Søren's Model Railway Pages

About model railways in H0

NAVIGATION

Building a module

I build my model railway modules according to the FREMO standards or at least somewhat close to that. What this means you can read about on the FREMO website. This article is about building a module.

I am building a standard main line module approx. 1 meter in length and 50 cm wide and is the first of two or three modules that will go together as a section of a main line. My initial thoughts on landscape were some sort of forest or perhaps a railway at the outskirts of a forest. I think that would be a nice setting.

But first, I need the basic module structure to come together.  

A model train
The module has a solid bottom plate and a road bed of wood. The road bed will be re-inforced.

Assembling the module is pretty basic wood work. I am by no means a carpenter all star, so I had a friend help me with the assempling part. But I think I would be able to assemble the next module myself.

The corners are put together by screws and I have not glued anything. The reason being that I want to be able to adjust and correct stuff, should that ever be necessary. I am not sure whether or not it ever will be, but time will tell us that. 

A model train
The corners are held in place by wood blocks. These wood blocks will also work as part of the leg locks.

The module profiles go on the outside of the module sides. Giving the module a width of 50 cm and a length of 100 cm. You can choose whatever length you feel like, but I find 100 cm to be a good length to work with, because you will easily be able to lift the module up and move it around. Longer length will require two persons. 

A model trainThe screws will be covered by some kind of filler and painted over.

The legs of the modules is held in place by leg locks. There are several different approaches to choose from, but my friends and I have choosen a simple clamp type lock. We designed the parts so the big metal screws will not be visible from the outside.

A model train
The metal parts will not be visible from the outside of the module. Giving the sides a cleaner look.

Before assembling the leg lock, I need to make sure that the leg fits. When the lock parts are in place, I put a piece of wood over them, that, when tightened, will work as the lock itself.

A model train

The leg lock is really simple, and makes it easy to work with the module. It will work on any module you can come up with. And you can adapt it to different situations.

That's it for now. The module is about done, and the work on the electronics can begin.

Update: The FREMO end pieces used are the type B96 (hill). I later found out, that there is a newer type B02. I will use that for future modules with hills. For modules without hills I use the F02v1 module piece. I will try to only use FREMO "official" pieces. This will work best when I need to connect my modules with others. My plan is to have my railway end in a flat piece. This will ease the transition to other modules and landscape types.

Happy modelling!