Silicon Valley FreeMo-N is at the annual Trains and Planes Show at Hiller Aviation Museum, San Carlos CA, again this year. We set up this morning and will be there through next Sunday, April 7. Museum is open everyday from 10am - 4pm; come visit us! With the number of modules we have at the show this year, we had to loop in on ourselves to fit in the allotted space (Sorry about the wing of the Wright Flyer obstructing part of the layout) Here is a bit zoomed in More photos to follow during the week (and who knows, maybe even some video)
Day 2 of the show was dominated by serious computer/JMRI problems (was really the computer, our home built Linux DCC-in-a-Box), to the point where I drove home and got all my DCC stuff, plus laptop. Of course, just as I got home, I got a call that everything was working again (after painful reboot), but am keeping all my stuff available, as well. Today, thought I would highlight other member's modules and trains. First up - one of our members has built a module modeling Montara Beach (just north of Half Moon Bay, CA). There used to be a railroad through the area (not quite where it is placed here), but the lighthouse is still there (3-D printed) From the other side The waves are really cool Looking down at the beach below the trestle
One of our younger members has built a long module (seen in the central area of the overhead shots). His buildings are fantastic
We also had an unusual visitor on the US-based layout. Figured someone must have come up with a blue-tooth catenary; otherwise how could it run?
Day 3 -- Being a Monday, participation by our team drops significantly, as most everyone needs to be at work. The computer issues seem to be over, but typical track/layout problems always occur (amazing how the modules continue to change, day by day, with weather changes). But nothing we couldn't handle, and trains ran smoothly. I tried (and failed) to take some video with the new camera (well, I got video, just not worth posting). Read up some more on this feature last night, so will try again today (want to get some good auto-tracking shots, with continuous focus). In the meantime... took out my PFE Reefer unit train. Have last year's 16-car weathered 40' reefer set, an older 3-car 40' reefer runner pack, and 2 50' reefers, running behind a Black Widow F3ABA consist Here is the old and the "less old" in Silicon Valley Station Had not meant to underexpose this photo so drastically, but created a cool "night shot"
The train came to a halt along the Pacific Coast at Montara Lighthouse. Here, the lead unit (6103) has come to a halt, sticking its nose out through the windbreak of eucalyptus tress. Note the red emergency beacon Climbing up above the cars, one sees some modern cars, highly decorated, at the wharehouse
Looking up to the front of the train, and the eucalyptus grove (hand made, by Scott Forrest) Got the signal to move on
Off shore drone shots, while it was stopped (ok, I pulled the camera back a bit from the modules) Looking east Looking north (and somehow Lockhart, TX is north of Montara, CA) Looking south
Day 4 - didn't get any great shots, today (Tuesday), but did spend some time shooting video. Pretty meh, but I will edit something together from them after the show is complete. Only a very small team there today, so spent most of the time running trains!
Lot of windows there. Will have lot of temperature change. Had that problem with a lot of overhead windows. Lot of expansion at midday and contraction in shadows. Looks like a lot of fun.
With all the aircraft displays, etc, there is actually very good temperature control in the facility. Plus. not too much external swings this week. A bit more humidity changes noticed, as the internal loading of the building changes with occupancy. After the normal first couple days of modules stabilizing to the environment, we have had few issues requiring adjustment of the layout all week (and mostly due to someone knocking a module -- usually one of us)
The potential problem with FreeMo layouts is that they can be very wasteful of space. Space is at a premium at train shows in our area and layouts have been told to reduce the size of their footprint at some shows. Venders who pay for the space get top priority. I schedule the shows our club attends and rarely are we permitted to have a layout utilizing all of our modules. We try to go linear rather than build the area encompassing 'Fort Ntrak'. The exception to all this, at least here, is the O gauge Hi Railers who seem to be the fair haired favorite. We could set up our layout inside of theirs. Then again this area has a large percentage of O gauge fans and most of the venders are either strictly O gauge or a combination of O and HO. N scalers are a distant third. In a venue like the aviation museum you might be able to spread your wings (pun intended) as there is no other layouts competing for space. We just don't see those types of venues in our locale. And if you think I'm sort of envious, well, yeah. . . I am.
There will be an 8000 sq ft FreeMoN layout at the NTS in Salt Lake in July. We had originally requested 12k sq ft (I, unfortunately, won’t be able to attend, but many of our modules will be there). Based on current response, it will have more linear feet than the one in Portland 2015.
some nice work there! looks like you had some fun! like others wish we had somewhere reasonably sized to run for a week... I do agree the Montara modules are really nice, the waves and beach, it's unusual to see models of that and done well. and top marks on the weathering of the reefer block!
Can't take credit for the reefer weathering, that was last year's Micro-Trains 16-car release. Need to thank @Joe D'Amato for that one.
