FREMO stands for "Freundeskreis Europäischer MOdellbahner", translated Friendship of European railway modellers. In the USA there is another club, the Free-Mo for Free form Modules. Both clubs, the European and the American, are absolutely independent, but joined by common goals.

We are aiming at operation as close to prototype as possible. We use modules, as this allows to temporarily set-up large layouts requiring space, which can't be rented permanently. As no unprototypical circles are formed, the modules may have almost any size and shape. Only the faceplates need to meet some basic standards. This allows even the largest radii you can think of and stations may be built fully to scale.

The only limit is the amount of bench work, tracks and scenery you are prepared to build and carry around. But you don't need to go that far. Modules allow starting with a small piece of layout to practise your skills.

As one difference to the Free-Mo, we at FREMO usually do not participate in train shows. We want to do our way of operation, not just many trains rolling to keep visitors happy. Of cause visitors are welcome and may participate in the operation, I will explain later.

FREMO members are from different countries: Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Austria, Czechia, Belgium and any more in ten other countries. In total there are more than 1900 members as of August 2016. As the FREMO was founded in Germany there is little surprise to find most members there. But the small groups like in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and Czechia are very active.
At this point I intended to show also some statistics of members sorted by scale and gauge, etc. But as several members are active in multiple scales and as there is no list, where this can be found, I can just list the different scales and gauges. Most model European prototype.

The largest group is H0 standard gauge (H0-RE), followed by H0n30 (H0e), H0n40 (H0m), Proto 87, N scale, fine scale N, 0 scale, fine scale 0, 0n30 (0e), 0n40 (0m) and TT. This list is not sorted in any way. Additionally some are modelling USA prototype in H0, and an N scale group has just started. But even when modelling in different scales, gauges and levels of perfection we share our type of operation.
On the other hand even when modelling the same prototype in the same scale, modules may look quite different. Just plain track, straight or curved, including features like semaphores, set of segments forming one big module, stations and yards from small to large. The only restriction is the standardized face plate, allowing to put together the modules in any sequence.

As you can image from the member count our larger meeting have reached quite some size. Layouts with more than 1000 foot of modules have become relatively common.