Free-moN: At Home & On The Road

M.C., if I could 'just throw dirt on things' like that I would be a very happy fella! Your work is amazing and inspiring! Thanks for sharing.

James

 

Thanks, James.
This past week has been a lot of dirt, grout, gravel and ballast, so I feel a bit like a backhoe (resist the jokes, gents!).

I've never really gone for a styrene structure bigger than a shack, mainly because I immensely dislike cutting out all the doors and windows.
Maybe I'm just a wuss but that short and heavy cutting action and pressure really bothers my hands and elbows.
Plus plank by plank looks so cool.

But after seeing all the nifty structures Nils built out of styrene, I thought I'd give it another go.
But first I wandered over to the local Michaels (craft store) to see if they had anything that could help out.
Like a square leather punch.
No square leather punch, but they did have THIS:



In the scrapbooking section, I found a punch with a small rectangular head (they also had hearts and stars if you want).
Not only was it on sale for $3.50 (reg. $4.99), but the long side of the rectangle is about perfect for some smaller Grandt Line windows!

Here I'm using it on some clapboard styrene for the tipple windows (which are really sections of plastic industrial handrails):



I found it's easier to punch with the bottom of the rectangle "inside" the window hole, as if you press too hard there is a little denting of the styrene from the base under the rectangle punch head.

It's also pretty square, and once you punch one "chad" it's easy to use the head to align for an extended punch.
You just punch the four corners and then you can use the knife to connect the dots:



And not have to worry about slipping and scoring past the window cut.

Tah dah!



Cut those windows accurately and in about 1/2 the time with knife alone.

So that's how I made the "Eggel River Mining Co." tipple today:





The carts bringing in the black diamonds are Randgust's V&T ore cars that I accidentally vacuumed up about a year or so ago.

There'll be a couple other smaller buildings behind it (office, storage) and a lot of trees and bushes, but I want to wait until the water cures completely so I don't get a lot of foam falling into tacking water.



So it's a little bare there.

Also installed the IWW hall, a partial shack and some trees (all left over from Mt. Coffin):



I made my own decals for both tipple and Wobbly Hall, but I didn't like how they turned out.
Also need to paint some white background on sections of the Wobbly Hall before putting on any more decals.

So that's probably it for today.
I've been up since 3 and I still need to pack up the car with my own modules to take to the show set up tomorrow.
Then I'll put more trees and bushes on the Wye Knot module.
And I gotta build those endplates!
And clean all the track!
And make sure trains can run!
Then haul it to the show Sat. morning for the mad setup madness.

Thanks for looking.

 

So last night I thought I'd put just a few more trees & bushes on before I went to bed.
An hour later I'd used up the rest of my Mt. Coffin pines (about 200).
[sorry for the washed-out photos]















Still need a bunch o' trees and bushes and tufts and...

Not sure if I'll have time today but I would like to get The Company Freighthouse and Store built and installed (where the red fuel truck is now).
But if it doesn't happen that's ok: it'll just be a long team track for now.

Well, time to start packing the car (after removing all the seats).
Hope to share pictures of our longest Free-moN layout yet tomorrow!

Thanks for looking.

 

Awesome, I wish I still lived in CA!

Thanks for posting.

James

 

So I finally took down the Wye Knot module so I could build the endplates:



The modules are 5' from point to point.
And 5' is baaaaaaaaaaaad for a Rav4: couldn't stack them, couldn't sit them side-by-side.
Had to jam one all the way up to the glove compartment (all seats gone except the drivers!) and then angle the other one from the left backseat door to the right of the rear hatch.
Fun stuff.

So I'm going to keep my own modules to 4' max (as long as I keep the Rav4).

But I did test out the module before I packed it up:

[video=youtube_share;IdARl8_nf0k]http://youtu.be/IdARl8_nf0k[/video]

Hope that tides you all over until I get the video footage from the show done and up

Should be an epic layout and show this weekend.
Hope to see you there!

 

Always love to see your work! Cain't wait to see the vids from the show, you all have a great group there.

 

Long day at the show, standing on concrete in Chuck Taylors from 8am to 7pm.
But fun fun fun, running long trains over new modules, talking to lots and lots of people, everything actually work pretty well.

Shot a lot of groovy video today but no time to edit it yet (must. hit. the. sack.), but here's a panorama of the whole set up:



We have a 40'x40' space, and run pretty much all the way around the outer boundaries with a bunch of curves and undulations in there.



Probably at least 150' of main one way, and since most trains originate and terminate in Effett Yard in the middle, that's at least 300' of running the whole circuit.

Nils' module is awesome, and he's built only the 12' woodmill half: can't wait for the next 12' of Davenport Cement Co.!

Now we need some more curved modules so we can fold the modules into a big "S" and squeeze more mainline running into the same space

 

Besides the incoming videos, I would like to see how some of the other modules are transported. Like "bridge of wonder" and the 12' modules. Are these 12' modules actually able to break up in sections?

I'm a big fan! You guys are making freemoN cool.

 

The Bridge O' Wonder is 7'3" with an 18" tunnel section.
Both fit in the back of Nils' Great White Truck.

The 12' woodmill module is made up of two 6' sections plus a 4' temporary jag to bring the main back to the middle.
The future Davenport Cement plant sections that will attach to the woodmill will also be two 6' sections.
So the whole kit n' kaboodle will be 24' (four 6' sections).
All of which will fit in the back of Nils' Great White Truck.

Thanks, but it's the other way around: Free-moN makes you cool.

Alrighty!
Here's a few photos and the video:

The quarry on the inside of the Wye Knot module:



Nils' 12'-long woodmill module:



The mill building itself is a mock-up stand in.
Nils scratched the woodchip loader, storage shed and all the wrapped lumber stacks.
The Davenport Cement plant will be on another 12' module (two 6' sections) at the far end of this one, starting right where that little grey coal shed and conveyor is at the end.
Prepare for pure awesomeness when it's all together and Nils works more of his mad modeling magic!

We learned a lot this show, like don't put Steve's Lockhart, TX module next to Effett Yard:



With so much traffic coming through Effett it was nearly impossible to switch the industries at Lockhart.
If we had just flipped Lockhart around it would have been fine!

And here's the video.
It just took FOUR HOURS to upload and "process" on YouTube.
The video is 13 minutes at 1080p, and it looks very good on a full, wide screen.
Grab some popcorn and a cold one and enjoy.

[video=youtube_share;xIRfqMcMrg0]http://youtu.be/xIRfqMcMrg0[/video]

[There's quite a few Trainboarders in the video in both starring and cameo roles: see if you can find them all!]

Thanks for looking.

 

Sorry, Rick.

I guess that's why it took YouTube FOUR HOURS to process the video

I did, however, find a photo of your best side, and touched up your hair and posture with Fo-to-shlept:



Hey, I just got a GREAT idea for Silicon Valley Free-moN's new Operating Uniforms...

 

Free-moN: At Home & On The Road

Outstanding!! Great video!!

 

WOWSERS !!! Just Wowsers !! And I will leave it at that ^5 guys !

 

What more can be said? Thanks MC for your hard work in putting the video together and all of the FreemoN'rs that brought their modules to the meet. Makes us east coasters a bit envious . Great modeling, beautiful modules, WOW!

NCDaveD

 

Thanks for the kind words.
NCDaveD: there seems to be more and more interest in Free-moN on the East Coast (at least I get a lot of emails asking for info on Free-moN and groups and how to start a club / anarcho-collective).
It really only takes one or two people to get the ball rolling.
"If you build it, they will come."

BTW: we prefer "Free-moNsters" (pronounced "Free-Mo'-EN-sters" or "Free-MONsters" ), as "Free-moNers" could be mis-pronounced as "Free-MOANers"

 

I agree,,, most awesome work. The video ain't bad neither. Makes envious....no group like that around these here parts.

Looking forward to see more vids and progress pictures.

Adios, Wyatt