[Digital MOC] London Underground Station (was Deep Tube)

[Hod Carrier]

After designing the lit Oslo tram, I thought I'd play around with Stud.io to see what effects could be attained using the various light settings and luminous parts palette, among other finishes. To give it a real test, I thought I'd push it as far as I felt I could by creating a fully enclosed scene, such as you might find in a London Underground deep tube station. I'd already got a virtual design for a deep tube train, so it just seemed like the natural thing to do.

And here is the result. This is a semi-fictional view of a Northern Line service entering the platform at a deep tube station. The scene looks a bit murky, but it is set in the 1960s/70s when the deep tube wasn't as brightly lit as it is now, so I didn't want to go overboard with the lighting. I've included an old-style "lightbox" destination indicator and some period-typical advertising.

Part of the problem with rendering in standard LEGO colours is that these parts tend to end up very reflective in the renders, which created a lot of unwanted light effects. To counter this I had to make fairly extensive use of the rubber colour palette and keep the standard finish for sections that would have been tiled rather than painted, as well as the sides of the train. I've rendered this at maximum resolution, which you can find on my Flickr page, to allow folk to see as many of the details as possible and compare the different lighting effects. There's also one or two jokes hidden in there for folk to find. Enjoy!!

Edited October 2, 2023 by Hod Carrier

[zephyr1934]

That is crazy cool!

[Hod Carrier]

@zephyr1934 Thank you, sir. 

[XG BC]

awesome @Hod Carrier! was on holiday in London recently and these deep tube trains and Stations are small as hell, oh and hot, not the kind of Underground trains/stations i am used to (Munich and Nuremberg which are newer systems from the 1970s with bigger trains and bigger Stations, more like your crossrail stations in size). was certainly interesting, Tunnels barely bigger than the trains, seemingly chaotic foot tunnels in the Stations, just a whole different experience.

[Hod Carrier]

@XG BC Using the tube is definitely an experience, and not always easy for a first-time user. I guess it's just a legacy of the age of the network and the conditions under which it was developed. Modern systems benefit from advances in tunneling technology that weren't available over 100 years ago, and the rights to tunnel under buildings is now more established than it was back then.

[Yperio_Bricks]

Great scene! Looks exactly like my childhood memories from our London trip 30 years ago. Very nice curvature of the tunnel  Oh, and now i want to smell like a stud!

[Hod Carrier]

@Yperio_Bricks Good things will happen. 

[XG BC]

23 hours ago, Hod Carrier said:

@XG BC Using the tube is definitely an experience, and not always easy for a first-time user. I guess it's just a legacy of the age of the network and the conditions under which it was developed. Modern systems benefit from advances in tunneling technology that weren't available over 100 years ago, and the rights to tunnel under buildings is now more established than it was back then.

oh for shure. was very interesting to see. and i was staggered on how clean it was. old, a bit run down but clean, our older subway stations are usually quite dirty.

[Vilhelm22]

Very nice as usual @Hod Carrier!  As a Londoner myself, I know the tube fairly well.  Northern's one of the deepest lines - it can be a real pain to get down to!  It's being split in a few years though...

[Hod Carrier]

@Vilhelm22 Thank you for the feedback. I'm glad it's proving familiar to a Londoner. 

[Kalahari134]

On 10/3/2023 at 10:19 PM, XG BC said:

awesome @Hod Carrier! was on holiday in London recently and these deep tube trains and Stations are small as hell, oh and hot, not the kind of Underground trains/stations i am used to (Munich and Nuremberg which are newer systems from the 1970s with bigger trains and bigger Stations, more like your crossrail stations in size). was certainly interesting, Tunnels barely bigger than the trains, seemingly chaotic foot tunnels in the Stations, just a whole different experience.

I was amazed when I visited Munich at how shallow the U bahn was. Deeper than our sub-surface lines (which see a lot of daylight), but far removed from the seemingly endless escalators in the UK. I wasn't impressed with the signage though, how on earth does anyone navigate around the Hbf?

Edited November 8, 2023 by Kalahari134