Modular Model Railroads

The Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society will host a meet at La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona, on Saturday, April 19. Here’s the official meet website including the clinic line-up:http://www.atsfrr.com/convention/Winslow.htm

You do not have to be a Society member to attend the meet.

SouthWest Free-mo will again be part of the Society’s meet and will set-up trackside in the Depot waiting room at the La Posada Hotel. SouthWest Free-mo will be in the Depot on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 18-20. Here are photos from last year’s SouthWest Free-mo Winslow set-up:

http://www.pbase.com/intermodal/winslow_2007

The Hostlers 2008 Model Railroad Festival will be held February 29 to March 2 at the Union Station in Ogden Utah.  Adult admission is $5.00 and includes all Festival attractions as well as the Ogden Union Station Museums.  Children under 12 are free.  This the the intermountain West’s largest show, attracting about 7,000 people in 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

Montana NTRAK will be at the Gallatin Valley Mall in Bozeman, MT on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 26-27, 2008.  The Exposition will introduce Montana Ntrak and the hobby of Ntrak modular model railroading to the Bozeman general public.  We will have trains running continuously on four lines: Red, Yellow, and Blue with the big radius turns, and Green (the Mountain Line) up top.

Spring Free-Mo at RIT will be held at the Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, New York on March 21, 22, 23.   Please contact the run chief, Mike Walsh, by February 3, 2008 to participate with modules in this event.  More information is available in a pdf at:  http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/insanerocketkid/RITMRC_Spring_2008.pdf

The Eagle Rock Railroad Historical Society (“ERRHS”) in Idaho Falls Idaho held their annual Railshow 2007 on October 13-14, 2007.  The Great Basin Lego Train Club, the Rocky Mountain Hi-Railers and the Hostlers displayed operating layouts, along with the Eagle Rock’s permanent club layout in the basement.

Hostlers Model Railroad Club (“HMRRC”) from Ogden, Utah had their HO modular layout on display.  The Hostlers run NMRA compliant modules with 3 lines.  The outer line is DC and the two inner lines are DCC.

Hostlers wide radius corner modules. Read the rest of this entry »

Usenet has several model railroading groups but none targeting modular or sectional model railroading. 

Most well known and largest is rec.models.railroad with over 100,000 messages as of June 2007.   There is a large amount of useful general model railroading information that is best found using a search engine, like Google.  Being usenet, it is unmoderated, and cluttered by trolls and spam. Read the rest of this entry »

Modular-Model-Railroads.com is your complete Internet resource for modular, sectional and portable model railroading.

Our content will focus on the following topics:

• Modular – Sections with a standard interface, height, width and length.
• Sectional – A layout made to be portable, but without a standard interface.
• Small Layouts – A lot of small layout track plans will make nice modules.
• Lightweight – Construction of light but sturdy benchwork and scenery.
• Switching Puzzles – Including John Allen’s Timesaver and the Inglenook Siding.
• Standards – Both organizations and individual clubs
• Construction – Methods of constructing benchwork, legs, scenery, electrical, etc.

modular-model-railroads.com believes sectional or modular railroading has many important advantages over traditional, site built layouts, including: Read the rest of this entry »

The following sites have linked to modular-model-railroads.com:

TrainNet.org – The Most Accurate and Up-To-Date List of Railway Links on the Planet.

Sacramento Modular Railroaders – A state-of-the-art modular HO scale model railroad that has been in existance for over three decades.

ScaleModel.net – International List of Scale Model Related Web Sites.

Top Train Links – A Web Directory For Fans of Railroading

Répertoire des sites ferroviaires – A list of model railroading sites, in French.

Free-mo.org – The latest in HO scale modular model railroading.  Free-mo was developed with the idea that a set of standards focusing mainly on module endplates would enable faithful modeling of prototype trackplans and operations in a modular environment.

RailsUSA.com – A Rail Site Directory featuring both scale and prototype railroad information, webrings, calendars, directory, merchandise and free classifieds.

ModelRailroadData.com – A searchable, categorized directory of model railroad suppliers. Featuring links to hundreds of suppliers, manufacturers and hobby shops, Model RailroadData.com is one of most popular model railroad resources on the web. Features include a search engine, lists of new and popular sites, site ratings and more.