Howard,I think they may become a endangered species at best but,who’s to say since the RPM fellas does a lot of detail modeling and rework.
A club that should be mention is the Rensselaer Model Railroad Society since they have pretty high standards and the members models the 50-54 era on their impressive layout IRRC.
As far as modeling skills I’m comfortable with my skill level and see no real reason to improve-well not at my age and health level.[:O]
Howard, the breed is not exstinct, but even that breed has evolved.
I save my “highest skills” for the projects that really count. Being a bit of a lone wolf, I like the idea that good quality products can let me have a moderately large layout, with reasonably high standards, in a relavitely short number of construction hours.
I like busy Class I operations and modeling, my layout supports 8 to 10 operators OR good display operation.
My life is busy, I put in the time needed for signature projects, but a nicely weathered plastic box car in that 40 car train that just went by you at 40 smph is just fine.
It is about the overall effect, not each little piece…
Seems to me, you views have some inconsistancies. You are a big fan of brass locos, last time I checked they are RTR. What makes them different than a piece of rolling stock from Kadee, Intermountain, Spring Mills Depot, or any other high end RTR rolling stock manufacturer? Or a plastic craftsman kit like the older Proto, or Tichy, or a long list of others?
Still very happy with my “cheap plastic trains” running right along with my wood and metal craftsmsn kit trains, pulled by my kit bashed Spectrum and Proto2000 locos…
Sheldon
Sheldon,
Brass locos and rolling stock are very limited run handmade (mostly) works of art made from metal on an almost individual basis by extremely skilled craftspeople. A plastic loco or car although of excellent quality is a production piece from a mold produced in very large runs. Nothing here about denegrating plastic…it is just different. We were going to allow brass locos, kit built locos such as Bowser, Leetown, etc, and possibly upgraded (extra details and weathering) some plastic locos, but they would have to be approved by committe. It seemed to me to maintain the highest level, some very high standards would have had to be enforced.
A layout such as was planned would have had very successful open houses and fees charged would have gone back into layout and we had also planned special charity fund raising events. A mid-level pike just would not have worked.
I would say it probably would not work. The Capitol Expo used to have 2 buildings, but sold the larger one to Walmart. This says to me that it wasn’t that much of money maker. Then there’s the D.C. convention center and Timonium for competition.
The club idea sounds like a problem. Essentially you’re selling shares in the building. So you now have many owners of the building even with sectioning it (whatever that means). Then once someone buys a share for model railroading you are going to have big problems telling him he can’t run his trains because they don’t meet the standard. After all he’s an owner (not just a member) who bought with the expectation of running his trains. And if you start forcing out folks who don’t meet the standards, the value of the shares will decline as word gets around and no buys them.
But then I’ve never seen this kind of thing done before. So who knows, maybe it could work. Give it a try and keep us apprised of how it’s going.
Paul
I think this alone will give it a VERY limited appeal and the cost per share will then be prohibitively high to make it all work - i.e. unless someone of means has a way of underwriing the entire project until enough “acceptable” modelers agree to become members.
Standards are important for any organiziation but think the above will be a deal killer for a majority of modelers. And what about those like Robert who have the talent but may not have the current means to invest in such an endeavor?
Have you come up with a figure of what each share would cost a potential member and what the monthly fees would be?
Howard, I’m just saying you can HAVE high standards of appearance without specifying specific materials or sources. Appearance is what counts.
So it is ok to buy and run RTR if it is semi custom built by some other highly skilled craftsman, but not ok to buy the product some highly skilled group of people researched, engineered and mass produced at a more affordable cost?
More elitisum. The elitisum of both price and limited supply…not a club I am
[quote user=“IRONROOSTER”]
I would say it probably would not work. The Capitol Expo used to have 2 buildings, but sold the larger one to Walmart. This says to me that it wasn’t that much of money maker. Then there’s the D.C. convention center and Timonium for competition.
The club idea sounds like a problem. Essentially you’re selling shares in the building. So you now have many owners of the building even with sectioning it (whatever that means). Then once someone buys a share for model railroading you are going to have big problems telling him he can’t run his trains because they don’t meet the standard. After all he’s an owner (not just a member) who bought with the expectation of running his trains. And if you start forcing out folks who don’t meet the standards, the value of the shares will decline as word gets around and no buys them.
But then I’ve never seen this kind of thing done before. So who knows, maybe it could work. Give it a try and keep us apprised of how it’s going.
Paul
I have no plans on again trying to make this work. It may have worked for the time (1980), but the hobby is much different today. The discussion came up recently at a model rail bull session as some folks did remember this plan. Anyhow the Timonium train show evolved out of this idea and that is a good thing for many.
For the record, I did belong to two clubs in NJ during the 60’s and high standards were enforced and met successfully, but not as high as we had proposed for the aforementioned club. Today I’m just too much of a maverick to be involved in any kind of a club. Possibly ornery or cantankerous would be a better description. I do love sharing my pike tod
I can’t see a reason why a club can’t have high modelling standards?
Pendon works, and so do several clubs where I live.
They all set minimum requirements.
Like detailing grade, how buildings should be done so you get a complete whole, not a concoction of various models…
But then again, I like to build models, and so do several of my fellow model builders, and maybe the US has gone all RTR and instant pleasure if you have a big wallet?
High standards of detail and appearance are one thing, limiting methods to achieve those standards is quite another.
I’m a builder too, but I am also an operator, it’s called “balance”, being interested in all aspects of the hobby…
Last time I checked, many craftsman kits, or the materials and detail parts required to scratch build, quickly add up to higher costs than many very good plastic kits or RTR models.
Not to mention the 10x factor of brass locomotives Howard is so fond of.
I belonged to a club with very high standards, especially regarding scenery, I get it, but Howards view is just unrealistic for a club today.
Sheldon
I suppose even materials and appearance could be poo-pahed by the committee.
Suppose I designed and built a next-gen Shinkansen, micro-machined from ultrapure titanium, aluminum, and Delrin. And suppose that, after hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars for tooling and materials, I presented such a contraption to the board for approval. I suspect they’d dismiss it out-of-hand because it offended their steampunk sensibilities (wrong century, wrong color, wrong texture, wrong materials, not hand-built (even though I’d put in a huge effort, my cnc milling machine would do most of the work), not weathered sufficiently, etc etc etc). Then afterwhich, I’d probably be brought up on charges of insubordination for making obscene hand gestures and booted from the club. No refund of fees.
Elitism.