Category: City/Town

LEGO Town or City models

Modular 16×32 Buildings

These two buildings, both built on 16×32 stud baseplates, have been featured in many BayLTC displays over the past couple of years. They were built in a modular fashion so that floors can be mixed and matched if desired, and taken apart for more compact storage and transport.

Red BuildingBlue Building

The blue building has a removable module for the two upper floors, and another one for the roof. The red building has one removable module, consisting of the upper floor plus roof. The Blackburn Hotel was built according to the same standards.

The trouble with this modular design though is that the architectural style of the different buildings clashes too much; they would never be combined in real life.

These buildings have now been disassembled, largely because I feel that 16×32 is just too small of a footprint for a realistic building. I am now working on new buildings using a 32×32 or larger size footprint. I brought the works-in-progress for this project to the October BayLUG meeting.

Click one of the big pictures to go to the set page on Flickr, or view a slideshow of the photos.

Blackburn Hotel

The Blackburn Hotel is a building that I have displayed may times as a part of the Bay Area LEGO Train Club layouts at train shows and meetings, but never blogged about.

Blackburn Hotel

It is one of several 16×32 footprint downtown buildings which I created for the layout one time a few years ago when I heard that several of the members who usually bring buildings to train shows weren’t going to be participating in one of the shows, and we desperately needed downtown buildings.

The building is five stories tall, built mostly using black bricks with tan trim and red windows. The unique feature of the hotel is the signs: a rooftop “BLACKBURN HOTEL” sign and a vertical sign that says “HOTEL” which is intended to be placed at a street corner, but can be rotated 45 degrees to be used for a mid-block placement.

The name was suggested by my wife. Partly it is due to the color, and partly due to the fact that I was watching an English Premier League football (soccer) match on TV as I was building it featuring Blackburn Rovers (I support any team that has American players, and Blackburn have an American goalkeeper, Brad Friedl, as well as the New Zealander Ryan Nelson who used to play in Major League Soccer).

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.

February 24, 2002: Lunar Tour Vehicle

February 24, 2002: Lunar Tour Vehicle

Part bus, part spacecraft, this vessell meets up with the Passenger Transport in Earth orbit and ferries them to the moon, where they can spend a week visiting the Apollo landing zones and other historical and natural wonders.

Its rockets pivot aft for flight, and downward for takeoff and landing. Inside are all the luxuries a traveler could want, plus facilities for the crew. A generous galley and head are included.

This uses the Docking System I devised for spacecraft.

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or click on an individual photo. Or, you can view a slideshow of the photos.
engines-downengines-aftbottombottom-wheels-turnedcraterscraters-closeupcraters-closeup-2wheel-suspensionrearcockpit-opencockpitunder-cockpit-lounge-1under-cockpit-lounge-2under-cockpit-lounge-3under-cockpit-lounge-4Waiting for my dinner.main-roof-openmain-roof-undermain-cabinstateroom-greystateroom-redstateroom-bluewatching-tvwatching-tv-2crew-quarters-roof-opencrew-quarterscaptains-cabinbunkroomcrew-headcrew-quarters-removedgalleyheadairlock-closedairlock-openairlock-outside-open

January 15, 2002: LEGOLAND Café

This little café showed off some rare printed bricks and was good at filling small spaces on the BayLTC layouts.

January 15, 2002: LEGOLAND Café

This simple café kiosk has an espresso machine and cash register, and two tables to enjoy your coffee at.

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.

January 13, 2002: Bus Station

This building was one of my first contributions to the BayLTC train layout, and the first one that I posted pictures of online.

January 13, 2002: Bus Station

This bus station has a waiting room and two lanes for buses to stop. There is also a traffic signal and cellular telephone relay tower included.

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or click on an individual photo. Or, you can view a slideshow of the photos.
Bus StationArchesDrivewayTopTop (open)LandscapingTraffic LightWaiting RoomCell Tower

Little House Instructions

Recently I posted about some little houses that I had built for the BayLTC train shows. The photos for that are on Flickr, but I wanted to also publish them on Brickshelf which I now have done.

In addition, you can find LDraw instructions for each of the three houses should you be interested in building them yourself. Here are direct links to the building instructions:

Each one is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License so you are basically free to do whatever you want with it as long as you give me credit. Enjoy!