Good day, everyone. I was just wondering; how many people here belong to a model railroad club? If you do belong to a club, what is the number one reason for belonging to that club you have. Is it for the friendship, the opportunity to learn how to do something new or is it to be able to run some different trains? Please take my poll and tell me your reason for joining a club.
Benefits of belonging to a model railroad club
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We have specific rules for equipment standards. That is all metal wheels and all metal couplers and proper weight to NMRA standard recommendations and of course it needs to be appropriate for the prototype. We don't want to run anything that doesn't meet that standard or it will cause problems when trying to run 45 car freights up a helix. (HO scale) Cars must operate well, look good and be appropriate for the time frame of the layout.
Our club is modelling a fixed prototype area and time frame. (permanent layout, not modules) This keeps politics down as this has been set down in stone from the beginning of the club, and the design of the layout is based on the actual prototype track arrangements and operating practices.
Working at the club gives the opportunity for experience in layout building, since I live in a small apartment right now with no room for my own (I'm in my mid-20s and single), and allows the ability to work and operate trains on a much larger layout than could be built at home.
Very true, Andy, very true.
Someone could look at the history of our club, one of which Alan mentioned, and see every step that most formal clubs, it seems, will go through.
Ours is now at the point where most of the members there the longest, have seen the club change from a round robin type of club to a more formal type of setup. Reasons are many, but probably the biggest reason is simply management.
I joined the club for several reasons, biggest one was access to knowledge, and the second one was to be with the friends I had made over the years at conventions and meets.
Tough is not a word I would use, instead how about PITA!
The club I was in when I was in Mobile was like this. It only got setup regularly twice a year. Kinda hard to break-in cars and locos.
However, if a club can be formed by a Right group of people, there is no reason that it couldn't be together for many years.
Our club was formed in 1989, (I missed being a Charter Member by 2 months, had to move 250 miles to join), and this year will make it 30!
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Railphotog
Railroad Photographer
And the poll is where?
lmackattack
old school
I think all of the above is what I would pick.
its a great way to have your cake and eat it too with others that enjoy model trains
its a great way to have your cake and eat it too with others that enjoy model trains
Only thing that kills some clubs is the politics. I have belonged to 4 clubs and 1 disbanded and 2 moved to new locations. The 4th one the owner got in trouble for child rape so I wont get into that. But what I noticed is that the bigger the club the more politics you see and I remember going to meetings and guys would be screaming at each other about stupid stuff. I mean lets all get real here , we're all PLAYING with TOY trains, thats it nothing more and nothing less. Now I was labeled as odd as I wasnt interested in doing operating sessions because after switching for 6 days a week for 12 hours a day in 1:1 scale they last thing I wanted to do is do it with my models. So I liked to run long trains at the club as I dont have a layout at home. I also enjoyed doing Electronic work and talking trains with a few of the guys. But what also killed it was that the 2 clubs I liked were around 60 - 80 miles each way for me so I never got down there much and I figured what was the point as its a haul to go run trains for a few hours.
lmackattack
old school
I agree about the clubs Mark
I have belonged to Elmhurst Model RR club for about 6 months. It is a large club with about 50 active members with about double that in hiding or only come in a few times a year. We have our politics as any club will have but its mostly just the diffrent "clicks" that have diffrent views than others. nothing wrong with that. What I like is that some members come down just to run trains. others to work on a project and then some just to wast a day with some fellow train buffs. The location our club is at also allows us to walk outside and watch real trains pass by about every 10 mins. Lots of stuff to do Large RR hobby shop around the corner. the biggest hastel is its 40miles or 45 mins drive each way. I try to spend most of the day on sat or sunday down there to make it worth my time
Trent
I have belonged to Elmhurst Model RR club for about 6 months. It is a large club with about 50 active members with about double that in hiding or only come in a few times a year. We have our politics as any club will have but its mostly just the diffrent "clicks" that have diffrent views than others. nothing wrong with that. What I like is that some members come down just to run trains. others to work on a project and then some just to wast a day with some fellow train buffs. The location our club is at also allows us to walk outside and watch real trains pass by about every 10 mins. Lots of stuff to do Large RR hobby shop around the corner. the biggest hastel is its 40miles or 45 mins drive each way. I try to spend most of the day on sat or sunday down there to make it worth my time
Trent
John P
Active Member
Well, the reasons include:
You don't have to dedicate (fight for?) a space in your house to put the layout.
You have a large layout to operate.
You share the expenses with other people.
An operating crew is more likely to be available.
You don't have to face the skepticism of family members.
It makes model railroading social, rather than solitary.
MGWSY, are you famiiliar with the North Shore Model RR Club in Wakefield MA? They seem like a good bunch.
You don't have to dedicate (fight for?) a space in your house to put the layout.
You have a large layout to operate.
You share the expenses with other people.
An operating crew is more likely to be available.
You don't have to face the skepticism of family members.
It makes model railroading social, rather than solitary.
MGWSY, are you famiiliar with the North Shore Model RR Club in Wakefield MA? They seem like a good bunch.
ive been a member of youth in model railroading for a little over a year i didnt know how to do anything and now im making my own trees and wethering cars no problem its fun ive met alot of new friends and shows are really fun noones module matches and some peoples trains barely run but its still fun
No I never visited that club. I belonged to the Providence Northern club in Providence, RI, The Worcester model railroad club in Dedham Both which are nice clubs but the both moved recently and are building new layouts and it’s the drive there and back that killed it. Then I was part of the Dry Hill Model RR club and worked all year long on the layout to only use it for 2 days out of the year at the Springfield show, then the owner of the club is another story which I am not going to get into. Last is the Amherst Belt Lines which was more like a club just doing a bunch of shows in the area and they don’t have a permanent layout. Not bad but the politics are not that good and there is definitely favoritism towered members of the clique. I did visit a couple clubs and one turned me off right away as the owner first bragged how he has around 400 locos and 5000 cars on the layout and I looked and there was no room to put anything as it was more like a personal layout with one guy displaying all his stuff then a club that has everyone’s stuff on it. On top of that I brought a couple locos with me to try out and first think I hear is that I should get rid of the crappy couplers on my engines and put real Kadee's on them, My reply was they are real Kadee’s, #58's to be accurate. LOL Things like that and the $65 a month dues turned me away from that club to. Other clubs are smaller and ok but space is limited on the layout or the track work is pretty bad. I wish I had something in my area that was decent as I have no room for a layout at this time but I am thinking of starting some modules of the Boston Line that I have wanted to make for a long time. Then when I have the space for a layout the hard part will be done.
It would appear that so far the number one reason to join a club is for the knowledge. I myself do not belong to a club as of yet because of my work schedule. My schedule changes every six weeks. I have checked out a couple of clubs in my area and on the surface they appear to be okay. One club in particular impressed me the most because the layout was huge and completely freelance. I was really impressed by the person who stopped what he was doing and gave me the tour and answered all my questions. I just don't know if I can justify spending the 40 bucks a month on dues right now. Money being tight and all right now. I think that my main reason would be a bit of everything.
D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
I was a member of a modular club for several years. Yeah, the politics set in, a member went to jail for child molestation when he took them downstairs to play with the trains. Other members began passing porn by e-mail. The modules weren't maintained well enough to run trains without derailments and they went so far as to vote a member out while he was tending to his wife at the hospital after a heart attack.
Yeah, I've had my fill of clubs. I'm my own club and I invite guests to come over and operate. No dues, just fun.
Yeah, I've had my fill of clubs. I'm my own club and I invite guests to come over and operate. No dues, just fun.
lmackattack
old school
WOW some storys about other clubs. I think clubs with less rules is better. We have basic rules but nothing that says you cant run plastic wheels or plastic couples. we just ask that your equipment does not cause consistent delay to the other trains. every now and then we will have a member down to run that has some mental issues and we need to remind him of things but nothing that does not get resolved quickly. Most of the members have been there for years and see the bad apples come and go. I have been there less than a year and they have given me alot of trust and let me run wild with ideas I have for some of the new parts of the layout. We are open 7 days a week and like any bar or hang out place some nights I try to avoid just because "you know who" runs that night LOL
Trent
Trent
nmaniac
Member
Well here's my two cent
it's a weekend away with the "boys" not doing stuf at home when I should,being able to see and hear whats new in the hobby,but the biggest reason is that when I run with my club I can let the true N scaler come out and run a 110 car train with 6 or 8 engines I like nothing better when ppl ask me where the end of the train and I tell them "It's over there" the club layout is 16 by 32 ohhhhhh yeahhhhhh
it's a weekend away with the "boys" not doing stuf at home when I should,being able to see and hear whats new in the hobby,but the biggest reason is that when I run with my club I can let the true N scaler come out and run a 110 car train with 6 or 8 engines I like nothing better when ppl ask me where the end of the train and I tell them "It's over there" the club layout is 16 by 32 ohhhhhh yeahhhhhhI haven't ever really belonged to a club. Probably the only one I would consider joining is the La Mesa Club in San Diego, even though it's 2500 miles away - I would join just to support their efforts. I have been a visiting operator there on several occasions - it's a great example (and one of the few) of a club that was chartered with a purpose by (at the time) young people who have stuck to the original purpose, and almost 30 years later the results are beyond impressive. Most clubs don't do as well.
There is a modular group locally here, which has been around 30+ years. It was formed as a no-dues, loose-knit group. They have their own module standards, rather than following NMRA or any others. I knew a lot of people in that group, grew up with some of them actually. I ran trains on the layout at shows, and eventually built a small module but I only did a few shows. The group has been around long enough to have produced *at least* three spin-offs. Those are just the ones I know about - as far as I know two have died off, and the third is fairly new and has adopted completely different standards. The module group provided a get-together point and a way for guys who couldn't build a full layout for whatever reason to run their stuff. The politics were minimal, due to a lack of dues, treasury, or any formal officers. They organized around a volunteer "run boss" - one person was designated for each show, it was on them to get space at the show, make the phone calls, find out who was going to be there, coordinate setup, etc. The experience for the various members was often contingent on who the run boss was, because this person often felt the need to become Mr. Drill Sergeant. Crossing Guard Syndrome (aka Hall Monitor Syndrome) still runs strong in clubs, even informal ones - not just model railroading but organizations of all kinds.
At any rate, once I built my own basement layout - plain as it was - there wasn't much point in putting up with the module club politics just to get to run my train for a few minutes, before the slightest uncoupling problem occurred and it was yanked before I had a chance to fix it, etc. There were some very nice people and good modelers in the group, many were and still are friends today (both in and out of the group)........ but collectively, they seemed to become more obsessed with bizarre, huge setups to win "best of show" at GATS shows and that ilk, running gigantic trains, etc. No debug time was ever allowed for, even knowing that most of the members did not have layouts and had no opportunities to test & tune their locos and rolling stock in between shows. A lot of guys had some very nice stuff sitting, just because of the rule that trains had to be kept moving - so your brass loco would remain "test run only" while some AHM pile of junk logged miles at 120 per just because it would stay on the track and the Walthers Goo on the horn-hooks kept the train together. It really started out well, a place where the nitpicky, prototype modelers could share some space with the AHM/Tyco runners, but in the end I'd have to say the AHM mentality won out. The club still keeps going with that philosophy, and they have been successful with it. They just aren't of much interest to me anymore, unfortunately.
I think that many clubs go through the same transitions - no club is going to be all things to all people. When clubs split, the two factions often expend great energy putting down the other, but the reality is the split was necessary and good for the club, to enable each group to pursue its own goals. That's how stuff happens. Even if I could hook up with a group today that shares my philosophy 100%, 5 years from now it could be down to 50%. Or 5%. That's just how it goes.
Andy
There is a modular group locally here, which has been around 30+ years. It was formed as a no-dues, loose-knit group. They have their own module standards, rather than following NMRA or any others. I knew a lot of people in that group, grew up with some of them actually. I ran trains on the layout at shows, and eventually built a small module but I only did a few shows. The group has been around long enough to have produced *at least* three spin-offs. Those are just the ones I know about - as far as I know two have died off, and the third is fairly new and has adopted completely different standards. The module group provided a get-together point and a way for guys who couldn't build a full layout for whatever reason to run their stuff. The politics were minimal, due to a lack of dues, treasury, or any formal officers. They organized around a volunteer "run boss" - one person was designated for each show, it was on them to get space at the show, make the phone calls, find out who was going to be there, coordinate setup, etc. The experience for the various members was often contingent on who the run boss was, because this person often felt the need to become Mr. Drill Sergeant. Crossing Guard Syndrome (aka Hall Monitor Syndrome) still runs strong in clubs, even informal ones - not just model railroading but organizations of all kinds.
At any rate, once I built my own basement layout - plain as it was - there wasn't much point in putting up with the module club politics just to get to run my train for a few minutes, before the slightest uncoupling problem occurred and it was yanked before I had a chance to fix it, etc. There were some very nice people and good modelers in the group, many were and still are friends today (both in and out of the group)........ but collectively, they seemed to become more obsessed with bizarre, huge setups to win "best of show" at GATS shows and that ilk, running gigantic trains, etc. No debug time was ever allowed for, even knowing that most of the members did not have layouts and had no opportunities to test & tune their locos and rolling stock in between shows. A lot of guys had some very nice stuff sitting, just because of the rule that trains had to be kept moving - so your brass loco would remain "test run only" while some AHM pile of junk logged miles at 120 per just because it would stay on the track and the Walthers Goo on the horn-hooks kept the train together. It really started out well, a place where the nitpicky, prototype modelers could share some space with the AHM/Tyco runners, but in the end I'd have to say the AHM mentality won out. The club still keeps going with that philosophy, and they have been successful with it. They just aren't of much interest to me anymore, unfortunately.
I think that many clubs go through the same transitions - no club is going to be all things to all people. When clubs split, the two factions often expend great energy putting down the other, but the reality is the split was necessary and good for the club, to enable each group to pursue its own goals. That's how stuff happens. Even if I could hook up with a group today that shares my philosophy 100%, 5 years from now it could be down to 50%. Or 5%. That's just how it goes.
Andy
I've been in two over the last 15 years or so, one 100% NMRA and one very few NMRA. Both very dedicated to prototype modeling and operations. Nice not to have to build a home layout and to be able to run a prototypical length passenger train that looks good on the curves as well as the straights. Politics: Inevitable with any group with more than two members, but manageable if the leadership is competent. Modular clubs can be tough. As Andy says, if they're not up, you can't run. Good funding is a must. If you want to play, you have to pay. No fighting over money that way, and dues are a drop in the bucket even for a large well equipped club if you look at them as a percentage of you annual hobby spending. I can run on the layout it would take me 20 years to build today !
If you can find the Right group of people, a club can't be beat.
If you can find the Right group of people, a club can't be beat.
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cv_acr
Well-Known Member
We have specific rules for equipment standards. That is all metal wheels and all metal couplers and proper weight to NMRA standard recommendations and of course it needs to be appropriate for the prototype. We don't want to run anything that doesn't meet that standard or it will cause problems when trying to run 45 car freights up a helix. (HO scale) Cars must operate well, look good and be appropriate for the time frame of the layout.
Our club is modelling a fixed prototype area and time frame. (permanent layout, not modules) This keeps politics down as this has been set down in stone from the beginning of the club, and the design of the layout is based on the actual prototype track arrangements and operating practices.
Working at the club gives the opportunity for experience in layout building, since I live in a small apartment right now with no room for my own (I'm in my mid-20s and single), and allows the ability to work and operate trains on a much larger layout than could be built at home.
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Very true, Andy, very true.
Someone could look at the history of our club, one of which Alan mentioned, and see every step that most formal clubs, it seems, will go through.
Ours is now at the point where most of the members there the longest, have seen the club change from a round robin type of club to a more formal type of setup. Reasons are many, but probably the biggest reason is simply management.
I joined the club for several reasons, biggest one was access to knowledge, and the second one was to be with the friends I had made over the years at conventions and meets.
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Tough is not a word I would use, instead how about PITA!
The club I was in when I was in Mobile was like this. It only got setup regularly twice a year. Kinda hard to break-in cars and locos.
However, if a club can be formed by a Right group of people, there is no reason that it couldn't be together for many years.
Our club was formed in 1989, (I missed being a Charter Member by 2 months, had to move 250 miles to join
), and this year will make it 30!
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