Welcome to Freem009 Australia. This standard is based on one published by PaulRhB on RMweb, and has successfully been used with a group turning up, assembling a railway and running it in just a few hours. The standard is defined by an end connector plate, a scenic colour for the transition between modules, a track height, and DCC control.

The theme regarding scenery, buildings, rollingstock and locomotives are British narrow-gauge.

Track Standards:

Peco ‘Mainline’ or ‘Crazy’ 009 track is to be used. The first 20mm of track at the board end should be straight to prevent angles at the join. Minimum radius on the mainline is 12 inches, but the bigger the better so aim for 18 inches. Tracksetta tools are useful for this process.

Minimum radius for sidings is 9 inches. If you want to use sharper radii for industrial tracks, then please supply an industrial shunter capable of traversing these sharper curves.

Recommended but not essential is to aim for any station loop to run round three Peco L&B coaches (480mm) if possible but a minimum of two (320mm). 40mm track spacing recommended for double track, minimum 35mm. Headshunts for locos are preferred to be a minimum of 140mm, as it allows larger locos such as Fairlies to run around without a shunt release.

Points:

Points are recommended to be changed by hand, using slide switches or push rods and being compatible with DCC, switching the frog polarity on electrofrog points. All methods of switching points must be accessible from both sides of the baseboard without requiring operators to reach over the board, such as push rods embedded in holes in the side of the board.

Points must have at minimum

Diagram: Gary Rumming https://platform1mrc.com/

Ballast colour should be Woodland scenic Grey Blend: Medium WB94 or WB1394 or Fine WB1393. Weathering the ballast is recommended.

Endplates:

The modules will be clamped together for simple connection. The end profile allows for a 3mm cork roadbed, which is produced by companies such as AMRI (0404 Strips for N Scale) and are readily available from most hobby stores, however brand isn’t as important as height.

Plates should be made from a template provided and use 9mm thick Plywood for rigidity. The are available on the Will James Railways website

The rails at the joins between modules should use either copper clad sleepers or 009 scale PCB sleepers, such as those available from ControlIt. Both require to be glued to the benchwork.

ControlIt 009 PCB Sleepers

Module ideas:

Modules may be any shape, length or width as long as they are no wider than the endplate where they meet other modules.

Backscenes are not included in the standard, and all modules are required to be operational from both sides

Modules must be free standing without relying on other modules for support, but may consist of multiple boards to form a module, how they are supported at intermediate ends is up to the builder

DCC:

A member of the group to provide a dcc command station capable of supporting multiple handsets by Wi-Fi. Accessories such as point motors must not be powered from the track BUS, and must have an independent power supply if they are electric.

Board Connection

Boards are electrically connected by sockets at each end with a through BUS wire, rails are not to be used as the main power connection from one end of a module to the other. The track should be connected by dropper wires to the BUS wires running under the baseboard. Mains cable or 6amp wire is suitable for the main BUS wires.

Every section of track should be wired to the power bus for a good and solid connection.

Colours are not crucial as the boards are reversible.

For any other information or questions please email or check out the Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/freem009australia

FREEM009 - AUSTRALIA