It’s been quite a while (early 2021!) since I’ve had a LEGO city set up – I’ve moved house a few times in the last few years, and having packed and unpacked the entirety of my city a few times, it became quite a disheartening experience. That, paired with a busy work life, and related time away from home hasn’t been productive for my LEGO city.

With a new house on the horizon, I’m feeling energised to rebuild my LEGO city, Amchester, and hope to document some of the progress over time here. I have also managed to build quite a bit for the LNUR LEGO train club layout this year, which has given me the building bug again, as well as given me an itch to be able to drive some of the new wagons and locos I’ve accumulated in that time at home.

Aims and inspiration for a reborn Amchester LEGO city

I’ve had over 2 years to think about what I want from my city, as it’s always been a struggle for me to decide whether I want a LEGO city or a glorified railway to play with. Here’s a list of what I think is important to me in this iteration of Amchester.

  • Space for two complete loops of track to “just run trains”, plus a few sidings to store wagons not in use
  • A more prominent position for my cathedral – it’s been slow progress over several years (partly because a lot of my parts supply has been in storage for years)
  • Space to rebuild my Newcastle Central Station model. Since I built the original model many years ago, my building styles have changed and I’d love to tackle it again with new insight, and with all of the new LEGO elements released in that time
  • A tramline at least partly integrated with roads in the city – BrickWorldProject on YouTube has been a big inspiration for this – I’ll be happy if I can get something 10% as good as his tramway! My other inspiration for this was the trams – and bridges! – of Porto which I was lucky enough to experience on my way to the LEGO Fan Weekend in Portugal last year.
  • A large bridge – this was on my list for the previous incarnation of Amchester, but I never quite got started with it. A heavy inspiration for the city is Newcastle upon Tyne / Gateshead where I used to live – two cities/towns split by a river – and a big bridge is essential in my mind!
  • A street or two to display my LEGO modular buildings. Sadly, last time I got these out of storage a year or so ago, the white bricks in particular had suffered quite severe UV damage and so my Brick Banks and Parisian Restaurants especially will need some repair work to restore the whites, but they do look great together.
  • An embassy or “United Nations” type building for display sigfigs I’ve collected from various events over the years, with space for more!

Top image: Amchester LEGO city ~2019, mid building (as you can see cups of parts dotted around, and a few gaps).