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SDB
Section Hand
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 Posted - 05/02/2010 : 8:46:03 PM
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Hi all --
The New England Free-mo group is a gathering of individuals interested in creating Free-mo modules located in New England (with center of gravity located in Boston). We coordinate our activities over an e-mail list. Some of us have taken modules to shows in Cleveland, Detroit, and Syracuse (among other places) over the last few years.
As a group, we've been rather small for a long time. However, as interest in Free-mo has increased, new people have started to participate with us. We are now at the point where we can have our own set-ups with enough trackage that it's fun to run trains.
This last Saturday and Sunday (May 1 -- 2, 2010), we held our first group set up. The goal of the set up was to "shake down" some new modues, as well as provide a private viewing opportunity of the Free-mo concept for invited guests.
The set up was held in an old mill building located in Dedham, Mass. (immediately outside of Boston). The mill originally made textiles, and was powered from a waterfall located next to the building. In the 1980s the mill was converted to condos, and the machine room next to the dam became the common room for the condo complex. This room is large enough to hold a modest Free-mo set up, so that's where we met.
Please enjoy the photos below showing the first New England Free-mo group set up!
The exterior of the mill as we arrived in the morning.
The dam next to the mill. New condo units are in the center of the photo. Our set up room is in the building on the right with the curved roof.
The set up. The crew hands are (left to right): Bob, Fred, James (back), and Bill (front).
With Bill's hand on the throttle, the first train of the day has left East Arlington, and heads towards Fred's yard and industries. Fred works the yard, making sure all the switches are set and the mainline is clear.
The crew is happy to see the trains running flawlessly. On the right is a visitor from Rhode Island who was interested in the Free-mo concept.
A view of the layout looking towards the west. The three-deckers in East Arlington are in the foreground.
A view of the layout looking from the other end.
A B&M steamer barrels through East Arlington dragging load of precision machine parts and other capital goods to markets outside of New England.
And a view towards Bill's yard in the middle of the layout. Fred's industrial structures are in the foreground, with the B&M steamer rushing to its destination
A few minutes (and five decades) after the B&M, a Providence and Worcester diesel unit charges through East Arlington, rattling windows in all the old three-deckers.
All is quiet in Fred's yard for a while.
Then a B&M S3 pulls through, on the point of a commuter train. The S3 must have been pressed into service when all the usual Moguls were in the shop again due to the B&M's inattentive maintenance policy.
The S3 passes over the Forest Street bridge in Arlington. A milk car is part of the consist, bringing fresh milk to the larger cities along the Atlantic coast.
Off to the left is the Schwamb Mill, in operation since before anybody can remember. In front of the S3 is a P&W coal drag, probably supplying one of the Boston Edison plants which supplanted waterfalls a the power source for industrial New England.
Bill leads the P&W back to his yard near North Haven, Conn.
Fred gets some visitors interested in joining the crew.
Fred explains how to run a railroad to the new employees.
At the end of their day shift, the crew leaves the sweat and grime of their railroad jobs behind in search of liquid refreshments.
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Country: USA
| Posts: 55 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/02/2010 : 9:05:09 PM
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I'm glad you had a good weekend. I'm not sure I recognize any of your faces, but it seems like I must have seen at least some of you at Boston-area train shows. Right now I do NMRA modules with the Hub Division, but later this decade I may have something which fits the Free-mo scheme.
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Country: USA
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/02/2010 : 10:10:02 PM
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Wow! I'm really jealous. You guys are doing great work. 
Don
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Country: USA
| Posts: 4605 |
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SDB
Section Hand
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Posted - 05/03/2010 : 08:08:11 AM
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James, glad you liked the photos. Since you're near Boston and interested in Free-mo, you can keep track of what we're doing by subscribing to our e-mail list on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nefree-mo
Don, thanks for the thumbs up! Since you guys out in Pittsburgh have historically done such a great job with your Free-mo set ups, your compliment is very meaningful. Thanks!
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Country: USA
| Posts: 55 |
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bcfan1064
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 05/03/2010 : 8:13:31 PM
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I wish I could have made it up there. The weather was to nice and the family wanted to play outside all day. Hopefully next time I will get out. Maybe it will rain, but only if everyone has a covered vehicle to move modules in!!! Great job guys cant wait to see the setup in person.
-Barry S
CCMRC
Cape Cod Model Railroad Club
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Country: USA
| Posts: 164 |
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deemery
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/03/2010 : 9:41:34 PM
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That Dedham mill looks a lot like the RDA mill. Thanks for the photos, I don't think I had seen that particular mill before.
dave
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Country: USA
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elwoodblues
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/03/2010 : 11:14:02 PM
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Looks like a great weekend was had by all. You have some great looking modules there, great work.
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Ron Newby
General Manager
Clearwater Valley Railway Co.
http://www.cvry.ca |
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Country: Canada
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MikeMc
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 05/19/2010 : 4:08:11 PM
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Looks great! In case any of your members coming down to Princeton Junction (NJ) Fall MER Convention, we will be having a Free-Mo module setup. I am the coordinator for that, so if interested, send me a private message.
Mike McNamara
Delran, NJ
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Country: USA
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Mike Hamer
Engineer
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 06/05/2010 : 11:42:27 AM
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Question: I'm planning to build a model of a big bridge as a removable section; it will be something that would fit Free-Mo as long as a given set-up doesn't mind it having a backboard that goes 12" above the rail (it's structural - I need minimum depth and no legs over a 64" span). I was ordering from Digi-Key and thought I'd get a few Jones plugs so I could do the wiring the standard way from the start. However, the part numbers in the standard had a minimum quantity of 1,000! Anyone got a source, or a better part number for Digi-Key? If all else fails, I can probably get a few from Hub Division members as we switched from Jones to Power Pole a few years back.
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Country: USA
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SDB
Section Hand
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Posted - 06/05/2010 : 9:57:03 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by jbvb
Question: I'm planning to build a model of a big bridge as a removable section; it will be something that would fit Free-Mo as long as a given set-up doesn't mind it having a backboard that goes 12" above the rail (it's structural - I need minimum depth and no legs over a 64" span). I was ordering from Digi-Key and thought I'd get a few Jones plugs so I could do the wiring the standard way from the start. However, the part numbers in the standard had a minimum quantity of 1,000! Anyone got a source, or a better part number for Digi-Key? If all else fails, I can probably get a few from Hub Division members as we switched from Jones to Power Pole a few years back.
Hi James --
The Free-mo philosophy requires that the module be viewable from both sides. It also allows a module to be flipped end-for-end, and still work in a set-up. This is different from NMRA modules which are built to be viewed from one side only. Therefore, permanent backboards are disallowed in Free-mo.
As for Jones connectors, I got my batch from Mouser. They don't have a large minimum order. I'd be happy to sell you a couple of mine at cost. I'll send you a private e-mail to discuss particulars.
Best regards,
Stuart
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Country: USA
| Posts: 55 |
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SDB
Section Hand
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Posted - 11/09/2010 : 08:08:14 AM
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This past weekend, the New England Free-mo group participated in a Free-mo set up in Syracuse, New York. The set up is done as part of the yearly "Great Train Fair" which takes place at the New York State Fairgrounds. The train fair is run by the Central New York Chapter of the NRHS. The train fair is reasonably large -- it fills two halls at the State Fairgrounds with lots of layouts and vendors of all sorts. As you can see in the below photos, our Free-mo layout is large enough to merit its own separate layout room.
This set up is one of NE Free-mo's traditional venues; this was my second year at the Syracuse set up, and I'm sure other New Englanders were there previously. The Syracuse Free-mo layout is organized by the Finger Lakes model railroad club. This year's set up included modelers from New York (of course), New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Michigan. Our Free-mo layout was shaped somewhat like a lower-case 't', having a long single-track mainline intersected by a short line. We had over 90 feet of mainline track, with another 30 feet (or so) in the shortline. It took perhaps 5 -- 10 minutes to run a train from one end of the layout to the other, which is pretty impressive for a modular show layout.
The layout went together smoothly, and we ran trains all day Saturday and Sunday morning. On Sunday afternoon we held an operating session using car cards and waybills. Six different jobs were run simultaneously during that operating session. The ops session lasted about two hours.
I took a bunch of photos of the set up. This first set are "live" photos taken while walking around the layout. Later I will post some "artistic" photos taken using backdrops.
Please enjoy the photos!
Stuart
A shot of the layout under construction. Sorry it's dark -- lighting conditions in the set up room were difficult.
Crew members: Bill (MI) and Fred (NH).
Crew members: Dave and Andy (both NY).
The completed layout seen from the yard end.
A zoom shot which more clearly shows the variety of modules present on the layout.
A shot from the layout's opposite end.
Boxcars await pick up at the warehouses on First Avenue.
A road crosses the tracks near the grain elevator at Perry Michigan.
A crowd of bikers rev their Harleys in front of the Last Class Saloon near Perry, MI. Perry's elevator looms in the distance.
You can hear the roaring of the choppers as the bikers pull up.
A propane tanker waits on the siding next to Strickland Propane.
A cut of grain cars sits next to the elevator at Hiron's Feeds.
The old Schwamb Mill in the foreground, and Phelps Junction in the background.
A commuter train from Boston headed by a Mogul winds past the old Schwamb Mill on the way to Lexington.
Here's a view from the house on Phelps Junction back towards the Schwamb Mill and East Arlington. The short line runs by the house, and leads to more agricultural facilities.
On the other end of the short line is Scott's Mill complex.
An ariel view of East Arlington.
We hover over the three-deckers in East Arlington and look towards the Pontarelli Yard.
An RDC idles in front of the station at Pontarelli Yard, waiting to pick up passengers in the morning rush.
A view of the diamond crossing where the main line meets the short line. A coal drag shakes the windows of the old wood frame houses in East Arlington.
The diamond is a popular spot for railfan photography.
After a hard day of railroading, the crew retreats to a local dining establishment for BBQ and fermented barley juice.
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Edited by - SDB on 11/09/2010 8:15:00 PM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 55 |
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George D
Moderator
Premium Member
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Posted - 11/09/2010 : 08:26:07 AM
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That’s an impressive setup with great looking modules, Stuart. I’m sure you guys had a great weekend of running trains.
George
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Country: USA
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Neil M
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 11/09/2010 : 10:02:03 AM
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Nice work. The whole layout of all the modules looks impressive. I like the junction and shortline addition
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| Built a waterfront HO layout in Ireland http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22161 but now making a start in On30 in Australia |
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Country: Australia
| Posts: 2173 |
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nhguy
Fireman
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Posted - 11/09/2010 : 2:58:00 PM
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Very, very nice set up. It looks like you all had a fun time. Some great modeling going on there.
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Bill Shanaman
Superintendent, New Haven RR in the 1948 to 1952 era
PMRA President 2013-14, OpSIG Member
NCE User Since 1999
Sugar City, Colorado |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 3666 |
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 11/09/2010 : 7:17:11 PM
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Excellent! I wish I could have visited, to see it up close and personal.
Don
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