How many are in Model RR Clubs?

jawatkins

Member
I was just wondering how many of you have been or are currently in Model RR Clubs. And if you are a member how long have you been one. Any other experiences would be great to hear. Or just your thoughts on why you would never join one.
 

brakie

Active Member
Judy,Seems to me I have always been a member in one HO club or the other and I have help form 2 clubs over the years..The club that I belong to now I have been a member since 1988.

Judy,I could tell many stories about the different clubs I been in all good.So,I will share one with you.

At the club I am member of I am known as some what of a joker.
I have 2 "special" Athearn 50 double door boxcars that weigh a pound apiece and I have the wheels super glued on these cars.Now picture this...
Johnny new member brings in his pride and joys to run across the layout..With the help of 2 conspirators that gets the newbies attention while I slip these "special" cars into the trains consists(we pool cars and engines)..Now Mr/MS.Newmember is all set to run his/her pride and joys across the layout for the very first time.He/she opens the throttle only to have his/her pride and joys spin their wheels...That is when the cat calls begin.Hey! What type of junk do you have that can't pull 50 cars? Better get those poor excuses of locomotives off the layout and etc.By this time the hapless new member is standing there not knowing what to do..Then we break out laughing and I remove the "special" cars.BTW pay back can be rough at times.:D
 

interurban

Active Member
Hi Judy,, there was a thread not to long ago with a lot of intresting experience`s.
The Traction lads, don`t want a "club" title, we are just a few guys who meet on Friday if possible for a few hours work ,, or chat and coffee.
As the model we take to shows is almost finished we just do add on`s or clean ups. and that is enought to keep us busy, as we all have our own L/O`s to work on.
 

jawatkins

Member
Brakie - sounds like you're a real character!

Chris - I did a search under Train Clubs to see when the last thread was and it was, I believe, last December; but did not try Model RR Clubs or other combinations.

But, still nice to hear what others are doing. Some people have had wonderful experiences and others have had horrible times. Just wanted to find out in general how many here are in clubs or other associations or not in any at all.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
I'm a member of a ho modular club. It is great, and would be better if I didn't have to work on Saturdays. In Ca. basements are rare. Most layouts are probably in garages. I will be building a 7'x9' "L" shaped switching layout in a spare room. Many of the club members who do have layouts at home joined the club because they can't run long trains on cramped home layouts. Interrestingly, I was talking to a member of the Del Oro Pacific G scale modular club as he was operating on the outdoor garden layout at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, and he said he had joined that group because he liked to run long trains and the modular layout was too small for long trains!
 

jawatkins

Member
Russ

Basements are rare here in Texas also. Most people do the same as what you and others are doing or don't have a layout at all and join clubs so they can get close to it.
 
I guess I'm not much of a "joiner." I've visited a few clubs but never found much of anything to motivate me for a return visit --- let alone membership. I'm sure however that for some people a good club would be great.
Taking the club thing further..... I was a NMRA member for years, as I thought that one should "support" the hobby, but recently I decided that I received no real benefit nor even pleasure from my membership, so did not renew.
Bill S
 

brakie

Active Member
Judy,I forgot to mention..We have 6 husband/wife members as well as 2 other ladies..To us the lady members is just one of the guys..If you lived in this area we would be most happy to have you and your husband to join our happy little band of misfits-er ah members rather.We are 44 strong and always welcome new members.
 

rsn48

Member
I belong to a non-club club. This non-club is made up of guys who belonged to clubs but didn't want the hassles of a club anymore (the original club was disbanded when they lost their layout area). But the same guys have been meeting together on Friday nights for the past ten years. I had the good fortune of being able to join this non-club and have benefited greatly because of it - and - there are no dues (but I do make a point of bringing food to just about every session).
 

jawatkins

Member
Larry- Sounds like you've got a good thing going on there. Wish we had something like that here!

Rick- Now that sounds like a neat club - Glen would like something like that - the non club- club! I love it.
 
C

Catt

Judy,I have been in a non-club- club for over 10 years.We get together on saturday nights and Round-Robin.We also have an NTRAK layout as well as a TTRAK layout.

I have also belonged to two other clubs in the same time frame and I will have to admit that structured clubing just ain't my cup of Maxwell House Columbian .
 

TR-Flyer

Member
Hi:
Update to my post in the aforementioned thread. Still having a good time in the club. The ladies do make a difference in how the club members interact. It's hard to be a complete curmudgeon, with apologies to BillK, when you're in mixed company. This past year we only had a couple of "pointed" discussions which were resolved once the trains were running.

We have a very diverse group, scalers, hi-railers, straight Flyer buffs, but we all enjoy gettign together to work the shows. We all want kids to get involved in railroading becasue we've experienced the positive impact of the hobby in our lives. We don't really agree on how you should do things, but, since we have no dues adn no rules and the only module guidlines are for rail height, track spacing for the two outer loops, and a minimum wiring buss interface, there's lots of room for individual preferences. And as long as your module hooks into the loop, doesn't derail the trains or short out the transformer you're in!

I would like to see teh scalers build a module or two. They're talking about it, but no one's done it yet.

Maybe next year!

Ted
 

60103

Pooh Bah
I've been in a club now for 25 years. We have a specialized interest (British trains) and it was started partly to serve as a resource for a minority interest. It was decided that there would be NO club layout, as we had a full variety of scales, but that members could form groups to have their own display layouts. We are a round robin, meeting usually in homes.
A couple of early ideas that we seem to have lost:
The club would be difficult to get into but very easy to get out of; if you missed paying the next quarter's mailing fee you were dropped. The meeting snacks were supposed to be limited to coffee and donuts, to eliminate competition between spouses (or members).
Female members? we have had a few. One of the wives became an active member and built her own layout with an emphasis on buildings and scenery. Some members have bought memberships for their wives. And one member converted to the female persuasion. Usually the spouses have a separate gather at a meeting.
 

jawatkins

Member
It seems like people have had mostly satisfactory experiences. I still like the round robin type of non club-club. I also bristle under structure and rules. Would never have made a good military type. Guess I got my fill of structure and rules going to Catholic schools, and yes - I'm a Catholic school surivor!;)

Anyway, keep those posts coming. I know there are others out there with stories to tell!
 

shaygetz

Active Member
I've joined a club this year and have found this one to be OK. There are no really rigid rules, my assigned area for scenery being a small town for example has that one rule---a small town. Anything that falls within that discription is fair game it seems as no one has corrected me or told me to change anything. I am disappointed in that all modules are club owned and there seems to be resistance to the idea of my adding my module to the portable layout during show, something I find odd to say the least. I guess I'll finish out my year and see what happens as there are several other clubs around that I have found out about since. Like some, I don't care for rigidity or a strict operations orientation, I just like model trains. Anything beyond that is too much like work or a wall of egos to surmount.
 

brakie

Active Member
Judy,I was thinking of this today and thought I would share this very true story.

The club that I go to got together and van pooled to a major hobby shop in Lorain(Ohio).While at the shop a family came in and their little girl was dress up as a fairy for some play..One of our guys ask the little girl if she was suppose to be Tinker Bell. All became silent so we could hear the reply...The only reply we heard was Ken*(not his real name) we thought YOU was Tinker Bell.At that there was a explosion of laughter including that little girl.:eek:
 
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