by Alan Ashton and Frank Wilhelm with contributions by Jerry Barsness and Mike Tietz

Editors note: Welcome to the second article on Free-mo by Alan Ashton. The previous article is available by 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 second installment (in PDF format) of our series on Free-mo is available to read or download by clicking here. In this article we discuss some of the details related to construction of a module. Later, we will cover leg options, electrical connections, command and control, and track planning.

I’ve also created a “module cost estimator” spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel) to help you determine what components you will need to build a module. In order to get some data into the worksheet, we are “building” a four foot, two main line module (26″ endplates). The model doesn’t take track or scenery into account but you can add items if you wish.

Be sure to read the general comments at the bottom of the worksheet.

There are two versions of the Excel spreadsheet. Click here to use the newer “open XML” version (extension .xlsx, which many applications besides Microsoft Excel can open). Click here to use the older (pre Excel 2007) version (extension .xls, which is more specific to Microsoft Excel).

If for any reason you cannot open the file and would like a static Adobe PDF file (that you won’t be able to modify), just e-mail me a request.

The Pacific Northwest Free-mo N Group has posted a couple of events scheduled for 2016. Mark your calendar if you are interested in Free-mo N:

  • Great Train Show – Saturday and Sunday, January 16th & 17th 2016; Location: Portland Expo Center
  • Meet-N-March – Saturday, April 9th 2016 (note that the web page still has the 2015 date on it and will be updated in the near future); Location: Valley Catholic High School, 4275 SW 148th Ave, Beaverton, Oregon

As always, we invite your comments and let us know if this is helpful. Also, please share your sources for module components.