Update One
Welcome to the first update for the LEGO City Project. This update is only small, but is beaming with structural design - quite literally! The update is the tracks and part of the service corridors for the city underground. If I'm going to build a whole city from the ground up, I thought why not start with the foundations? And so, the subway tracks where born.
Above is a picture of the whole update, which you may have seen on the heading of my blog if you visited earlier. So how is this seemingly dull design full of structural brilliance (at least I think so)? Let's take a closer look.
The Tracks
The tracks themselves may look easy enough to make, but I had to be sure to design them as if they were sitting on a concrete floor. Unlike normal train tracks, subway tracks don't have dirt sitting beneath them, just more grey bellow the iron beams that make the tracks. To achieve this look, I simply placed lighter grey tiles over the inside of the rails. On the outside, I am using black to comply with the slopes attached to the track, which appears to comply with the LEGO train system across the board.
Also of noteworthy in the above, other than the concrete rails, are the service appliances. A red and yellow cylinder hang near the entrance from the service corridor. These could be fire fighting or emergency equipment.
Beams and Fittings
This is the part I was most proud of in this update. Whilst LEGO is going to stay up regardless in LDD, I tried to think as realistic as possible. What if my design was to become a real structure one day? Although unlikely, I considered if this happened, would the structure face the test of time? I not only worked ceiling beams seamlessly into the design, but also included column brackets to link even more beams lower down in the service corridor. Maybe it's easier just to look at the picture than try to understand my explanation.
Take another look at those pictures above. Those light fittings supported by the cables look fine, don't they? I must admit, they are bulkier than preferred, but nonetheless, they fit in well.
Conclusion
This particular update is getting me worried. It's maybe a little tall to sit fully under the city. We will see how things go, but the foundations are currently looking bigger than the city itself.
No need to worry too much, fireman Sam will be on the job immediatly if there is any chaos in the underground.
