Dealing with disappointment - Maersk Train anyone?

I had on a whim bought the modulars when they came out, and was not too excited about the "Market Street". But then it was discontinued and I kicked myself for not buying it. I am sure there are others who have dealt with this disappointment.

Well my solution was to build one with the instructions and the bricks I had lying around. I got pretty close, enough to be done with that itch.

Now I am missing the Maersk train, so I figured I would do the same. The major compromise was that I was not going to be hung up about the "maersk blue" color. I am willing to build it with any color combination that I had the bricks for.

The issue now is all those special pieces that Lego puts into each of its sets!!! Besides the new colors, new moulds and pieces are TLC's way of insuring that they survive (nay thrive!). Now I would need to hunt for those pieces in Bricklink or (fingers crossed) pick-a-brick.

I am curious, has anyone else been able to scratch the itch of a missed set by simply using the pieces they already have? Using bricklink to put together the missing set seems too expensive and not scratch worthy ;-)