Free-moN New York Central/Conrail Toledo Division Free-moN Layout

[btrain]

Had a great time at Altoona N Scale Weekend with the Free-moN layout and seeing all the goodies vendors had to offer. I brought up the Styrker loop. The next show it will be at, this loop and will have scenery and structures added. I was happy to see the PSXX-AR reverser had done its job well and didn't give me any problems.

Here's a photo of the loop for anyone curious about building a Free-moN one with the inner radius being 22", the minimum curve allowed in the standard. Along with an idea for its train capacity. Also, the good news is that all of this can fit into the trunk of a Toyota Corolla.

[seusscaboose]

i just noticed your WYE is built to have a straight through bypass...   iwill you eventually drop that track in?

[btrain]

i just noticed your WYE is built to have a straight through bypass...   iwill you eventually drop that track in?

Yep, that track will be put in before the next showing for the loop. Here's the track plan for the loop. The outer loop will act as a turnaround with a three to two track module, which is shown at the bottom left corner of the plan. The inner loop can be used for that as well, but also acts as a siding or staging for trains if the 3 to 2 is attached to a single track module at the bottom end of it.

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[btrain]

I know that I shouldn’t play with my trains on the floor, since stepping on a tank car has to be on par with feeling the pinch of a Lego during a midnight trip to the refrigerator.

All kidding aside, I wanted to get a good look at how Berea interlocking would look in real life. So I printed off the eastern part of the AnyRail file and put buildings and rolling stock on it. I had to compress the interlocking by half, but both eastern and western halves will be 7’ 10” when combined. I was pretty satisfied with how everything looked.

The track layout is based around 1980, before Conrail tore up the eastbound Big Four main by the depot. It doesn’t depict NYC days, since that would be a madhouse of switches and double crossovers, which would blow my track budget out of the water.

For those interested in the structures, BE tower is made by Yelton Models, and the depot is by Leopard Architectural Models. Both are beautifully rendered.

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[DirtyD79]

I remember there was an article in January1995 Model Railroader where some dude was building either an O or S scale version of that station out of plaster. I think nowadays it's a restaurant.

[seusscaboose]

I’m liking it

[btrain]

Change has come to the loop. Originally it was to be modeled after the town of Stryker, with the NYCHS Lines West depot and Farmer's Exchange Mill being the dominant parts of the scene. But after viewing the loop at Altoona, and another show in Columbus this past January, it just didn't seem logical to have what is a broad tangent scene be compressed into a curve with no back drop. I could have added a back drop, but that would have hindered the main goal of these modules, which is to make them as compact as possible for transport.

I did put myself in kind of an awkward spot for planning with attempting to find a way to make the double track split into the loop look natural, and a 3D mock-up would of saved me in time and materials before ambition got the best of me. One evening I was thumbing through a Morning Sun NYC book and came across a chapter about the railroad's interlockings. Much to my delight I came across Swan Creek tower in Toledo. It's where the Chicago line splits and goes west with a double track main going up to Detroit. It also forms the eastern entrance to Air Line yard. 

https://northamericaninterlockings.com/images/swancreekOHgeletzke3.JPG?517

SwanCreekTowerToledoOH12-26-64 by The Official Railohio, on Flickr

Perfect! This would check all the boxes for me that I was stumbling with originally. The tower stayed in the same relative paint scheme in the two time periods I'm modeling in the early 1950s and 1979. Plus the yard tracks would serve as a good visual block from the other side of the loop, provide a source of traffic during Free-mon events with transfer runs, along with compact staging at home.

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I added a three to two module at the bottom to help with continuous double track running for trains taking the outer loop. Unlike the Stryker plan, a siding was added to the inner loop to help with capacity at shows, which will also function as an arrival/departure track for the two track yard.

The foam that had formed the inner part of the loop was knocked out and replaced with the same grade of 1/2" sanded plywood used for the mainline sub roadbed. Cork and track has been laid down this week, with PC board ties soldered to the rails at the ends. All that's needed is wiring and the addition of a NCE AR10 auto reverser for the outer main loop. I've been debating about using sanded grout once the track is painted for the yard. If anyone has used this technique before, I'm open for suggestions for techniques and suppliers. 



One thing I wanted to add is that throughout my Free-Mo experience, coming up with a design for good legs and pockets has been a bit frustrating for me. I'm no master carpenter, or fabricator, and wanted something lighter and easier to store than what I've used before. On my Bellevue layout, I used a Modutrak design which is very good, but that's not helpful in connecting with other modules of varying widths with no pockets. I have put 1/2" x 3" legs secured to a plywood plate, that slips into the bench work braces on my earlier Lake Shore Central, but that proved to be too bulky in transport.

On the Facebook group, I came across @Mark W of Free-moNebraska design, which is easy to accomplish with basic tools. He uses schedule 80 3/4" PVC pipe to form the body of the pocket, with 1/2" electrical conduit as the legs. The adjustable feet (https://www.mcmaster.com/product/23015T66) are added to the legs and peened into place with a 3/8" nut. 

A word of warning, be sure that you use Charlotte pipe for the pocket, as I ordered another brand and the inner diameter was too small to accept the conduit.



I have used a large 3/8" bolt to secure the legs in the pocket, which is way over kill, and further ones will be constructed with more manageable thumb screws.

The thing that really helps is the straps, and these Pro Connex Rigid's (https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/conduit-conduit-fittings-raceways/conduit-fittings-supports/sigma-proconnex-trade-rigid-1-hole-strap/1802m/p-1444430900618-c-9538.htm)
really do a good job on clamping to the end plates and I haven't had one jostle loose in handling.

[btrain]

Well there’s nothing like a deadline to set fire to my feet, and to push a project towards a presentable state. This spring I had completed benchwork and land forming on a pair of 45* corner modules with a 22” inner radius. Originally these were to be built further in the future for the scenic approaches to the Sandusky Bay causeway.

I was invited along with other Free-monites to participate in the Operations Roadshow for the national NMRA convention in Novi, Michigan. In late winter of this year, the organizer for the layout needed something like these corners to help complete the layout. Being that they were on my to-do list, I was happy to oblige. As the weeks passed, life did its thing where time for hobbies became a precious commodity and the project was side lined.

One curve would be of the old Ohio State Route Two bridge over the Chicago main. This spot is the vacation ghost town of Danbury, with the camp and cottage sites of Sonny’s Beach which were happening places in the period I’m modeling during 1950s and 1980s. Now a few vacationers still enjoy Danbury, but Sonny’s is a withered retreat that serves as a country distraction for urban explorers.

The other corner will have a pair MSS signals representing the west side of Vermilion. The location is a bit odd with mini-General Railway Signal searchlights that were typically seen on NYC lines east of Buffalo, but from what I can determine, this style was chosen over the tri-lights because of the lake fog that would often envelop the area.

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Fast forward to a week and a half ago and the pair of modules was looking barren and bad. Thumbing through Kathy Millatt’s scenery book gave me a great list of to-dos, so that everything came together in layers of scenery that looked natural and the project could be completed fast!

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While juggling other obligations, I was able to lay track, ballast, build structure kits, layer on the scenery before it was time to pack up and head to motor city. I also put scenery down on the Airline Yard loop during this time as well. There’s still more to do on both, but I was relieved not to show trains going through a barren land.

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The timetable and trainorder operations roadshow was pretty enjoyable, with a few stressful moments for a first time operator such as myself. I do encourage everyone to give it a try, there is a small learning curve to it, but it will give you an immense amount of respect to all those old school railroaders, especially engineers, who had to balance so many things to avoid a cornfield meet.

The show was very enjoyable too, seeing both versions of Modutrak side by side about had my brain oooozzz out of my head from the shear amount of incredible talent exhibited. If you’re interested in prototype modeling, a pilgrimage to see these is a must! It was also nice to meet Free-monites from all over the country to share tips, tricks, and swap stories.

[Lemosteam]

The carpet in this shot is hurting my brain, lol.

[btrain]

The carpet in this shot is hurting my brain, lol.

Haha, I didn’t notice that until you mentioned it! I think I played with a spirograph too much as a kid.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The carpet in this shot is hurting my brain, lol.

Lol, I wonder if it's the same one from the ballroom in Bethlehem too. That was similarly a mess!

[Lemosteam]

Haha, I didn’t notice that until you mentioned it! I think I played with a spirograph too much as a kid.

Seriously- it if weren't for the support posts (which kinda blend away anyway) it looks like that its painted in the center at the plane of the track.  And you did a masterful job of centering it in the picture too.

[btrain]

Last summer during the NMRA convention in Novi, Michigan I was looking over Dan Lewis' spectacular Milwaukee Road North Montana Line. Soaking in all of the craftsmanship and scenery, I uttered to @SAH that "I'm never watching TV ever again" and hope to spend all my free time in the work shop building this project. Well bad habits came creeping back and fortunately for my module building ambitions it's election season, and with the barrage of campaign ads on Youtube, I'm all too happy to grab a saw, razor knife, or paint brush and head back to work.

Another spark to get back into this project was created by the need for a MSS equipped junction for the Free-moN setup for the Altoona N Scale weekend this September. While Berea interlocking would have been nice, the complexities of multiple crossovers and the Iowa Scaled Engineering's SimpleSig Block Signal Custom not available yet on the market, another solution was needed.

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I do have a rough list on cool locations that I'd like to model on this stretch of railroad, and one of them being the Baumhart Road overpass at the city limits of Lorain, Ohio. On the prototype it's a control point where Conrail trains branched off into Fairlane yard to serve a Ford plant. It's also visually stark. Since the nation’s bicentennial celebrations it has a red, white, and blue paint job that always features the talents of local graffiti artist. The only change to the track plan compared to the prototype is that the main rectangle module is a two to three tracks, instead of three with two crossovers. The octagon module features the switch off to Fairlane yard that can act as the spur for another MSS equipped line, while the third line parrel to the main can be MOW storage, or as a siding when I complete future neighboring modules.

It’s funny how the things that are closest to us in memory or geography, often light the brightest fire under ourselves in model building. I’ve attacked this module with quite some zeal as it’s fun to play around in these construction phases, with placing equipment on it that I barley remember or just had missed from childhood.

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Last weekend I started on the benchwork, and with a couple cups of coffee and the miracle material of balsa wood, I was able to get everything roughed in by last night on it. This week the MSS boards, micro JST connectors, and a few more LEDs for the signals will be ordered.
Before everything is settled into place, I was wondering what does everyone use to seal in balsa wood? Diluted Moge pod looks promising, but an AI inquiry on google provided foggy answers. 

[seusscaboose]

Brian,

Baumhart Rd. is near and dear to me... being born at St. Joseph's in Lorain...  i like that part of the region

Getting back to your Toledo module...  I am planning on building the Toledo station there... in FreeMoN at some point...  it fits nicely with my Millbury Jct. modules...

let me know when you get to Bellevue (Pt. Deux) and I'll be in for the Wheeling Tower and the crossing there...  the Mad River is a special place to me.

EP