Freemo South 2022

[PaulRhB]

Freemo South was a great success again this weekend. Organised by Dan, Tom & Geoff a large bunch of us American modellers got together in Epsom again to run trains. 
 

The car was filled to capacity with modules, stock and essentials filling every last inch. 

 

Those were secured so they couldn’t slide forward  

 

 

This was the plan

 

 

and this was the view from the bottom right corner of that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and top left corner. 
 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by PaulRhB

[PaulRhB]

Modules as usual had a variety of themes and states of finish but they all worked well and were fed off a power ‘grid’ supplied by Neil Rogers of the RS Tower group. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we had three branches from the main yard and there were three branch trains, a port switched turn, busy yard crews and a number of passenger and through block freights running too. The Dispatcher’s desk tried to coordinate it to keep trains moving  

 

This was the schematic the Dispatcher worked with. 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by PaulRhB

[PaulRhB]

 

 

 

 

It’s a very relaxed social event too

 

 

 

 

The heart of the layout, Dale Yard and both yard crews were working hard. 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by PaulRhB

[PaulRhB]

 

 

A big thanks to catering supremo Yvonne too and Alan for coordinating the car card system that drove the operation of the layout. 

 

 

 

 

it’s tiring running model trains too you know  

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by PaulRhB

[mdvle]

Looks like a great layout was setup, and shows the advantages of the freemo philosophy for those who don't have space for a full-time layout or want something in addition to.

 

Not relevant for this part of RMweb but really just a shame Andy Y's attempts to get a British version going didn't succeed - though at least he made the effort.

[Talbotjohn]

Looks mighty impressive! It must have taken a lot of coordination to get all those boards set up and running properly and sequentially.

Which DCC system are you all using please? (I can't really tell from examining the pictures closely.) I need to replace my old Lenz Compact with something that handles Bachmann steam loco sounds.

 

[PaulRhB]

1 hour ago, Talbotjohn said:

Looks mighty impressive! It must have taken a lot of coordination to get all those boards set up and running properly and sequentially.

Which DCC system are you all using please? (I can't really tell from examining the pictures closely.) I need to replace my old Lenz Compact with something that handles Bachmann steam loco sounds.

 

The modules are all submitted before the weekend and Tom & Geoff drew up the plan to fit the room so all dimensions are known. 

Then on the weekend everyone assembled their module in the appropriate area and a three person build crew are responsible for checking the height, aligning the track and clamping them up. Then the electrical man connects each board in turn and tests as he goes. It took just under four hours to set up at a leisurely pace as we hadn’t seen each other for two and a bit years and then we operated for six hours on Saturday and seven hours on Sunday. 

It was a digikeijs, dr5000 I think, with four 3amp boosters. We had a backup Digitrax system too. 

Edited March 15, 2022 by PaulRhB

[warbonnetuk]

For anyone interested on some more photos from the weekend I've uploaded them to Flickr

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/13460546@N02/albums/72177720297377885

 

Next year's event date has been provisionally set for 11th and 12th March 2023

 

Dan