The Providence Northern volunteers tend to focus on building and operating the layout in our permanent location, but we do have a portable unit we bring to shows and exhibitions around southern New England. Our original portable module was showing a lot of wear and tear from time on the road, so in 2017 we decided to replace it with a more modern module that looked good, was easy to move, and gave us a lot of flexibility in how it could be shown and operated.
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Built in under six months, the new module is very lightweight, and has four sections. Those sections can be assembled in three different combinations allowing us to set up a small display on a single table, a double table layout, or a larger L shaped layout that resembles what would be a typical small home or apartment sized layout. The layout is designed only for Digital Command and Control (DCC). The system will support two human operators, and has a control system that can autonomously operate two trains.
