I have belong to clubs in the past where you learn a great deal and get to operate trains in a prototypical atmosphere. Except this last one. The club name is Coastal Carolina Model Railroaders . I lasted three years before I was asked to leave due to asking questions beyond my pay level. What has happen to our great hobby. A very nice railroader once told me “stay home work on your layout and invite friends over to operate. Be a lone wolf.” Good advice to say the least. Except one thing, I left there with some friends. I have always been a lone wolf you might say. Don’t get me wrong, clubs have there purpose and some people need them. I can’t handle politics all that well.
Sorry to hear of your, less than happy experience. I have never belonged to a club, because I do not know of one close to me. However, I have visited with club members at shows and visited one home layout operations session that made me feel quite comfortable, though I was totaly overwhelmed by the size of the layout itself.
I will say that I have heard of plywood central layouts that are strictly for operators. Others indicate that they are constantly working on and upgrading the clubs layout. I would suppose for someone who wanted to learn scenic techiniques, an operational layout would not do, however, it should have been made known early on, how the group worked.
If it took two members six months to finally call a meeting to vote you out after three and a half years they couldn’t have been to upset. Why the others didn’t help you…? Sounds like a somewhat cliquish way to run a club. To stay in business a good club needs to be entertaining new members, young and old, to keep their numbers up.
As for being inquisitive, wonder how they learned? I can under stand that if “Joe” wasn’t here tonight, asking you to wait, as he was the one that set it up, that’s one thing. I would think the members would want an atmosphere of doing and learning, so all could benefit.
The club members I have talked to have always been very willing to answer questions or point me to the member that could give me a better answer. They have all made me feel that I would be welcome, if I were willing to travel the distance to get to their meeting.
Again, sorry you had a bad experience. Chalk it up to a learning experience and do a little more research on a group before committing to it. It does sound like you have had some good experiences before, just try to find a group that fits those types. Some places have round robin groups with no formal structure
Thanks for your input. I’ve been a lone wolf all my life, except where I worked as an Aerospace Engineer at Gen Dynamics. “Better known as"GD”" I have had allot of fun with my wife who enjoys the heck out this hobby. Good luck in your ventures. oh ya my Grandfather brought me in this hobby. Sometimes the old ways are best.
I knew of a club when I lived in Phoenix and they were a great bunch. When I moved to Missouri, I moved to a small town, and was lucky enough to find an apartment with a huge basement (33x35’) and I’ve built my layout to my specs and I’m no rivet counter by any means. I am in the hobby to enjoy myself.
Like was previously suggested, if you’re set on joining a club, do lots of research. If you find one in your area, ask if they have an open house night. If not, be courteous, thank them, walk away and don’t look back. If they do have one, attend as many of them as you can. Don’t be afraid to ask questions… If they won’t answer a visitor’s questions, they probably won’t be very helpful to a member either.
I have been a club member and club officer, but very much prefer to build and operate as a lone wolf.
I have met people who object to hearing questions. In every case, the person had a limited knowledge/experience level combined with a belief thet saying, “I don’t know,” somehow demeaned the speaker. Ask about something in their narrow area of interest and you can’t turn off the flow…
Some clubs are run by cliques. Others have written a narrow window of model railroading into their by-laws, or insist that everything run on the club’s layout must meet NMRA Achievement Award standards. Heaven help the curious newby with a briefcase full of Athearn BB cars and a Tyco locomotive. (We model Southern Pacific, period. Glass in all windows and a crew in every cab… club in a California city.)
As I have gotten older I have become less tolerant of compromising MY modeling to meet other people’s standards. Since I have room enough to build what I want, I see no reason to submit to club discipline. If this be heresy, so be it.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - my way)
I was in a model railroad club for 25 years, and I actually like being a ‘lone wolf’ again. I can work on projects whenever I want to, run trains when I feel like it, and I don’t have to worry about traveling anywhere.
Sorry to hear about your situation. I belonged to a club once. It got me back into the hobby. The members were great, allowed young people into it to help with membership & dues etc. They allowed you to run whatever you brought. Only bad thing was I had to move. My current area, the Greater Toronto Area, has a few HO scale clubs & I inquired about them, even went to an open house & local shows to lean more about them.
After talking to them, I decided that they were TOO rigid for me & decided to stay away. When I say rigid, I mean things like we (they) don’t allow Athearn locomotives on our tracks, we (they) STICK to one era & only trains that were around in that era were allowed on club tracks etc. Sorry, not for me. I like running steam with AC4400’s on the same tracks. The Canadian Pacific does it, why can’t I?
I’ve been chatting with one guy close to where i live I’ve just met. He & a few other guys left their club due to politics, so you’re not alone.
Here in Ottawa there are a number of groups, but many are informal. There is what you could call a club, which gets together for a dinner meeting once a month, called OVAR. It functions more like an umbrella group.
There is no layout, just modest dues and a fee for the dinner. People come for the social aspect, and to hear the guest speaker. There is no layout to fight over. Its main function is the social aspect: Get together to talk, listen, and meet people.
Within the larger organization there are a number of operating groups, ranging from garden railway to your typical HO or N setup. One of the members has a large Sn3 layout in the basement, and invites other operating groups over occasionally to operate. OVAR members belong to a number of groups, as well as the NMRA division which is also quite strong and active.
OVAR with the BRMNA funded and organized Railfair every year for the last 34 years, and OVAR also provided funding to organize the Ottawa Train Expo (next weekend).
People who want to operate can join either the NTrak or HOTrak groups. HOTrak gets together in the same venue as the OVAR dinners, sets up their modules and has a weekend long op session several times a year.
The arrangements work well for everyone concerned.
I am sure there are clubs out there that would welcome most anyone to their bunch and live happily ever after. But the sad thing is, whenever two folks or more get together there will be differences of opinions on any and all matters. Differences of opinions should be welcome, but unfortunately are not always met with mature give and take compromising attitudes.
While I can usually deal with the above, I have a problem with the politics and cliques that some clubs nurture. You just can’t fight that, and you have to put up with it or leave.
Of course there is one question you need to ask yourself… did the club shut the door on you for a good reason - or not? If you are certain “it wasn’t your fault”, then be glad you are gone.
Me… well I endured politics and cliques in the workplace for a whole lot of years, and now that I’m retired have no desire whatsoever to get into a club environment. Being a “lone wolf” MR, with you all as my “virtual club”, gives me - IMHO - the best of both worlds.
Depending on your interests, another type of “club” to consider is a modular group. Most of these are rather informal, with the core elements (DCC system, perhaps corner modules) sometimes owned by the group. The groups get together between setups to assist each other in module construction, and coordinate upcoming setups. But you don’t have to participate in all the meetings if you build your module(s) to standard on your own. Just coordinate your attendance at the setup with the run chief or cruise director.
In North Carolina, the Sipping & Switching Society (I am not a member) is a pretty large, widespread, fun-loving group that is taking modular railroading another step. The S&SS standard has spread into Ohio and Kansas.
Likewise, Free-mo is a continent-wide standard, which exists in a variety of scales and gauges. If one adheres to the standard in his modules, they can be used at a setup anywhere. Which means once a critical mass of modules is reached, any two setups are likely to have distinctly different layouts and operations.
I second the opinion of Mobilman, after enduring years of meetings, cliques, and politics in the workplace I don’t need it when I’m home trying to relax.
Probably so. What’s the other side of the story, OP? What did you do, or what didn’t you do to get voted out? It is one thing to quit, it is another thing to get the heave ho.
Not saying it was your fault, but tell us more about what happened.
That said, i wouldn’t join a club if they paid me to do so.
I been a member of several clubs over the years and remembering voting another member out because he was-well a real PITA and sowed discord among members over sitting a era for the club’s layout-1955 IIRC-and nothing could be ran on the layout if the model didn’t fit 1955…It took us 2 months before we said “enough!” and asked for his keys and asked him to leave.He complied
sounds to me like you may have got the best part of that deal, I have belonged to only one club and that was a long time ago but they had quite a few political problems which never seemed to go away, (yeah I know they never do). and after about ten years of putting up with various BS about everything from club colors to any equipment run on club layout MUST have an EOT device on the last car. This in particular was a nonsense item as virtually everyone in the club including the vast majority of the club equipment was 1950’s they didn’t have EOT devices then. Point is that sometimes clubs are ok sometimes they are not, it all depends on what you want to get out of the experience.
All in all clubs can be a good way to have fun away from you’re own layout if you have one or if you don’t then they can be a good way to learn and develop your skills before going on to build your own empire. And if they don’t want you around then you are probably better off without them.