Cornfield is an event in McLean IL, about an hour west of campus, where people from around the Midwest join their FreeMo modules together in a gym to make a large layout for the weekend. The event is organized twice yearly by Tom Ludlam, who owns a model train shop in the historic McLean Depot. Cornfield is located at Sonshine Daycare, within walking distance of both the depot and Union Pacific's Springfield Subdivision, where Amtrak trains have recently increased speed to 110 mph and 2-mile stack trains are seen.
A typical schedule runs as follows:
• Setup occurs Friday evening, with free pizza provided.
• Early Saturday morning any remaining setup work is completed, then operations run all day and into the evening.
• Sunday, operations are all morning with teardown at 3pm.
• Optional switch lists are available during operations.
• A programming track is provided.
• Balloon tracks allow for road trains on the mainline.
The event is free and open to the public. If you're bringing a module please RSVP with Tom because he makes a map of the setup a few weeks in advance.
If traveling from campus with the IRC, we'll carpool over there each day. There's generally an RSVP form where you select which days you're coming so we have enough drivers. We'll stop for lunch somewhere on Saturday and Sunday. Traditionally, dinner on Saturday is late-night Noodles brought to the tracks, returning to campus around midnight.
Contact:
[Tom's Email]
[Link to FreeMo Facebook]
[Link to FreeMo GroupsIo]
[Link to McLean Depot]
[Add photos of previous meets]