I have a confession, I have hundreds of On30 items and nowhere to run them! As the local NMRA group has run out of steam a bit, the suggestion came that we try a Fremo group.
FREMO stands for “Freundeskreis Europäischer MOdellbahner”, translated Friendship of European railway modellers. In the USA there is another set of groups, the Free-Mo, or Free form Modules. Using modules allows the group to temporarily set-up a large layout requiring more space than can be rented permanently. No unprototypical circular layouts are put together so the modules may have almost any size and shape. Only the faceplates need to meet some basic standards. This allows even the largest radii you can think of and features to be built fully to scale. The only limit is the amount of bench work, tracks and scenery anyone is prepared to build and carry around.
Modules may look quite different from plain track, straight or curved, including features like signals, to a set of segments forming one big module. The only restriction is the standardized face plate, allowing the modules to be put together in any sequence.
Standards
I pulled together a proposed set of standards which can be found here.
Prototype Inspiration
I’m basing my modules loosely on the Argent. I love the swamp logging and the following photos give an idea of what it is like:
