Author: Robert Klarén
In the middle of the Swedish forest, in the village of Fagerhult on the west side of the large lake Vättern, about 30 km north of Jönköping, American model trains in n-scale run every year. The first meeting was held in 2018 and now in 2023 we held our fifth event (the pandemic forced us to cancel the meeting 2020).
We were twenty active participants of which six had traveled the long way from Germany. Sixteen brought modules while the other four brought additional joy and enthusiasm.
The arrangement this year was the largest we have ever had thanks to the modules brought by the German participants, and new modules made by some of the Swedes. For a layout diagram click here, a schematic overview is available here.
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The arrangement provided a good variety when it came to the traffic where coal, steel, produce and grain were the main themes in addition to the car load traffic to stations and industries. Three centrally located yards distributed the traffic. Corleone Yard handled most manifests and the local freight trains in the traditional manner. Haslingen took care of the steel mill and the extensive industrial area. Pine Hill on the other hand was a coal marshaling yard that handled the coal trains to Loveridge Coal Mine and JK Coal Mine, coal transfers to Haslingen and the unit coal trains to and from Gray Yard staging. About 50 coal cars were loaded every game day feeding the manifests, the Haslingen power plant and a unit coal train, a mighty sight.
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As can be expected, there were a lot of traffic to Haslingen/US Steel where scrap metal to the steel mill arrived in unit trains and other goods via the manifests. As the Haslingen yard also served the industrial area there were a constant flow of cars to the yard that required classification. Switching the industrial areas Florida Industries, East Lane District and Danforth Bay is a challenging but at the same time relaxing task. You can calmly push your cars back and forth without disturbing through traffic.
This year we had Whitehall and Yakima which supplied the east with fresh produce, which meant a lot of work for the fruit agent to have dirty cars cleaned and to properly ice the cars.
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Passenger traffic was another high point at the meeting. In our FREMO world it is common to drive passenger trains from point A to Z and make short stops at stations in between, it can be relaxing but is usually a bit boring. At this meeting however this was not the case. There was switching to be done with express cars, sleepers, mail and milk cars that had to be dropped off or picked up, a procedure that made the passenger trains far from dull.
Nine permanent jobs were available for those who wanted to do something else than running the mainline trains; yard master and switcher at Corleone Yard, yard master and mill switcher in Haslingen, yard master at Pine Hill Yard, Whitehall yard master, Yakima fruit agent, Florida, East Lane and Danforth industrial switcher, and of course, the Dispatcher.
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As last year we used wiFREDs for all the main line trains removing the need to focus on the next point from where you can control your train. Greatly appreciated. Only the yards and the industrial area were provided with LN-boxes for control of the engines.
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Driving a train is an exhausting job, which means that food and drink are of the utmost importance. Only 100 meters from the hall you will find the company Fagerhult, which houses the restaurant where our host served good and nourishing lunch and dinner in ample quantity at a decent price. It was greatly appreciated by the participants. As the restoration was close by, there were only short interruptions in the traffic.
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Planning for 2024 is already underway, reserve 15-18/8 2024 for americaN in Fagerhult.
Party General
Robert Klarén
Klick on photo to see video
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