up the back, but in order to fit it on the shelf (those modulars are only 16 studs + 8 studs of sidewalk, not the usual 32 total), I removed the stairs that accessed the first level deck, so there'll be no photo of the back today. :)

Sure thing! It's nowhere as structurally sound as the great designs you and sin and others came up with on http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=92307&hl= and there's definitely evidence of use of table scrap and cheapest-available, but it works, and it's sturdy enough for my two year old to stand on the table and whack at it. The modulars are on plates (not base plates) with some small added plates underneath the main plate(s) to cause them to sit snugly in their spots, with a couple studs to keep the corners from curving up. The substructure felt really flimsy going together, and then I got enough assembled that it was no longer flimsy, and it really isn't going anywhere. Eventually, I'd like to replace the girders in front with arches (as you can sort of make out in the first photo). And I want to make the subway station worth looking at. This is my inspiration: http://www.byggbiten.net/?p=1221 , although my platform will have to be narrower due to the need to fit between two tracks.

Please forgive the extreme WIP nature of this post. If I wait until it is "done" to share, I'll never get there. Here (if my attempt to link works) is my progess so far on a town on two (back to back) shelves. I have 16 inches on one side, 12 on the other, plus the depth of the wall. .... I think I'm eventually going to raise the buildings over the track on both shelves -- unless I'm going to narrow the backs of the bigger modulars, 16 inches isn't much space for a modular, street, and train track, even if I set it up for street running. But oh my, the bricks. What you see on the one elevated side is not nearly as finished as I want it!

I'll have to try the hairdryer. Both of mine are hanging open.

What a great MOC! Did you consider using the windows with the rounded tops? Seems like it would get you slightly closer to the original...

I've definitely thought about it. If you watch a child playing with a modular, the fact that it has to sit in multiple parts on the floor (instead of staying put where it is) is rather odd... Of course, even better than open back would be hinged back. Know I've seen photos. Haven't done it, tho!

I don't think you hijacked it at all! :)

This is great stuff. Wish I had room for the smoother turn. I got 64x36 (not a typo) for a straight section assembled this morning. I'm using multiple layers of 2x plates as I don't have much technic, but I was pretty happy with apparent stability. Photo soon! I'm not going to modularize the lower portion, although it is a great, very elegant idea. But I don't need the ability to move it easily, and it reduces the part count a lot. My removable modular buildings on the narrow shelf are going to be 24 studs deep. 16 for the building and 8 for the sidewalk in front. And then the road and small median at the edge are permanently attached to the train base.

Here's my space: The narrower shelf is only 12 inches (37 studs), so I definitely need a subway if I'm going to fit buildings, too. Still haven't decided on the wider side yet, which is about 52 studs deep.

Wow. I went to bed, and look what happened here! Time to dig through my bricks and see if I can get some of this into bricks -- will certainly need some ordering but I might have enough for a test module. I laid in a pile of 2x16 plates when I was buying girders, but I don't have much in 1x16 bricks, technic or otherwise. Hmm. In case others thinking about it adopt W's suggested turn: I don't think there's actually enough clearance -- some of the trains swing really wide. I have a 7 year old who might actually enjoy testing train turning requirements. We will report back once the sun is up here in Virginia. Not like we are going anywhere today anyway!

Sin - thanks! I think I'm going to try something like that, although I'm going to try to get the edges of the plates resting on tiles, rather than in the air. (Buildings are heavy, after all!) I think I'll also add some smaller plates (probably really just 1xwhatever framing) onto the bottoms of the 16x16s, so that it is easier to get them aligned properly with the couple of studs they're supposed to grab, by sort of plugging them into the sockets, if that makes any sense at all... Wodanis - yes, I'm going to run subway through between the girders. Curves are indeed uglier (although not so bad as I'd originally feared). Sin's design is comfortably wide enough for all of the trains I've tried (EN, Yellow Cargo, Maersk) on straights, although it's a couple bricks short of being tall enough, as Sin notes.

Thanks for the link, Andy D. I'm actually not wanting something that pins modules together horizontally, as I want to be able to pull out one building, without needing to unhook it from the modules on either side of it and the road in front of it (since that would necessitate sliding a large street scene along the shelf to make room to clear the pins... I think I need something more like the way floors stack together -- mostly gravity, with a few studs and sometimes with plates sitting inside the lower level to keep it from sliding... Clearly I need a picture...

Hi everyone! I'm working on building a city with a subway train track at shelf level, with then a city (composed mostly of modulars) above it, held up (mostly) by the 2x2x10 girder pieces (with some added 2x2s or 2x4s to get it up to the 13 brick clearance my trains need...) I've decided I don't want to try to suspend baseplates since the lack of attachment points on the bottom seems like too much headache, so I'm grafting buildings onto 8x16 and 16x16 plates. Here's my problem: I'd like to be able to take individual buildings down off the shelf for re-working/modification/play or to rearrange the buildings sometimes as I add to my building collection. The buildings are modular, so lifting down upper floors is not a problem, but I actually want to be able to pull down the ground floors, too (probably with some associated sidewalk, since building depth varies somewhat). So, it seems like I need a system where the ground floors are sitting on some sort of support frame, but only gripping on a couple studs? And I guess I wouldn't use the pins between buildings, since otherwise I'd have to basically pick them all up at once? Has anyone come up with something like this? Any photos or feedback? Thanks!

Heehee. Sorry to make trouble for you! If you have drywall walls, it's a very easy thing to do. For anyone curious about dimensions, the shelves are 16 inches (51 studs) deep on one side, 12 inches (40 studs) on the other (which, with the ~4 inches (13 studs) through the wall is enough to turn a train on normal radius curves). And 8 feet (9 1/2 baseplates) long. I have too many modulars for one side, but not yet quite enough for two. What exactly to do around the tunnel entrances is still a bit of a question. Suggestions welcome. The holes are 5 inches (16 studs) wide. Can't turn the EN or Maersk in much less than that.

Yeah, I was trying to keep the hole size to a minimum. Every train we have (including Emerald Night and Maersk) can clear it, although the cargo train shown does need the power pickup tilted slightly.

So, time for an update! We finally got the shelves up and holes cut. Getting out and assembling the Lego hasn't happened yet, alas, but I wanted to show you my new setup, since I'm super excited about it. (And may I just say, my husband rocks.) Here's the work-in-progress action shot (borrowing the resident KFOL's train)...

Oh my word! Those white windows are going for HOW much? (I've got a MOC worth more than I thought, I guess...) But I've got to ask - unless you're an absolute purist, what is wrong with this item as a substitute? It's just a mold variant, right?

Bamos, I'm not following you? What exactly are you suggesting?

Eurotrash, I thought about that and have seen subterranean trains done really well, but (1) I'm so far from having the bricks that it isn't funny and (2) I'm having a hard time imagining the EN running in a subway tunnel. :)

It's a load-bearing wall. Can't make a big pass-through without putting in a header above the removed studs, so nope, can't do that. :)