Alan Ashton, article by Frank Wilhelm with contributions by Al Cunningham
Editors note: Welcome to the 4th article on Free-mo by Alan Ashton and fellow Free-mo enthusiasts. The previous article is available by a clicking here, or by filtering with the category “Free-mo”. Alan welcomes discussions and feedback by comments at the bottom of the post or by e-mailing him at inwafreemo@gmail.com. If you’re interested in helping promote Free-mo in the 4th Division (e.g. event notification or writing articles) please contact me at gi_editor@4dpnr.com.
The 4th installment (in PDF format) of our series on Free-mo is available to read or download by clicking here. Our series of articles is designed to share experiences building Free-mo modules. As always, your comments are appreciated. Enjoy this well thought out document that describes the elements of Free-mo electrical components.
Wishing you good luck! I tried 5 or 6 years ago with a series of columns in the 4D newsletter, promoting Free-mo. got O responses!, very frustrating! John Colley, ex Port Townsend, now Sonoma, CA participating in NorCal Free-mo.
The Tacoma Northwestern Model Railroad Club is moving to Free-mo. One simple module is under way, but no others have yet to be built. We’re really looking forward to getting it going, but we have a limited wood shop issue right now
Hi John Colley! I was 100% behind you (as Grab Iron assistant editor at the time) in trying to promote Free-mo in the 4th Division when you wrote your articles five years ago, and was also disappointed that the effort didn’t gain much traction. It does seem that there is a lot more momentum and interest now versus then, so we’ll see how it goes. In particular, I’m looking for someone in 4D to publicize and coordinate similar to what Alan is doing in the 5th Division.
With respect to the LocoNet Bus it should be noted that the Digitrax UP5 throttle panel does not work with systems other than Digitrax. Thus if you really want a module that is truly inter-connectable, it is recommend the use of the Universal Throttle Panel as marketed by Tony’s Train Exchange and others if using commercial throttle panels.
Thanks, Mark – we (Alan and I) modified Alan’s original Free-mo post to note this:
https://4dpnr.com/an-introduction-to-free-mo-part-1-exploring-this-form-of-model-railroading/
In particular:
… Alternatively you can use the NCE UTP RJ-12 fascia panels (vs Digitrax UP5s) and they will support either NCE or Digitrax (the Digitrax panels will not work with NCE cabs, but the NCE panels will support LocoNet).
The Boeing Employees’ Model RR Club is building Free-Mo modules for our club. We are in the process of building 10 6′ modules and 4 corner modules (curved track).