Out with the old , in with the new - building a new sea port Part 2

A building inspector came on site  and said that the tiling I had done on top of the piers was not up to code, and would have to have a plate placed underneath it.. As this would help with sinking the rails and track into the pier and giving it a smoother look, I agreed to go ahead with the work.

This meant pulling up all of the tile, across 9 baseplates.

 It took me around 3 hours all up, but I think it looks much better now.
I had thought about doing it form the beginning, and it would mean saving an entire layer of plate across the build which would have saved time and money.
But in the end, Lego can just be pulled apart and changed so easily, why not just do it!

Out with the old , in with the new - building a new sea port Part 1

I built a sea port about 6 or so years ago, and I have used it on many of my city layouts and also as a stand alone display as well.
Here is a picture of it's first showing in December 2013.

It was showing it's age, and I wanted to make something that was about 1 brick shorter out of the water, and was much more detailed and larger in size.
I began by pulling down the old port  and sorting the parts so I could re-use them.
Here is the main port section as I was getting it ready to pull down.

 This was a building at the end with Police, Fire and Coastguard offices. I have kept the building, but I will be modifying it heavily.

 Pulling off all the tile and plate, reveals a lot of these 12x24 stud bricks that I bought in bulk from a German Bricklink store back in early 2013.

Here is one of the bricks.

Very handy for creating a large surface area that is very robust.

I started on a 4x4 baseplate section that would be the main part of the docks for the port. I plan on having it 16 baseplates wide at the back with 2 main peirs coming out to dock some small and large ships.

Next was to start on one of the piers to see how it would look and match in with the rest of the dock.

 I finished off the base for the first one, but I think it may need to be longer.

 I built a second pier, this one with a 2 baseplate gap between the other one.

I decided that they need to be 4 baseplates long, so I could get more ships next to the piers.

Here are the piers up against the main part of the port.

Now to start adding some of the detail to the piers themselves, once I get rid of the union delegate who has put a halt to proceedings due to lack of dry food stocks available on site.

 I have laid down some single track that I will use to run the crane along this pier, and also some winches.

 Testing out a crane base on the pier, and more tiling and detail added.

 Closer view of the end of the pier with ladder, and some lights.

 Shorter pier is getting closer to completion with some life jackets mounted on postes.

 Work on top of the 2nd pier has begun, this one will have a train track running all the way out for loading of containers from the ships.

 Winches have been laid down, as well as some single track for the large crane that will go on this dock.

 A 2nd union delegate appears on site, wondering when the canteen will be open?

 More tiling to finish off the centre railway line and a bumper so the train doesn't end up in the water!

 This time, a picket line was formed and a full halt of all work was called until wet food was supplied.

 Work continued on, and both piers are now built, the one on the right is 4 baseplates long, and the one on the right is 5 baseplates long so it can accommodate two of the larger ships down each side.

 A view from a lower down angle, showing some more of the detail such as crates etc.

Bus stop cafe

I had a separate bus stop and cafe that I used to put out on my old city layouts.
They were enlarged versions of the ones that came with the 2015 set 60097 City Square.
I thought it was time to convert them to SMILS and set them up together to form a combined bus stop with a small park with a cafe.
I also expanded the cafe, and added a door to it.

Here are the components for the conversion, a SMILS base, SMILS road, cafe and bus stop.

 Here is the standalone cafe.

 Stand alone bus stop.

Bus stop placed down very easily onto the SMILS base as it was already 8x32 studs in size.

 The rest of the plates have been added behind the bus stop so I can place the cafe and park.

 Time to rebuild the cafe.

 Cafe is built, it now has a door, and some extra space for some clear fronted cabinets to keep snacks fresh.

 Park and benches for customers have been added, and three people waiting for the bus.

 A view of the benches and park.

 A customer waits for his fresh coffee to be made.

 Bus stop cafe and road in front. Just needs the bus to turn up!!