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the LEGO Group of companies, which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse this site. |
Le Gorge
Ever since the New England LEGO Users Group began doing train shows, we have looked
for manageable ways to add variation to our layout. We had long talked about trying
to introduce variable terrain to our layout instead of using a single layer of baseplate
beneath our tracks, but the costs of even a single layer of brick to cover our layout
would have been prohibitive.
That's when the idea of Le Gorge occurred to me. I created a pair of vertical risers to attach to the sides of two tables so that the tabletop between them could sit at a lower level than its neighbors. Then only one train table needs to be filled with precious brick, and even then, only where the land contours require it. If a river were to cut through the layout, erosion would long ago have taken a lot of ABS out to sea.
I wanted the effect to be reasonably dramatic, so I set the table at a depth of 29 bricks below its neighbors. I built a caliper out of bricks that I use when tightening the bolts to set the tabletop as close as possible to a perfect height. Then I built a pair of train bridges to span the river canyon. The white bridge is supposed to be the older of the two, built in the romantic heyday of rail travel. The second bridge is a more functional trestle bridge that was clearly built during a later industrial boom when additional rail capacity became necessary. The actual bridges were built in this order, but within a few days of each other. Hey, we had a show to do...
It really wasn't until after I had built the table that I realized just how much LEGO it takes to create a mountain, hill, or even just a cliff. I have also decided that random land contours are one of the only things that I do not really enjoy building out of LEGO.
Copyright (c) 2003 by Christopher Phillips. All Rights Reserved.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies, which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse this site.