A few members of the FREMO americaN group wrote an article for issue december 2020 issue of the N Scale Railroading Magazine. During a small modular meeting we took photos of the operations. We choose to follow a single train during operating session and explain the thoughts and operations in detail in this article.
Tag: americaN
Module: Cascade, ID
Cascade, Idaho. Is consists of eight segments and has a total length of about six meters. It has three industry tracks with a total of about 14 spots, a three meter long passing siding and a wye to connect a to a branch or turn trains.
Building Cascade 11: Running out of time and kits
Close to the deadline set by our participation at the US Model Railroad Convention 2019 in Rodgau, I ran out of time and kits. I had the kit for a small diner at hand but I had seen this structure on at least two modules in our group and wanted to create a different version of it. So I had to improvise a solution to fill some spaces on my module.
Building Cascade 9: Scratch building with left overs
South of East Mill Street in Cascade Idaho are some interesting buildings. At the far south of the town there is a Rodeo arena with its stables. Due to space limitations I decided not to model it, but I added a freelanced workshop and wanted to add the diner I already had bought.
Building Cascade 8: Same, but different
Northeastern Scale Models offers a nice Structure “One Story Section House” in its Small Trackside Structures (STS) Series. I got three of these. I used them to kit bash two neighbouring houses, that look very different.
Building Cascade 7: Going fency
Due to the selected level of compression, the lots are smaller – most of all shorter – than in the prototype. But even in the prototype some of the lots are quite narrow and accommodate a small house and a garage. I wanted to capture this look and feel and found some kits, that would help me to achieve that.
Building Cascade 6: Renovation required
Opposite of the Cascade Depot there are multiple lots with either small business or private structures. The houses in Cascade near the railroad tracks are an interesting mix. Most of the houses are quite unique and do not repeat along the street. A few years ago I bought a few laser kits for different houses. Some of the kits either contained two or three samples of the same house or I simply bought multiples of them. So I had a good stock of parts to kit bash a nice variety of houses for my module.
Building Cascade 5: The Lumber Warehouse
The Hallack & Howard Lumber Company Sawmill is the main industry in Cascade and on my module. It has two tracks and generates about 6 to 9 cars incoming and outgoing traffic every day. Let me show you, how it was built.
Building Cascade 4: The Depot
I wanted to capture the look of the prototype as close as possible but I could not find any kit that came close enough. So I decided to create the depot my self. I constructed it in 3D CAD and got it printed by Shapeways.
From Hamburg to Sweden: Modular railroads on the move
In August 2018 a group of five brave members of the FREMO americaN group travelled from Germany to Sweden. We met just north of Hamburg and continued together with a transporter and a minibus.