The Michigan Modular Alliance, 1993-2000
The
Modular Alliance was an outgrowth of a shared vision of two members
of Rails on Wheels. Members Fritz Milhaupt and John Young (then of
the Capital Area Railway Society of Lansing, Michigan) while corresponding
discovered that each had wished to create a large modular layout using
the modules from many different clubs a la N-Trak. The first successful
implementation of this idea occurred at a mall show in Adrian sponsored
by the Raisin Valley Model RR Club in 1993. Four years would
pass before a second Modular Alliance set up would occur, this one
in conjunction with the 1997 National Train Show in Madison,
Wisconsin. That show included modules from two other clubs, Cass County
Rail of Dowagiac, Michigan and the Saginaw River Valley club. This
layout covered an area 50 by 70 feet and supported
a mainline of over eight scale miles. To achieve a layout of this
size and economize on the space required involved thinking out of
the box in assembling the modules. Gone was the typical large doughnut-shaped
modular layout. Instead, return loops were created to turn our normal
twin mainline modules into a giant dogbone track arrangement. Since
the participating clubs had not yet adopted Digital Command Control,
a twenty-block DC control panel was developed that allowed the layout
to support the operation of up to six mainline trains simultaneously.
The
format of operation on this layout evolved at the Madison show, using
Aristo-Craft radio throttles. How closely the operators could stay
with their respective trains, and the ability to always have a new
view of the layout by operating from both sides of the modules were
unexpected. The result was an exciting layout to run on, as well as
one that impressed the audience with its size and variety of scenery
treatments.
After the Madison Convention, the Modular Alliance reappeared at
the Port Huron model train shows in 1998 and 2000, and the Gratiot
Valley Model Railroad Club's Winter shows in 1999 and 2000.
The Lapeer Model RR Club joined us in 1999, and the Stoney Creek
Club in 1999 and 2000. The 1999 layout for the Gratiot Valley club's
show was a free-form design which provided eleven-plus miles of operating
mainline. The Gratiot Valley club's 2000 show was the last time we
got together to form a large layout.
Six HO modular clubs participated in at least one of these events.
The NMRA's North Central Region has been home to 26 HO modular
clubs over the years, which had the potential of creating a layout
in excess of 65 scale miles in length.
- John Young
The Modular Alliance layout setups effectively ended when several
clubs adopted mutually-incompatible commend control systems and the
core organizers shifted their focus to the then-new Operations
Road Show project.
Based on our experiences with the Modular Alliance, we have put together
some common sense guidelines for multi-club
modular setups.
Overhead view showing 2/3rds of the Michigan Modular Alliance
layout at the 1998 train show at McMorran Place, in Port Huron, Michigan.
