Freemo 2015

[roundhouse]

We have some long distance passenger services out of Florida today

[DanielB]

I'm knackered!

 

According to my phone I've walked just under 7000 steps today.

[roundhouse]

Another international visitor

[PaulRhB]

A few pics fro Saturday.

First off another panorama showing people spread out over the layout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yes that is the moon shining through the roof light!

[PaulRhB]

And some people shots, we forgot a big group shot though so a few don't appear if we get round to it today as they could only make one day.

 

 

 

 

 

[switcher 1]

Thanks for the pics.

[roundhouse]

High speed rail comes to Florida. It's a full length Acela in diesel mode!!

 

Not had chance to run it yet as it's a bit long for the passing points but we shall see

[DanielB]

It was a humongous beast to run though.

 

Great fun!

[shortliner]

Looking as though this one was the best yet - well done Nick for organising it, and providing the hall.

[roundhouse]

We finished operating at 2pm. Now on the way home with my other half volunteering to drive.

 

We had a great time.

 

Thanks to Nick, Martyn for organising and the ladies for looking after us with teas coffees food, ordering he take always last night food lunch time which was superb and all the clearing up afterwards.

 

Also to those who set up the DCC system and keep us under control doing the dispatching, all of this helping us have a great time.

 

There's already talk of doing other meets in other parts of the country plus this same venue again next year.

 

There's a little more room for further modules to be added... Somewhere!

[Northpoint]

Thanks to everybody who came to Armitage this weekend for the Freemo event. In my view, a huge success. I thoroughly enjoyed it and from those that I spoke to, so did they.

 

As usual, thanks to Martyn for the plan and orgnaisation of the scheduling, Mel and Neil for the actual build of the layout and making it work and to Peter Lloyd Jones and the dispatching crew for keeping things moving.

 

Many thanks also to Mel's wife Yvonne, Peter's wife Jenny and my wife Liz for keeping us fed.

 

We managed to raise £375 on the raffle which will be passed to Chris Messer to help him towards his dream trip to go train watching in the western US.

 

Well done everyone.

[DanielB]

It was a great event, despite some initial confusion as we all acclimatized to our different roles.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed taking a "local" run from Dale to Springfield yard. Then as soon as I'd returned my loco to the depot, I was instructed to pick up a switcher and get to work creating consists in Dale. That was fun!

 

I'll get my photos up here asap.

 

Do we have a list of raffle winners so I know who to congratulate!

[PaulRhB]

There'd be a massive list as there were so many prizes, I got a superb Kato SD40-2 so very happy on top of my purchases from the bring and buy table

Faultless organisation and boy did we have to learn fast as the layout was monster

Many thanks to all for organisation and the superb catering.

To top it all a fast journey home too

[PaulRhB]

A view around the outside

 

A view from the Middle

 

And the Shortline Sidings Special on Saturday night going everywhere

[Prof Klyzlr]

Dear RMwebbers,

 

Having watched the videos (Thanks for posting Paul!),
I have to ask (and yes, it's a leading question)

 

1 - how many sound-equipped locos were in attendence?

2 - how many were operating simultaneously

3 - any issues with "accumulated noise"?

 

Given that the very first thing I hear in the first video is a ST TSU 645-turbo decoder at idle, from ??? distance accross the room,
I couldn't help but wonder...

 

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

[Glorious NSE]

Some of the participants are uploading images here: https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/ModelRailroading-1/2015-09-26-Armitage-freemo/

[PaulRhB]

Dear RMwebbers,

 

Having watched the videos (Thanks for posting Paul!),

I have to ask (and yes, it's a leading question)

 

1 - how many sound-equipped locos were in attendence?

2 - how many were operating simultaneously

3 - any issues with "accumulated noise"?

 

Given that the very first thing I hear in the first video is a ST TSU 645-turbo decoder at idle, from ??? distance accross the room,

I couldn't help but wonder...

 

Happy Modelling,

Aim to Improve,

Prof Klyzlr

There were quite a lot of sound locos, up to 3-4 running and a few idling on the large depot, and yes that pair of ES44's did stand out when you listened for it as the level was 'out of the box' but when you were operating or chatting it merged into the background hum.

Most had been reprogrammed and set lower and you really only heard them nearby and I didn't find the loud ones a problem. If they had intruded then we could have just switched them off but the general chat meant you didn't really notice it after a bit and I spent three hours sat at the traffic managers desk right next to the depot.

[roundhouse]

There was one loco that had been left with the bell on. I soon found it, parked on Fort Myers and it was one of my locos that had been used as he yard switcher so soon switched That off.

 

Otherwise as Paul says the sounds were fine.

[DanielB]

Yeah, the sound was nowhere near as bad as I had expected it to be. Most folks had left theirs set to "at home" volume - myself included - so it wasn't too bad.

 

The ES44's were the loud ones by comparison - they weren't actually that loud at all to be honest, but most of the other locos were set to be quite quiet by comparison, so they kind of stood out.

 

Whenever I was operating I wasn't paying any attention to anything other than the task at hand, so I barely noticed it regardless.

 

I wish I could have been there yesterday too, but work was calling.

[Talltim]

I only really noticed the sound when I went back into the empty room when everyone was having lunch, otherwise I was often struggling to hear the sound of the loco I was driving.

A big thanks to everyone who put a lot of effort to organise the day, Nick the venue, Martyn for the mammoth task of arranging the modules and then organising all the duties, Neil and his helpers for getting the DCC working pretty much first time, all those that helped with the food and of course everyone who brought modules.

I was pleased that my module worked well enough, it's the first layout I've ever built and I was extremely nervous on the drive to the event. I've learnt that the top surface of the board needs a bit more bracing in places, that I need to get my rail joints better and one straight bit definately isn't straight!

[298]

As a general comment 're:sound, I'd have said that a few locos were probably too quiet as you really do need to use the bell and horn appropriately and there also a few sound-equipped Reefers randomly chipping in. But short of insisting every loco is set up to a certain dB level just for this event (which would probably be louder than at home but quieter than for a general show), I don't think it's a problem or easily fixable- some decoders have two volume settings but there isn't a standard function no# and there is no guarantee the crew members operating it will be familiar with anything but the obvious functions.

 

Saying that, this pair seen here during gauge clearance testing on Pine St. caused the dispatchers to look up from their desk...

[DanielB]

They certainly made their presence felt.

 

Talltim - I'm only in Bolsover if you need some help with working on your module.

 

I believe the chap who brought the modules called Sheldon and Cooper is over in Mansfield too.

 

The three of us should get together to work on some modules.

[PaulRhB]

I was pleased that my module worked well enough, it's the first layout I've ever built and I was extremely nervous on the drive to the event

The best thing about this and the guys who made the Britmod event is everyone goes with the intention of making it work. If someone forgets something or something isn't quite right then there's plenty of help at hand. I carry spare leads and had a selection of bits and tools in case there was a problem. I also somehow lost the two braces on the centre board of Sunnydale so it ended up with a temp fix by using hacksaw blades I had in the car screwed on!

Electrically Neil had built it very robustly so we only had a couple of minor power loss's and they were brief and I never heard what caused them as it wasn't a hindrance to the operation. Minor snags actually make it more realistic as it's like a loco shutting down and the crew taking a few minutes to fix it.

The only thing we struggled with Saturday was the communication for authorising moves and that to me came down to three basic things. The layout was new so none of us knew the bottlenecks, two thirds the dispatching and Traffic Managers were learning as they went and the radios were a bit hit and miss on clarity as some weren't clear and we didn't have a set procedure to keep comms brief.

Sunday was much more fluid because we had seen where trains 'clumped' so we chose to issue trains in an organised way with a sort of informal train plan. On a large home or even a set modular layout you can build experience over two or three sessions but we had a huge layout, two days and we're learning as we went. The conversations were constructive and realised that so we can take that forward and certainly from the Traffic Manager side I tried out we could get things flowing better by using the diagrams Martyn had done, showing the routes of each job, from the start to ease the Dispatch desk workload.

I really liked that I discovered modules I knew from last year worked differently because of the new plan so I wouldn't advocate a set plan to ease the control of trains.

Could it have been better? Surprisingly I don't think so because we wouldn't have learnt what issues such a large set up creates. Last year we really piggybacked on the RS Tower guys experience and had them busy running it for us. This year several of us gave them a break and dived in and it was good once you got over the nerves about screwing it up. Yes we made mistakes but we had 6-7 trains running out on the layout, the yard crew busy all weekend and time to wander round and enjoy it.

I did hear several people say it's not really suitable for an exhibition but in some ways it is as if you had the some spare operators taking people around the inside and chatting to them to explain it. I think there was actually plenty happening to entertain people. In the videos you can see how spread out the trains were on Sunday and if all the modules are up to a basic scenic level it would look quite good even without a train right there. Building such a big layout though required in total around 5-6 hours including stocking it so you'd need to build on a Friday with a big slot only major shows could provide. Even if the show just covered accommodation as host to the event leaving the crew to pick up transport costs to split the cost of so many people possibly.

[skipepsi]

I really regret not coming to watch this it looks amazing.

[PaulRhB]

I really regret not coming to watch this it looks amazing.

Well for a small donation forum members are welcome, we have to ask to be covered under the liability as it's not a public show as such.

Several came to just have a go last year and this time and a lot of the new modules were people who didn't have one last year

It's not cheap with hotel and transport and we share the cost of the hall so no one makes any money at all but it is blummin good fun and I just count it as a weekend away. I guess I spent just over £220 for three days incl food, hotel, fuel and the hall. Martyn and I met up Friday afternoon to watch trains near Rugeley, we hadn't actually organised to meet but chose the same spot! , then met up with the mob for a meal, Saturday around half of us had a takeaway supper and continued running until around 9:30 before retiring to the hotel bar again. Sunday we started at 9 ish and started to pack up at 2. I was away at 3:30 and home just after 6 with only 10 mins lost to traffic.