This little red LEGO bungalow with dormer was built about a year ago. This small house appears often in BayLUG/BayLTC train layouts, in the suburbia section.
Click the image to view the set, or view as a slideshow.
Category: City/Town
LEGO Town or City models
White Trailers
LEGO Semi-Trailers made to go with my various tractors. Each one has a folding leg to support it when not connected to a truck, and all have the same interchangeable pin system for being towed.
Click the image for the gallery, or view the slideshow.
Cab-Over Trucks
Cab-over semitrailer tractors made in LEGO. Identical except for color, these trucks have been a fixture on the BayLUG/BayLTC city/train layout for years, but I never got around to photographing them.
Click the picture or view a slideshow.
Double Trailer Truck
A double semi-trailer truck made out of LEGO, featuring tractor, two trailers, and a dolly to connect the trailers together.
I built this a year or two ago and it’s been at a bunch of BayLUG/BayLTC events but has never been photographed and blogged before.
Click the photo to view the gallery on Flickr or view as a slideshow.
Mail Trucks
United States Postal Service trucks in LEGO. Designed by me in 2003, and featured on many BayLUG and BayLTC layouts since then.
I posted instructions to build this in 2007 on Brickshelf, but never posted any photos until now (except of course for the occasional candid shot in a club layout).
Click the photo to view the set on Flickr or view as a slideshow.
Fifth Wheel RV
I built this many years ago (2003 or so?) but never posted it online before. It’s been on many BayLUG and BayLTC displays, though. I’m still fairly happy with it, though it could surely be improved in a number of ways.
The trailer attaches via a Technic axle to a bracket in the truck bed, and is a “toy hauler” – it contains an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) for off road fun. It has two slide-outs, one in the bedroom in the front and another with a dinette in the center.
Click the picture to go to the gallery on Flickr, or view them as a slideshow.
Admin note: Over the span of the next few weeks I plan to post a bunch of older models online. After Maker Faire I brought all the boxes of models that have never been posted into the house, and am slowly working through them doing photo shoots and blog entries, and in some cases to make LDraw files for building instructions. So while the quality of construction might not be as good as stuff I would build today, they’re still models I like enough to show at train shows and events like Maker Faire. I hope you enjoy them.
Log Cabin 3X
I really like the relatively new LEGO Log Cabin set #5766 with its three different models of log cabins. I bought three of this set, and built each of the versions, and for a while had them setting on a table in my living room together. But as I was looking at them it seemed to me that they were just a bit too small, and that the parts from these sets could be combined to make a much bigger, nicer cabin. So I took them all apart and used the parts to make this:
Click on the picture, or view a slideshow to see all of the photos (including pictures of the cabin on display at Maker Faire last weekend).
Here’s a picture of the original set for comparison:
City Park
At train shows, we (the Bay Area LEGO Train Club) have developed a standard city block system, where our downtown area is divided up into blocks that are 2 by 3 32 x 32 baseplates in size (i.e., 96 x 64 studs). For some time now I’ve shown my Blackburn Hotel and its accompanying city block (but I have never done a proper photo shoot of those buildings either, I just realized) at various shows and conventions and you have probably seen that featured here a few times.
For Bricks by the Bay and the upcoming National Train Show in Sacramento, I’ve built a second city block. But instead of tall buildings, it just features a city park. Each of the six baseplates has its own feature:
- Tree and picnic/grassy area
- Playground with swingset, slide, merry-go-round, and carousel
- Life size (for minifigs) chess set
- Flower garden
- Basketball court
- Tennis court
In addition, there is a fountain in the center and various tile mosaics and other decorative aspects. The whole thing is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence with gates on each of the four sides.
I haven’t done a proper photo shoot of the park yet, but I did take detailed pictures of it at the most recent BayLUG meeting. I hope to take better pictures soon, but for now, take a look at these (click the image to view the set, or click here to view a slideshow)
BayLTC at San Jose train show
The Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC) just got done with a train show. For the past few years we’ve been participating in train shows over Thanksgiving weekend in Pleasanton, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, but this year the show was held in San Jose instead. We put together a large train layout as usual, but since several key members weren’t able to participate we had a little difficulty filling the space. Still, I think it was pretty successful over all.
Click the picture above or view it as a slideshow.
Big Yellow Taxi
I’ve built an iconic New York City yellow Checker taxi cab.
Throughout building this, the Joni Mitchell song has been running through my head…
Late last night I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi carried off my old man
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
As usual, click the image above to see all the pictures, or view them as a slideshow.