I haven’t seen nor heard of very many model railroaders in my area and was thinking of hosting an open house. Have any of you done this with success? What are some of the key components to keep things rolling? I was thinking of having a couple trains running and allow visitors to run some themselves. Now I know that sounds a bit risky but with DCC I can restrict the speed and the layout is large enough I think two rookies could manage to get around without killing anything.
Any thoughts?
If you are looking for operator you might invite some of the local club’s members to come.
I thought it would be cool to get about 4-5 like-minded and travel from home layout to home layout to do ops.
John,
A word of caution: NEVER underestimate the stupidity of rookies doing ANYTHING for the first time together…
Tom
I hear ya Tom. A bit risky yes.
Chip, that is usually refered to a round robin club and is axectly what I would like to do, but it seems I will have to join a local modular or dedicated layout club for like minded folks.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The only possible problem lies in the method of broadcasting your invitation; it should be done in such a way so that John Q. Public isn’t going to learn he can come in with the pretext of seeing your layout, but in fact scoping your place…casing it, as we used to say. You’ll need a trusted agent, too, who can help you to keep things moving along and to keep an eye on everyone. Otherwise, you may end up with 10 people crowded in there over a 30 minute period instead of spread out over two hours.
Just a couple of thoughts.
I was introduced to a local club/clinic and a bunch of fantastic guys through an open house that one of them had one year. So in my opinion, it is one of the best ways to get people to come out of the woodwork. Not everybody who is a novice MR or has a minor interest in the hobby knows how to look up a local club.
The particular open house I went to was advertised in the local paper. One thing that was kind of neat was the host didn’t charge an admission fee, but requested that everyone bring some canned food. All the food that was collected was then donated to the local food bank.
I wouldn’t recommend letting the general public actually operate the trains, but I’d have one or two going on a continuous loop just for show (the “look but don’t touch” rule). If you actually know someone responsible enough to operate your layout, that much the better.
If you have displays that show how parts of the layout are constructed, that would be good. Examples: a multi-section diorama that shows a hillside in various stages of construction, trees in various stages of construction, etc.
Open houses are good for a club because it allows people an opportunity to meet the members, see the layout, and find out about the club’s activities, projects and goals. I belong to a club and we have an open house and train show at least three times a year. In fact, our winter open house is this weekend. We acquire many of our members in this fashion.
A crucial component of any open house is to have helpers. Having a couple of friends who know your layout operate it, as this allows you to explain, guide and answer questions from visitors. You’ll likely also need a greeter or two to answer the door and guide visitors back to the your layout room. You should also consider where the bathroom is in planning for your “staff”, in case someone hears nature’s call when they are there, so that traffic to and from it can be adequately supervised.
Certainly, the concerns that others have raised about the possibility of less than honest visitors are well taken. Most likely, though, it’ll be some kid who decides to pocket a souvenir – although I wouldn’t put it past some adults, too. But as long as there are plenty of eyes around helping you, this will discourage most, if not all such behavior.
i have had a few open houses buy word of mouth and i really like it that way.not a hole bunch of people at one time. this friday i will have 4 new guys coming over.
jeff