Free-moN: At Home & On The Road

[Mark W]

He even cut a cool little periscope with mirrors to see into the freighthouse:





Still needs to detail the interior, but a nifty idea to peak inside!

That's awesome!  Nice thinking outside the box!

Great work on the Effett insert too.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

That's awesome!  Nice thinking outside the box!

It's actually inside the box 

[Mark W]

It's actually inside the box 

Touché 

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Alrighty: here's the video!
(Looks mighty nice in 1080p HD, if I don't say so myself  )

There are some new modules and quite a few added details (especially on Rick's CalTrains Station).
Enjoy!

Thanks for looking.

[railnerd]

Given recent Atlas track shortages, have you checked out this new modular standard?  Seems to solve lots of problems.

http://www.sv-free-mon.org/Free-No.pdf

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Very groovy show today!
GTE at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, CA.
Seems like we were just here yesteryear!
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=28047.msg346895#msg346895
Oh, wait, we were!
Dust. Wind. Dude.

Many fewer modules this round, and only one loop, so it was a point-to-loop (with a wye-to-point in the middle):



The rest of the layout curved behind the camera from right to left, included the Shoofly, Mark's Town, Lockhart and the Staging Yard O' Necessity.

Nils has made some nifty additions to his industrial module, which we placed off the center / locus Effett Yard.
But nobody can see and appreciate his rockin' building & styrene work! or the little periscope to view the trackage inside the large industry!
So tomorrow we will move it to the mainline and replace it at the wye with a simple tail extension:



Recognize that?
Me neither!
It's two, 3' Ikea preformed shelves (I added the bracing, track and wiring) that can act as simple clamp-on tail tracks OR a 6' runaround that I made over 2 years ago and have NEVER used in operation until now!





So the audience will enjoy a scene flowing from Steve's Lockhart, TX into Nils Industrial module:





[that's Scott working the Industrial module: his fingers are so fast,
he can rerail
N scale
with a fingernail.]

and then the Staging Yard O' Necessity will be tucked back into the workspace.

Here's Nils & David F. (railnerd) basking in the glow of both neon beer signage & Rick B's amazing Silicon Valley Cal Train Station module:



So fun times for all!
Hope to get some video footage tomorrow.
Thanks for looking.

[eric220]

See you guys tomorrow!

[packers#1]

Very nice!

MC, I'll have to go get some pics soon of the shoo-fly they're installing in Clemson. There's an old RR bridge over the only road joining the two sides of town that they're replacing, so they've built a shoofly on another bridge around it.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks, Sawyer.
Would be interesting to see how they're doing the shoo-fly there.
On Google Map https://goo.gl/maps/Oq8t9 it shows them building the bridge for the shoo-fly right next to the track.
I wonder how far away they put the "turnouts" and what speed they limit the trains too.
It looks like there's an Amtrak station right there, so the trains will probably be going pretty slow anyway, yes?
Cool stuff!

Alrighty: Day Two!
First thing we did before the show started this morning swap a bunch of modules around.
We removed Nils' Industrial module from the wye at Effett Yard and replaced it with the simple Ikea shelf 6' runaround tail:



[I placed my hoodie over the end of the Ikea tail to create some mass for people to see out of eye-corner and thus avoid bumping--it's a single leg!]

Here's what it looked like yesterday:



And we spliced it into the mainline between Steve's Lockhart, TX module and a slew of 45's / Staging Yard O' Necessity:





This way people other than us could actually see all the great detail Nils worked into his work-in-progress (including the periscope in the fascia that allows you to peep into a large warehouse with interior trackage & lighting).
And it also placed the Staging Yard O' Necessity on the interior of our circled wagons and thus (theoretically) reduced the possibility of bumping the narrow yard.

Worked out well!
Still Point to Loop in a giant inverted "G" from Devil Mountain:



All the way around to Lockhart, Industrial & the SYON:



The wackiest arrangement was having Bridge O' Wonder next to Effett Yard:



But work out well, and turned Effett into a kinda Dunsmuir.
Yes, big steam at Effett!



Too bad they're both too big for the 8" turntable 

Actually, the wackiest image was some SPF's Pensy train traversing our California landscape:



Or maybe the fly washing the windows of the new modern buildings on Rick's Silicon Valley CalTrains station module:



But a change in perspective can do just the trick:



Thanks for looking.
Hope to have a short video cut together soon!
Happy Thanksgiving week 

[eric220]

Actually, the wackiest image was some SPF's Pensy train traversing our California landscape

Get used to it, bro. 

[Noah Lane]

That industrial module is epic!  I love the freeway and especially the signage. It practically makes me feel like I'm in Montague Expressway traffic on the 680.

[basementcalling]

   I would cause an urban flash flood with my drooling over the grain elevator scene. Lots to admire in that work.          

[M.C. Fujiwara]

It practically makes me feel like I'm in Montague Expressway traffic on the 680.

My god: we never wish that on anyone.
Especially after 3:17 in the afternoon!

Glad you like the Industrial Module: Nils has done a great job & adds more magic each month!
He's also rocking out his "Bridge O' Wonder" a bit better with each show:



Alrighty: here's the video of the Silicon Valley Free-moN layout at the Great Train Show (formerly GTE) at the Alameda County Fairgrounds November 22-23.

Includes a quick run through the layout, some switching scenes, and then some paradoxical, universe-warping model railroading whackiness that'll make you shake your head and say, "Oh, those freakin' funny Free-moN froods!"

After sunrise, the main source of lighting in our corner during this rainy weekend came from the neon beer signs at the snack shack next to our space, so please pardon the "dimmer" sections of video.

One bright moment: fellow forum friend & modeler eric220 showed up to run a crazy Pennsy Key steamer & consist, and he kept talking about module ideas, so we think we've brainwashed another Free-moNster 

We were missing our other return loop (Wye Knott) as well as quite a few other fab modules & modelers this weekend, but it was a great group of people on both sides of the layout, and it's always wonderful to get excited with friends, fellow modelers and first-timer suckers enthusiasts.

Hope you enjoy, and hope you're able to come out to the Great Train Show in Richmond, CA January 3-4, 2015.
http://www.greattrainexpo.com/shows/2015Richmond.html
A beautiful historic building, loads of light, many groovy layouts, a happy new year for all:


[From our January, 2014 show]

Thanks for looking.
Happy Thanksgiving all!

[Noah Lane]

My god: we never wish that on anyone.
Especially after 3:17 in the afternoon!

In a good a way!! 

I hope to see you guys at Richmond.

[eric220]

Why video no work?

Lemme get that for ya.