Hello, last weekend, the FREMO had a big anniversary gathering in Magdeburg/Germany. There were 14 layouts in three exhibition halls, alltogether roundabout 75.000 square feet. FREMO meetings are not public events, realistic operation is the focus on all layouts. Our americaN group built up a layout with "anti cheating walls" to support a realistic feeling for TT&TO operation without the possibility to look for trains in the station nearby. The look at the layout from the entrance of the hall A closer look on Hoquiam Arrowhead to the right and Whitehall to the left The "western" part of the layout with the tables for the dispatcher and rolling stock to the left. A train leaving Hoquiam eastbound The other swing bridge in Hoquiam leading to the branch line On the branch along Moyie lake Arrowhead Mopac Bridge The Yakima Fruit Row Whitehall And finally two impressions from the Wolf Creek
Hoquiam was my mother's home town. I was there countless times in my life. Have not been back in some years now, but it had changed so much. Compared to years ago, barely any railroading remains. That swing bridge is still there.
It would be interesting to see how they did TT&TO on a modular layout. Did they have any scheduled trains? How did they create the timetable? How did they create a train sheet? How did they handle train order signals, OS's and delivery of orders?
FREMO crews take care of all, they submit the module details, someone then virtually "assembles" them into a layout project, thereafter there is timetable compilation (usually more detailed than in the US layouts as in Europe there are no Extras). For the european layouts they have telephone lines connecting all stations and block towers. more info here https://www.fremo-net.eu/en/home/
The whole thing was a team effort: since TT&TO was set, Peter planned a compact layout with the possibility for anti-cheating walls between the stations: https://www.america-n.de/fremo40plus2/Magdeburg 2023g.pdf This final version was created after one member had to cancel his participation due to Covid two days before the gathering. The timetable was created by TrainBoard member Caddy58 and Wolfgang. You can download it here: https://www.america-n.de/fremo40plus2/Rulebook.pdf For further information about the handling of train orders etc. have a look at this e-zine at page 30 and following: https://nscalerailroadingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/127-01-55-2020-December-D.pdf
A longer video about the layout and the operation with english narration is now also available. I posted the YouTube-Link in a seperate thread in the N scale subforum. So do not comment or ask questions in this thread any longer. Thanks.
Wow, just WOW!! What a beautiful layout AND I've been to those places, in my corner of the Northwest! Super cool and well done layout! Even more amazing it's in Germany!
