So you're wanting to attend Alberta Free-mo?

Congratulations. We're glad you're thinking of coming to the show. We want to provide you with the appropriate information for attending the show, and hope this answers most, if not all of your questions. If you do have questions not answered here or elsewhere, please drop us a line.

Getting to Alberta Free-mo

Attending Alberta Free-mo is not very difficult at all. Usually it's a case of make your way to Big Valley, Alberta on the appropriate weekend. For attendees making their way to Big Valley from Calgary, drive up the QE2 highway to Innisfail and go east from there on Highway 590. See the map for directions. If you are coming from anywhere else, feel free to locate your own route to the town on Mapquest or Google Maps. At the south end of Big Valley, you will find the Agriplex on the west side of the road, and look for the collection of cars, trucks, RV's and tents setup next to the Agriplex building. If you're coming to visit the layout, you can also purchase tickets from the Alberta Prairie Steam Train folks in Stettler and come down on the train to Big Valley and the kind folks will have people movers to bring you to the Agriplex from the train station if you don't want to walk.

Accommodations

Beside the Agriplex building (which for all intents and purposes is an Ice Hockey Rink) on the north side is a large grassy area suitable for tents, and beside the building is a gravel road with enough space for a few RV's, Trailers, and so forth along with permission to use these areas for camping. Electrical hookups are available, bring your own extension cord and please be prepared to run on batteries as we can't guarantee power coming through the wire at all times. A donation for the power used is appreciated. Washrooms and Showers are available in the change rooms originally intended for and still used by the hockey players during the winter. Accommodations which are not camping in nature can be had in Big Valley at the small local hotel called the Big Valley Inn (phone 403-876-2203), and Stettler has a larger selection of lodging, and is only a 20-30 minute drive to the north. We recommend against booking anything in Red Deer or Innisfail, regardless of how close to Big Valley it looks on a map. The drive between the two is a fair amount of time. Trust us, we found out the hard way the first year we ran the event.

Food

Food is the responsibility of the attendees, though usually we host a potluck dinner on the Saturday night which in most, if not all, respects is a great social event. BBQ's are usually available. Groceries are available in Big Valley and Stettler. There are a couple restaurants available in Big Valley, though limited in seating and when the Steam train comes in, it can be next to impossible to get a seat. Stettler has a variety of fast food and other restaurants available as well if desired.

Module Transportation

We have the entire hockey rink available to us and have a very large door at the back end of the hockey rink for trucks and trailers being brought to Big Valley filled with modules for the show. Depending on weather outside, we may or may not be able to bring the vehicles right into the hockey rink. If it's raining, we won't, if the ground is dry, we can. We'd rather not have to clean the floor if at all possible. However, we all make good efforts to get things safely unloaded with a minimum of fuss and certainly if you're needing help, we can provide! (if you'd rather do it yourself, we understand as well.) If you are bringing a module to the show, please advise us well ahead of time. This way, we can try to come up with some sort of plan for the module layout. In addition, if your module contains stationary decoders for controlling turnouts, please contact us with respect to eliminating conflicts on the numbering. The contact info for doing that is on the page for the current show as the run chief can change from year to year.

Layout Setup

On the Thursday evening before the show, we typically will start setting modules up on legs and roughly position them. The following day (Friday) we'll continue and start levelling modules in the morning. Cut-off for modules arriving is 11am for modules attending, so we recommend if you are attending from the local area with modules to take the day off of work so we can ensure the layout is running before we go to bed on the Friday night.

As with most of these shows, the more people who help with setup means the faster we can run trains (provided we have made the appropriate donations and sacrifices to the DCC and Digitrax gods of course), so if there's work to be done, don't be surprised to be given a task or two to do if you're standing around.

For those attending with modules, we must stress the need to have your "supplies" out and available once your module is in it's rough position. This means clamps out (hanging them on the cross bracing of your legs is ideal, but on the floor at the module is also very appreciated), Loconet joiner cable or female-female adapter out, pigtails down, and an assortment of fitter rails available as well will make the setup go that much faster. You can of course, leave the structures, delicate details, and loose scenery stuff (ie: vehicles, people, trees, etc.) packed until the layout is setup and running to avoid any damage. Skirting is recommended, however, not required, once the layout is up and running.

Running Trains

Our layout runs on DCC, using Digitrax command stations, booster stations and throttles. As such, all locomotives will require DCC decoders installed to operate. If you have an HO scale, standard gauge train equipped with a decoder you wish to run, feel free to bring it down. We can provide assistance with respect to programming the locomotive's address to one which will work on the layout without any conflicts. We've assigned ranges of addresses (all locomotives are assigned 4 digit addresses) for members of the groups and have set aside the 30xx range of addresses for visitors, and will be keeping a registry of sorts to ensure there aren't any duplicate addresses. We appreciate, but do not require, visitors bringing their own Digitrax throttles. If you don't have one or forgot yours at home, we are happy to let you borrow one of ours.

Spouses Welcome!

We encourage the entire family to come out to the event, and the wives of the model railroaders will have space set aside for whatever hobbies/crafts/etc. they involve themselves in so it's not a case of being bored while the men have all the fun. That having been said, a few of the wives do enjoy running trains and are more than welcome to do so!

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