Here you have a bit of backgroundinformation to the prototype that I´m working from.

The tower seen to the right in the picture was populated during day hours by a man that where looking after the track-changes and semafores. One day I was invited to walk over and wisit the man in the tower. I in fact helped him to set the semafores using long metal sticks and wires. You can emagine that this cought my interest for trains...... Here a homepage in the german language covering the Gliesmarode area.

The two guys in the picture looking at it all are myself and my brother Michael. Picture taken around 1968.

This module is a tribute to Gliesmarode, nostalgia, a good startingpoint and a nice discussion topic with my father Andreas. I guess he is the main person to "blaim" for my interest in trains and technology...

Most recent update: Jan 3, 2012

Tilman the module model railroader

Module Model railroading.
Building your model railroad on to modules is a great way of getting into model railroading. Several reasons for att appeal to me:
1. It does not need that much space. You do not have to have the whole layout yourself as you only have to contribute to a part of the layout when meeting and running big train sets.
2. It is very social. You do not have to sit down in your basement running them trains on your own. You meet with other people and run multiple trains together on a big layout.
3. You do not have to do it all. Some people do not like to build complicated station layouts and are mor inte nice country side scenery. Others are more interested in getting their hands onto complicated electronics.
So there story goes on. For me module model railroading is the right thing.

I´m a member of:
MMM "Mälare ModulMöte"
FREMO "FRundeskreis Europeische Modelbahner"

Look here for my upcoming project for H0n3 modules

Oct 29, 2009
Some housebuilding undertaken. I have had som FALLER-kits tucked away for to long in a box now. Time to get the EXACTO and glue out and start building them together.
First out is a freight-magazine as you can see in the picture to the right. Weathering needs to be done before I can put it into the landscape.
I must say that I managed to get it very nicely built. Remembering in the old days building these houses. They simply never looked good. But I guess my skills and tools are better now then 40 years ago...

Next one to build is a workshop and enginegarage. Then a controltower and coaldepot is to be done. Busy building you can say.

To that I have some new modules in the plan where I can put some of these houses.

Oct 27, 2009
Got feed up with the bulky legs used for my modules. They just take up to much space when bringing them to meetings. So now I have redone my modules to take up plain "sticks". The legs are now 21 x 43 mm and 126cm long. They at put into pockets and fastened/adjusted with a screw to even out irregularities in the floor.

Feb25, 2008
Today I gave it a go with the paint on module. Calling it a extreem makeover would probably be a bit to much. Anyway, the module sections look quite different from before where they had a grey glossy look to it. If you look at the pictre below you see what I mean. Look to the riight and you see how thing look like now. A mix of brown, brownish and green colours are now brushed onto the dirt, rocks and ballast. Being a newcomer I must say that I´m quite pleased with the result.Of course there are still quite some areas to sort out. But I do not want to overdo things.

Jan 10 2008
Some weeks ago i helped modulmaker Per Rundblad with the complete elektrical installation on his modules. Per beinga very skilled housebuilder then helped me building the most lovely model of the switchouse in Gliesmarode Nussberg. In the picture to the right the house placed on the module and having a "Glaskasten" steamengine passing by. Sharing knowledge and healing each other out are really strongpoint with being a modulebuilder. Compare the picture with the one above.

Per has built a lovely station with the prototype being Balingsta station from the Uppsala-Enköping railwayline. You will see his lovely station at this years MMM-meeting at Stockholm Technical museeum.

Oct 2007
I had the great oportunity to participate in the annual meeting at the Swedish railwaymuseum in Gävle. We had a great time and did build a layout with about 150 meters of tracks. My module Gliesmarode also joined. Radio, TV and magazines where there to pick up notes for press.

A lovely team, all working hard to give the visitorns to the museeum somethin interesting to look at.

We held an auction of train material after our late friend Anders Kjellander. I did put a bid on the lovely TEE-train to the right in the picture. So I now can not just be happy about this train. But I can also make shure that Anders trains will continue running on the modules he worked so hard for.

I have now (Nov2007) also installed a sound module in the train. So you can emagine that sounds lovely running down the tracks..The sound module is from LOKSOUND in Germany.

Aug 25, 2007 It passed the test !!
Today my module(sections) joined up with MMM-builders modules in Solna. We hade about 30 to 40 meters of track and my module Gliesmarode was part of it all. We hade quite som tricky locos passing and all went smothe after some tweaking. But of course, Gliesmarode hade been passing all the heavy testing at home. So I was not overly surpriced that it all worked out;-). Thank you guys in MMM, I´m now ready with my module for further decorating.
In the picture you can see how Anders L is fiddling with is module - cleaning down some ballast. I connected even up my LENZ-central and Booster to drive the whole network for a while. So all is tested and dusted now. Boy am I pleased!

Am I happy? You bet.!!

Aug 3, 2007
Finally!! I made it to the first turns on the module. DCC is connected, turnouts are controlled. Time to put locos and railcars on the track and give it a go. Everything went down nicely, a couple of adjustments and cleaning of tracks where needed though.

Yes I´m extremly happy that I finally made ot to get my first MMM-module together. Now in retroperspespective I would have been better off starting with a smaller project and not that many turnouts. On the other hand, I´m not afraid of electrical challenges. I have learnt a million and I´m extremly greatfull for all the good advice from fellow MMM.builders and my colleague Anders in the office for all the nice advice around modelbuilding.

My module Gliesmarode is not 100% ready yet. I have more landscaping to do. Dust, sheds, houses and lighting will keep me busy for another couple of weeks and months.

Im ready now to put my module into MMM-events though!!

Aug 1, 2007
Today I have made a switchpanel for the tournouts. From the picture to the right you can see that there is a box missing around it still. I wanted to try out functionality before boxing it up.

I had to do some thinking to get all the turnouts moving in the right direction versus swich setting. Everything came in very nicely after a minor tweak.
You can see the grey cable going out of the box to the left connected up to the far left section (section 1) where the distribution and mains transformer is placed. (see also picture below).

The panel needs to be "boxed up" and then next step is to DCC-power the module. And off we gooo!!!!

July 28, 2007
Today I have got all the wiring done on all 4 sections.
From the picture below you see the wiring in section 1 where the wires for the turnouts on the other sections terminate. To the right in the picture you see the aluminium board that holds the chassies D-subs and the red/black cables for the DCC-current. In the moddle (to the right) you see a a 15 pole D-sub that is to be used to connect up the control box.

July 23, 2007
Looks like there has been no action for a while. That is right in a way. I did spend a week of holiday in Italy with my family July 14-21. Really great and pretty hot with about 35 degrees C every day. Anyway, back to modulemakingaction again. Yesterday and today I have spent with adjusting some parts on the layout. Also legs have been made and holes have been drilled to srew the modules together according to standard. I made some misstakes, but not worse then that they could be adjusted during the way. The legs are designed so that i can nestle them all nicely together in a flat package for transportation and stow away. The normally used legs (IVAR from IKEA) are using up to much space, so I decided not to use them.
As you can see from the picture to the right all modules where put together and again I have tried the alignment and the trackability with a couple of waggons. Everything runs very smooth. If you have a very close look you can find a Märklin 7051 electric crane (red house) on the back end of the third section of the module.
The sections are now separated and it is time to play around with the electric parts on the underside. Great fun !

The whole platform is 50 cm long and will therefor nicely pick up a double set of railcars.
Lovely! I´m very pleased with the result.

July 10, 2007
So here we go again. Today I had really fun out there in my workshop. Before going for the messy part i did put loads of bushes all over the place. I found out that it should get more busy in places here and there. After that I did start to try out a resonable method to put turt besides the tracks. I tried on a small piece of board. had a quick chat with MMM-friend Seth Olofsson (thank you!) to discuss blending of the cement. And then off you go. Dirt all over the place. No clean spot. If you have not tried this yet I can tell you that is really great fun. One golden rule for you - DONT BE SHY! Go on a use all your fantasy and suitable tools you have around.
Then put down some "whet water" (water and a drop of soap). All wet and then it is time for a mix of water glue and alcohol to make all the stuff sticking to the module - even if you turn it upside down. Pictures below where taken an hour after all work was done. It looks really nasty right after you have showered all teh water and glue (Cement) to the modules. In the pictures all has somewhat settled quite a lot.
1
3

Here is a view over part 3 towards part 2 of the module.
I have taped the tracks until I put down the ballast. Therefore the tracks look a bit funny.
Click the pictures to get a bigger view.

2
4

July 9, 2007
Speakermat was applied all over the place a week ago. Now I have colorued it and the foiliage is been placed all over the modules. Some grass was also applied to try it out.
I have put tape over the tracks to cover them off until I will be putting ballast on. I will let the stuff dry out before I will be putting dust and gravel out on the greay areas in the pictures.

June 30, 2007
Finally!! All the tracks and turnouts are now glued to the modules. Lots of wires are soldered and tracked to the underground ready to wire up for connectivity.
In the picture to the right you can see all 4 modules after each other. I have used more plastic rail joiners then I had expected. This as there is a need to split up the modules electraically in the middle. I have been implementing that feature in modul 1 and 4. In Module 2 and 3 I have not implemented this. These are modules are in the middle and will always be disconnecable by the surrounding modules 1 and/or 4. In the middle you can see the paperbag (white/blue) that shows the position of the platform for staton Gliesmarode. Two tracks will be available to bring and pick up passengers.

Time now to turn for the work with dust, grass and decorating. And then the fun starts with the electronic wiring on the underside.
I also have some houses to build and place to get all set and done.

As you can see in the picture to the rigth I have tried to run all the tracks and tournouts with a 2 axle waggon. Some minor rought edges have been adjusted and now it runs down them tracks without a problem.

June 27, 2007
Today I finalised some bits on the modulecombination 1 and 4. After that I lined up module 1 (front) and 2 (back) to lay tracks on module 2. Now the track-location was correct so that the tracks on module 2 would line up exactly. As you can see the three tracks are all straight. I had to extend them though as the PECO Flex tracks are about 90 cm long (the modules are 100cm... ).

More to come. So stay tuned. Soon you will se grass, dirt and gravel appearing on the modules.

June 25, 2007
Construction work with the tracks is well underway. I thought I give you a glimpse into how things look like in my workshop.

As you can see, the turnouts are all placed (here only 2 modules shown). They are all converted into DCC-friendlyness. The cabling has been routed trough holes in the board to the underside.

Here I have joied modules 1 (front) and 4 (back) to make sure that they line up correctly. You can wagely see the cut between them modules where the cordless drill stands. When that is done i will line up module 1 to 2 and then finally line up 3 between 2 and 4.

By doing so I know that the whole module parts are aligned correctly and can be used either all together or only two of them.

Internally within the module I joint the track using the FREMO-recommendation (end to end). So I will not be needing to fiddle with short track joiners as per the MMM-standard.

I´m still a bit nervous doing major faults that I will regret and/or needing major rework. The tracks and turnouts are all glued to the railbed. I have used a tacker to temporarely stick the tracks into place until glue has dried nicely.

Thats all for now. Stay tuned, holiday season is coming up.

To the left you have the module layout all lined up on the garage floor May 26 2007-

I have numbered the modules 1 - 4 with number 1 on the top in the picture. They are all 1 meter long, so in total you have 4 meters (48 cm deep).
Module 1 has the track coming in 14 cm from the front. This is track position 1 as per the MMM-standard (read spec here). If you have a close look in front of the light red "hill" you see a red box.. This is where the switching house will be placed.
Moving forward onto module 2 you see a PECO flex-rail paper bag that is there to illustrate placement of the station platform for Gliesmarode station. The cutover between module 1 and 2 has the MMM-track defenitions 1 and 2a. The distance between track 1 and 2 is being 200 mm. The track between 1 and 2 is placed 56mm to the left of track 2. The station moves over into module 3. The cutover has MMM-track defenition 1 and 2a.
On module 3 you also see the beginning of the "fiddle yard" that will be having room for at least one Märklin 7051 crane. The cranes will be placed to the right of track 2. One or two simple sheds will be around her also to cover up a illegal spririts factory. The mysterious chap Heinz and his equally mysterious partner Björne (the bear) runs this business on the side.....
The yard moves into module 4. The tracks out of the complete module has position 1 and 2 as per the MMM-standard. Track 2 can be terminated in a block if not matching up with the next module.

The front ant back of the modules current has lifted boards. They will match up and streghthen the foam for the hills. The boards will then be cut down to match the hills. The foam is cut off and glued together.

Stay tuned for more development. Also, your comments are highly appriciated. Pls direct them to: sm0jzt (&) ssa.se

/ Tilman