I would like to encourage you to join your local modeling club. While this and other forums are a great source of information, there are so many benefits to joining a club. For example:
You’ll make some good friends. Sometimes you’ll go on group trips together.
Actually seeing someone do something is a lot different then reading about it.
Some of the people there actually work/worked on the railroad. They can give invaluable information.
Some offer modeling services for those who can’t. (I cringe at weathering my own $500 steam engine)
Every once in a while you can find someone who works at the local model store who can get your group rate or personal discounts.
You can run much larger trains than you probably would be able to at home.
Increases the likelyhood you’ll stay in MRR’ing. (Okay the last fact I’m guessing on. But most newbies drop out within a year if they don’t get track down for operating. The fact that you can go to a club and right away operate your trains I think would increase the likelyhood that you stay in the hobby)
Now you are not discouraging us newbies from searching, reading, and asking questions here are you? I have found that alot of the same questions are asked often. There is a seach option in these forums and I think that should be used before posting anything. How many times is someone going to ask how to post pictures, or which dcc system to buy?
Unfortunately a local club is not an option for everyone. Frankly, I find this forum a great help as I don’t really have a local club, LHS, or the sort. So I’m really on my own. Too bad too. I’d love to tap the information resource that a club could offer. And running my choo choo’s on a huge club layout once a month or so would be very cool.
I have done the club thing, but now, my own modeling interests have me. The club I was in won’t be able to do what I want to do, but my club has a more generalized layout to run anything, run long trains, have operating sessions…thats all true, join and learn in a club.
Now my layout is getting solidified and it will be cool.
All of this supposes there is a local club, and if there is, they have a layout under construction or available. And you are able to join.
I’ve belonged to a local club for over 20 years. We don’t have a club building or a layout, never wanted to be perpetual fund raisers to pay for rent. We do our modeling on HO scale modules that most members keep at home to work on in their own time and place. We do have monthly meetings that are open to newcomers, but we don’t really have a whole lot to offer them as we don’t teach model railroading, we participate in it at our annual and area shows.\
So don’t assume there is always a local club that will be the be- all and end-all for newbies!
Unfortunately there is no local club in our area, although there is a gentleman trying to start one in our town…I wish there was one here as the oldest is starting to trade trains for boys [8D]
I just had to chime in and say that while you may be right, -there may not be a local club, also consider taking another look. I now belong to a club here in NYC (and we have some of the highest rents in the world) I looked several times on the net and found nothing. I asked at the LHS and he told me there was nothing, then out of the blue I found a club with a 65’x35’ HO scale (my kinda thing) layout.
These groups may be open to new members but are perhaps not advertising masterminds, they just know how to lay track… lol. So, yes you may be right, but isn’t it worth another look.
There is a Local one I am considering joining, but between college and work, I might be able to get only a couple of hours of running a week.
I have the throttle required, but I don’t have the funds to pay the fees. ($37 for the first month, and 12 for every month after that.) Granted I’d learn some things, but I’d lose the income that could be used to help my layout at home along, and money’s getting real tight as it is, since I have received no help from my parents at all.
I have belonged to a club ( McDonnell Douglas now Boeing Employee Railroad Club in St Louis) for 26+ years and even that we are a closed club (you must be an employee, spouse, or retiree) we have a great track record in the St. Louis area for promoting railroading, we have donate both time and money in the past to both railroad and charity events (including the Museum of Transport, Frisco 522, St Louis Zoo, The Judivine Center, train trips, train swap meets, other local clubs, NMRA, and many others). I know that clubs are not for everyone and some clubs are full of politics and cliques, but I have loved every minute of it. I learned more about my hobby, improved my skills with hands on approach working on the clubs HO & N scale modular layouts & make friends who share the same intrest. The help from other members and the diversity of information from all scales of modeling to prototype railroading in one group working together is very rewarding. Some clubs get discounts from the LHS. Remember the dues money that you pay to the club comes back to you in a place to meet, tools that you can use, things for the club layout, refreshments, prizes, ect…
I was a member of the Suncoast Model Railroader’s Club. Great group of members, great layout. I had to drop out due to work and family obligations but plan on rejoining in a few months. Very enriching and enjoyable experience.