Subject:
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Re: best way to support elevated plates?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.build, lugnet.town
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Date:
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Fri, 13 May 2005 16:50:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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3774 times
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In lugnet.build, Joe Strout wrote:
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We’re thinking about raising up half of our town, so that we can have the
train run into a tunnel and be a subway train on the elevated half and a
surface train on the other half (with the two halves joined by a hill). This
will also allow us to make underground parking garages and whatnot.
Our town is composed mostly of road plates, with some other 32x32 green and
gray plates thrown in the mix. Thinking about how to elevate and support
these stably has got me scratching my head. We have plenty of Duplo for the
columns, but I need a surface under the plates strong enough for us to build
on (including not-too-gentle kids pushing down on things to anchor them to the
plates).
1x16 technic bricks cost about $0.20 each, and by my first design, I need
about 20 of these for each road plate. That’s $4 just for the beams, plus the
other bricks and Duplo, which I haven’t priced yet, but it probably comes to
something like $6 total. So a 3x4-plate section of town would cost over $50
to elevate.
That’s not terrible, but it’s enough to make me hesitate. Is there a standard
plan for doing this sort of thing? Has someone evaluated different ways to
support big plates, and found a minimum-cost design?
Thanks,
- Joe
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I’m working on some multi level displays with members of COLTC. Here is some
ideas that I have come up with. The main thing was cost then sturdiness.
I use 8x16 soccer bricks that were real cheap. Then place our Base plates on
them. I have come up with different ways of supporting the soccer bricks.
For areas that will have trains running underneath I use these modules between
the train tracks. I then attach Technic beams to connect over the tracks. I then
place the soccer bricks on the Technic beams. I use lift arms to keep the
pillars compressed so they do not fail. Once the whole unit is done all the
flimsy 2x2 pillars work together to create a strong unit. No wobbles or
anything. It’s like the unit turns in to one big brick. I have a 2x5 Base plate
module done that I can place my arms through the train tunnels and grab just 2
of the pillars to lift up. And the whole unit is supported with out breaking.
Use of 2x4 bricks with axles. At this time the picture does not show and linkage
between levels of bricks. I will be adding lift arms to keep the modules
together. All in all very sturdy once linkage is installed. A hard bump could
fracture the unit. So far it has always been easy to re connect.
More examples of 2x4 with axles plus a different type. The module on top uses
those soccer bricks throughout with 2x2 between. I then used lift arms to keep
the module compressed. I have dropped this one on carpet and it did not break
apart. I just needed to press the parts firmly back in place.
Main Brickshelf folder, more pictures of these finished modules after the show
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=123090
Enjoy,
Gallagher
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | best way to support elevated plates?
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| We're thinking about raising up half of our town, so that we can have the train run into a tunnel and be a subway train on the elevated half and a surface train on the other half (with the two halves joined by a hill). This will also allow us to (...) (20 years ago, 12-May-05, to lugnet.build, lugnet.town)
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