Help on coaches without Chassis plates

[Claudius]

Would others be willing to share how they base their train engines or coaches without using the Lego CHASSIS 6X28X6.4 plate.

I'm trying to build some coaches without using the chassis plate - ideally using a 61485 turntable or 3679/3680 turn plates - but cannot get the resulting build to align with the bottom of the coach to be at the same level of a coach using the chassis. They are usually 1 or two plates higher. 

 

[dr_spock]

Would adding a plate to the bogie of the coaches using the chassis to bring them up 1 plate higher be an option? 

[zephyr1934]

18 hours ago, Claudius said:

Would others be willing to share how they base their train engines or coaches without using the Lego CHASSIS 6X28X6.4 plate.

I'm trying to build some coaches without using the chassis plate - ideally using a 61485 turntable or 3679/3680 turn plates - but cannot get the resulting build to align with the bottom of the coach to be at the same level of a coach using the chassis. They are usually 1 or two plates higher.

The bogie plate is two plates tall, but the "bottom" of the top is only one plate below the top. That is to say, the bottom of the bogie plate or a 2x2 turntable placed under the train baseplate (6x28 chassis) will be even with the bottom of the chassis. The train baseplate has a one plate tall skirt around the edge that hides the bogie plate.

If you use standard lego train wheels and instead of using a train baseplate you use normal plates for the bottom of your car, then there is no option but to build the car one plate higher. The train wheels have studs on the top that need the one plate clearance that the train baseplate provides, even if you do not use the bogie plate (both the 2x2 turntable and train bogie plate add a 1 plate height between the truck and the plate/train baseplate above).

Using technic axles or roller bearing wheels you can make shorter trucks. This truck design is one plate shorter than you can get using normal lego train wheels (it attaches to a 4x4 round plate mounted on the bottom of the car, which is made out of normal plates). This truck design uses custom truck sides which can be replaced with a brick built truck side (or in rare cases, there are prototypes with internal truck frames). Using the placement in this design for cars with normal plates for the bottom, you can line up the car bottoms with other cars that use the train baseplate+bogie plates+normal train wheels.

It also works best with roller bearing wheels. I would caution against using too many technic axle train wheels (the ones for the motors) since the technic axles have A LOT of friction. So a pure lego design would only be good for 1-2 cars.

I personally like these 4x4 turntables for attaching trucks since they have more clutch than the 2x2 turntables, and much less rubbing area than bogie plates. But they do take up two plates rather than one. Note that there are newer turntables than you mentioned in your post that are only two plates tall using parts 61485 + 60474:

+

Anyway, that is a long answer for an eloquent solution. If you want an easy solution, as per the previous response, you can simply add one plate below the bogie plate on the trucks of the cars that use the train baseplate.

[Claudius]

Thanks for your help. It's clear that nobody has worked out a solution using 'pure' Lego pieces, and with a bit of experimenting I think I have a viable solution using a single layer of plates with support from above and below that will form the base of a coach. Just waiting for the required pieces to arrive in the post now.

Thanks again.

[ivanlan9]

I hope you show your solution here!