The Charlotte Southern Railway Station is a MOC I have been thinking about for a long time. My loves for trains, LEGO, old southern architecture and Charlotte history all came together. As the name implies, the model is closely based upon the old Southern Railway Station in Charlotte, NC, USA. Sadly, the original station was demolished in the 1960’s.
My interpretation is scaled down a bit, though the MOC is still quite large,with baseplates covering 64 x64 bricks. I used eight 16 x 32 baseplates to create the “site” for the station.
Typically, I design my LEGO models the traditional way, feeling my way through them with bricks on hand and determining what I need to order as I go.I changed it up a little this time. I started the old fashioned way, with bricks by hand. Simultaneously, I was exploring with Studio 2.0 from BrickLink. I discovered it was a very useful tool to figure out complicated portions of the model, determine how many parts I would need for the build, and a productive way to continue to make progress while I waited on bricks to arrive from various BrickLink orders.
One interesting note, I haven’t been able to find any pictures from the interior of the station, so the layout, colors and design are my interpolation of exterior features and how they may have worked on the interior. The tried and true method of make-it-up-as-you-go.
As I got certain stopping points with the actual build (stopping point generally means I ran out of parts), I decided to explore a couple of defining features with the computer models.
The first area I was interested in developing was the central atrium and clerestory. I got to certain point in the build and ran out of parts and not sure exactly how I wanted to proceed. So I modeled. See the model compared to the actual build above.
Next, I was curious how tall the tower would need to be in relation to other portions of the terminal. I also wanted to test out some simple techniques with the series of vertical windows and arches. So I modeled, again.
What did I discover with the model? Several things. First I needed a whole bunch more tan bricks. Second, this is going to be one tall model.
So, that’s part one. I need to get back to building and I need more parts. Stay tuned for the continuing saga of the Southern Rail Station. And if anyone has a bunch of dark red 33* slopes they would like to donate, I have a really big roof ahead of me.
