Brickfair 2011 Train Layout Planing

I'll post more on this after Brickworld but I wanted to get the ball rolling on planing for Brickfair 2011. The event is closing in faster than you might think so we need to nail down our size soon so we can let Todd know for planing purposes. So let's start hearing ideas. Also how did every one feel about our location in the center of the hall last year? Do we want to request that location again?

Cale

I liked being in the center of the hall and I enjoyed having a L-shaped layout. I would enjoy doing them again.

Other then my usual stuff I am working on a radioactive train wreck. It will consist of a side rail that runs the length of two tables, a wrecked train, radioactive spill, and clean up crew. I will probably need the help of the train guys to provide me with the wrecked train. I would like two desiel engines, some tanker cars, and a few misc other cars.

Other things that would be nice but not necessary, news reporters with vans or helicopters. Definatly police men blocking off the area. I have a few but the more the better. Even fire trucks as well.

Yes, being in the center of things was nice. Certainly called a lot of attention to our layout.

I'm fine with the L-layout again. We talked about making the downtown two tables deep this time. Would that still work?

I'm actually thinking doing something a bit different from the L shape of last year though I'm not sure yet what it may be. Possibly a main square with two separate legs extending from it.

Cale

Joel, I have tons of Police figures and cars (mostly standard kits) and some new ones I got in Seattle from the LEGO Store up here. Most have flesh heads (sorry I like them I know it's controversial). I stopped by the LEGO Store in Bellevue, WA since I'm in Seattle until tomorrow, I met Lino who runs the Flickr Group LUGNuts. They got me some pieces from the back of Flesh heads, and hands, etc and let me buy them. They're store is much smaller than the KoP Store.

Anyhoo if you want some Police (Flesh and/or Yellow) let me know. Also if you have a particular uniform style.

I also have the news Van set, and TV Crew people if you want to use them as well. We can meet up, and or meet at BrickFair I am attending.

I was thinking of doing a building on fire for the downtown so we could display some firemen and police figures. Bring some more action to that part of the layout. A train accident would be cool too.

Here are some photos of my Police & Fire Department.


Police Department by maarekstorm, on Flickr


Fire Department by maarekstorm, on Flickr

I have older style uniforms as well going back to the '90 style. I like the newer style the best for Fire and Police. I can also make them "Yellow" if we need to use any in the town.

Note sure if you want them as well but I have BrickArms weapons, and other tactical vests if we wanted to make like a SWAT Team or something. Just an idea.

I will take anything as far as police and fire. The idea is that they are blocking off the area and on standby in case something happens. I also need a train wreck. One or two engines, and a few cars, at least one or two of those cars being a tanker. I plan to supply the clean up train, clean up crew, and the radioactive ooze. It might even be nice to have some turtles crawling around.

Ok so more details on this. Its going to take up two of our standard tables. There may be a point where we will need other things near the back like houses and such, but based on what I have in my head we can fill this up with police and firemen including vehicals. Also some pedestrians at the line created by the police trying to look. I have talked to Josh and he will most likely be suppling the Engine and cars for the wreck. I am hoping that the new repair train will be out before Brick Fair as I would like to use a modified version of that as a clean up train.

Jim, do you have plenty of Fire vehicals? I currently only have three helicopters, and will probably only be bringing two of them.

I took a rough count; I have 4 Engines (3 Red, 1 Yellow) an Airport Fire unit (White), and 5 Fire small SUV/Cars. Police I have a two really old style mobile command centers trailers, 4 Police Trucks/SUVs, 6 smaller police cars, 3 new police cycles and half a dozen old style police cycles.

I think I can help with this. I also have some fences / barricade stuff too.

Is anyone actively building a PennLUG city dump? I've heard a lot of talk about it and I have been personally supplying "dumpage" to members at the meetings, but maybe this is something I would build myself. I really would like to have something in the layout and if I were to build completely with damaged parts, then it wouldn't interfere with my BL store at all. I hate to ask for my broken parts back, but if nobody else is building this in the near future, I would like to accept donations of damaged parts so I can build a dump.

If I am to build this, what size footprint would I be able to work with, and how high off the baseplate is our ground standard?

I have a few broken parts I haven't given to KC yet if you want those. If the dump is within the city area then you will need to build it to standard, but if its outside the city limits then you can build it right on a base plate. If your gonna build it in the city, try doing it on standard baseplates, and just make it modular if you need more space. This is a good way to start until you understand the layout setup a bit better. I don't know the specs off hand for the road standard, but you can get the info from the instructions page on the PennLUG web site. http://pennlug.com/?page_id=86

Well the road standard is 6 plates (two bricks) high off the baseplate. The pictures of Rob's buildings show them to be built right on the baseplate. Would I want to build right on the baseplate? I just want the ground level to be flush with the rest of the city's structures.

Most of us don't built our downtown city buildings raised up. Instead we built them on the baseplates and then raise the baseplates with risers made from bricks on their side.

Thanks Brian! That makes it a little more simple. Is there any vacancies in the town layout or an edge that can be added onto? I want to know how many sides should connect to something and what might they be connecting to. (sidewalk, entrance, etc.)

Chris,

Here is my two cents. I suggest you build right on the baseplate. Use mutiples of 16 x 32 stud plates. We usually add our own sidewalk space to our modular buildings. But Cale has a sidewalk component which could cover your need for one.

By building off the baseplate directly we can use your MOC in the city or countryside. You should plan on your MOC connecting on two sides. Either two opposite sides or two adjacent. I found we did not have enough corner MOCs at BrickWorld. So I know that kind is as useful as a "row" building. While the backside is usually never seen by the public, I still advocate that everyone try to do something interesting with the sides and back. Sometimes these areas are visible if we try to do unusual layouts.

As concerns space for your MOCs, we really do not plan the buildings in minute detail. Unless we are talking about something huge like the Wind Farm or Railyard, the Regional Planning Commission simply looks at what shows up and tries to incorporate everything into an cohesive and interesting diorama. So build, get some constructive criticisms ( which helps me build better) and enjoy being more involved in the collaborative aspects of our club.

Tony Sties

We are adding a second street that runs parallel to the main street. It's going to be long and there's going to be plenty of space to fill (although stuff not behind the intersections might be hard to see). That said, I think a junkyard wouldn't look quite right in the middle of a downtown. It might work better toward the train yard or trolley barn. If we need to, we could move Joel's pool hall and Chris' bar to the downtown and put the junkyard in that area.

Definitely build it directly on the base plates (not elevated) so it could be placed anywhere.

Chris, if you really want to build a dump before I do, I guess thats OK with me. It is an idea I have wanted to do for a long time, but the reason I haven't yet is that I wanted to fence it in with the sports net #48294, and no one on Bricklink has them in a quantity large enough . I would prefer white or yellow, not red. We were going to add them to LUGbulk once, but it didn't happen. If you want your broken and sprew parts back, I can give you the ones back from the meeting, but the other ones have been mixed in with my other ones, and I don't know which ones you gave me, and which ones Joel gave me, and which ones came from yardsales.

Hey KC, why haven't you asked to buy the ones I have? Remember the white ones from my auto junk yard? How many do you need?

I'm not going to ask for anything back. KC, you are free to build a junkyard if you want. I may not have mine completed by BrickFair but it will sit in a layout eventually. I'll muster up the junk parts from my craigslist purchases.

As of right now I have 1 new building for the downtown area. I also have all of stuff from BM if you still have that list. If you need more details let me know.

Brian

Brianb wrote:As of right now I have 1 new building for the downtown area. I also have all of stuff from BM if you still have that list. If you need more details let me know.

Brian

Cool. I do have the list yet from BM for both you and Rob. Do you want the construction site in the same general area or do you have some adjustments in mind? Right now things are open as I have not locked anything down yet.

Cale

Cale wrote:

Brianb wrote:As of right now I have 1 new building for the downtown area. I also have all of stuff from BM if you still have that list. If you need more details let me know.

Brian

Cool. I do have the list yet from BM for both you and Rob. Do you want the construction site in the same general area or do you have some adjustments in mind? Right now things are open as I have not locked anything down yet.

Cale

I kind liked the area that it was in at BM. Because it is very low, I think it can be seen better near the corner / or by the Pool Hall, White Castle and Edwards Bar since they are all single story buildings.

Brian

I'll be bringing my train station again (2 baseplates) in case there was any doubt.

p