On30 Modular Standard

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PeterLJ
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Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:05 pm

On30 Modular Standard

Post by PeterLJ »

Hi (Kathy?)

I was wondering where we stood with the On30 modular Standard.

I have had a quick look at one (Freundeskreis Europäischer MOdellbahner) but it calls for a 150mm (6") deep end plate, which seems rather excessive, indeed unnessasarily so.

Why do people make them so deep? A two board "sandwich" ends up being 1'6" x 1'6" x whatever!

I note also that height is in the region of 50", so one can not interchange legs?

All the best

Peter L-J
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torikoos
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Re: On30 Modular Standard

Post by torikoos »

hi Pete,

I've dabbled in FREMO (HO) a little when I was still living in the Netherlands. A commonality on all scales of FREMO modules is a varied scenery. In some scales this even means various designs of end-profiles are possible (in many cases you are not even allowed to build your own end profiles, but must order them from the FREMO organisation, so that a perfect fit is pretty much guaranteed, not such a bad idea, I'm quite in favour of such an approach).

In any case, end profiles of 6'' high means that you can vary the height of your scenery along the length of the board for several inches, while the whole set up still get's a nice uniform look with the bottom edge being nice and straight. This is where that's coming from. (it also helps to hide some wiring that would otherwise be visible where it sags a little)
A good appearance for the public (you'll find that the colour of the fascia is a specification in most cases too) is important for Fremo, as they take pride in how their layouts appear to visiting public, and has been build in from the early days.

The height was chosen by comparing many different standards, and what would work for the general public when viewing them. A height was chosen that was a good way of viewing them at 'eye level', without having to bend over too much (or tiptoeing) , and be able to work on them.

I know it doesn't match our 45'' height, but also realise that FREMO came from the european continent, with roots in germany, but picked up among scandinavian countries as well as the dutch, all nations with a lot of tall people in them (compared to southern europe and the british isles, where the average height is a little shorter).
While it might mean that you need to build a separate set of legs for the Fremo modules, if you were intending to building them, I don't think it's a huge issue. (you could always make 'leg extenders' that you bolt on to extend your NMRA-BR legs by 5'' to match the FREMO standard.

I would have been entirely happy if the NMRA-BR standard would have simply adopted the FREMO-USA standard (Being our closest neighbouring standard), but I understand all the reasoning why we came to where we are, and I am happy to oblige with those, this is a democracy after all, and that means compromising sometimes, and that can be good thing so you do not exclude anyone.

Koos
Koos Fockens -Devon UK. North American Model Railroading
Age is just a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter.
kathymillatt
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Re: On30 Modular Standard

Post by kathymillatt »

Hi All

I was just asked for our FremOn30 standards so thought I had better post the link here.

I have no idea how to load a file so the standards are on my website: http://www.kathymillatt.co.uk/Projects/ ... _Final.pdf

Regards

Kathy
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torikoos
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Re: On30 Modular Standard

Post by torikoos »

You are right it didn't work for me either, here's one link:
http://www.kathymillatt.co.uk/blog/cate ... 30modules/

It looks like Kathy has reorganised her website, and I can't find it at the moment. Kathy, can you point Keith (and anyone else) in the right direction for the On30 standards?

Koos
Koos Fockens -Devon UK. North American Model Railroading
Age is just a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter.
kathymillatt
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Re: On30 Modular Standard

Post by kathymillatt »

Hi all

I did update the website so the new link is here:

http://www.kathymillatt.co.uk/blog/wp-c ... _Final.pdf

Sorry for any confusion.

Kathy
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Re: On30 Modular Standard

Post by kathymillatt »

Koos

I did not adopt the German Fremo On30 standard as it did not have centred track which seems to me to negate the advantages of Fremo.

Other than that, the boards are a little deeper to allow for tortoise motors or other low hanging switch motors and the fascia colour which I set as black rather than a green in case people wanted to do deserts etc. However, as long as the holes line up, you can pretty much do what you like with the depth of the end boards.

I think the rest is more or less as per the German Fremo standard but in English.

Kathy
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torikoos
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Re: On30 Modular Standard

Post by torikoos »

Thanks Kathy :-)





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Koos Fockens -Devon UK. North American Model Railroading
Age is just a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter.
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