How do i form my own model train club.
The best is if you can join an existing club, even if you have to drive some distance. I dirve almost 60 miles round trip once a week to go to the club I am in.
If there is not a club within your range, it could be difficult. The first question is where would you meet? What kind of club are you thinking of? A place to build a fixed layout, members build modular layouts, round robin meetings at members home layouts. Each has its advantages and problems.
As mentioned above check to see if there is a club close by that is accepting members.
I’m the sole surviving founding member of the Longview Kelso & Rainier MRRC. The club was started just by a chance meeting of the three founding members. There was a train show advertised on the radio and I went to check it out. The show was one lone layout in the shopping mall.
The three of us asked about joining the group and were refused. We went to the mall coffee shop bought a cup and formed what is now the LK&R Ry. That was in April 1985 and we are going along as ever. We started meeting in the garage of one of the founding members some more members came along and a portable layout was started. We learned a lot and junked the first layout and built a second. We found a small barn with heat and insulation added moved there for the next 16 years. We are now in a classroom of a former grade school and are on our third layout haveing sold the second layout six years ago.
People and a site you can afford are the keys along with commitment from the members.
Best of luck in your quest.
I’ve never been a big fan of clubs but do believe the Round Robin idea to be a good one. Even loosely put together, as long as you can get together with a few people working on layouts once a week or so, each week a different person’s home, it can work pretty well. ‘Clubs’ are probably formed in a similar way. Before even thinking about forming a club, you should have some interested people with you…
Another situation you may find worth looking into is your work place. Social activities are sometimes encouraged and a club formed with fellow workers may prove a simple solution to wanting to start a club. You might be surprised how many train nutz you work with…
A number of years ago, I asked about joining a club in a nearby city. I was told they were not taking any new members. When I asked why that would be the case, I was essentially told that guys new to the hobby were just looking to join a club to get free stuff and never wanted to do any work on the club layout…etc.
Since then the idea of joining an existing club has lost it’s appeal. I have been tossing around the idea of starting a club too. Not sure if the interest is there or not. The wife suggested contacting our local museum about building a historical layout there and using the museum as the club headquarters. I thought that sounded like it could be a good idea. Were still building our current layout in the basement here. Once it is done I’ll let the boy have some frineds over to check it out and see if we can plant the MRR bug with any of the kids. If so…well you never know…
A fellow I met here on the forum lives in that nearby city and is trying to put together a group of like minded individuals to get together an look at railroad related slides, photos etc. and talk railroading. So far scheduling seems to be the biggest challenge to overcome.
It seems like a lot of established clubs are fairly negative towards new members. What a shame. [:(]
Train Clubs can be very frustrating at times. The Club I belong to had a few people that had “difference of opinions” so to speak so they all got fed up with each other and left. Train Clubs have a lot to offer new people as long as there is good knowledgeable members that are there to help and answer questions. The thing with Clubs is you need to be active and you need to be either running trains or building something to keep members interests, if you don’t then the club is doomed. I find it hard to believe that Clubs would actually turn members away and trust me, there is no free stuff when joining a club. Maybe the Club was looking for a certain type of member and you didn’t fit what they were looking for? That happens sometimes so don’t take it the wrong way. I belong to a car club and we don’t allow Imports. In any Club your going to have at least one moron that thinks he knows everything, thinks he is gods gift to the Club and will try to take charge of everything. Its up to all the other members to keep that member in check and to knock him down a few pegs when he gets out of line. My Club has lost a few members due to “OUR” moron and that is going to be dealt with soon.
I copied the following from the thread about the Denver HO Model RR Club since I felt it was appropriate here.
[quote user=“The Stationmaster”]
Building a club from the ground up is frequently a much bigger task than most realize for the very reasons you mention. What I offer here is my personal opinion, and it certainly is not the only valid one I’m sure you’ll hear. In general I think the core group that starts a club must either: 1) share a common desire for era, methods, etc., 2) agree to go with the majority, or 3) be willing to submit to a leader or leadership structure that dictates how it will be done.
I think that any of the three methods can work quite well as long as all of the members agree on the core structure of the club. Once again, it is my opinion that getting all to agree on that issue will determine the success or failure of a club. That’s why the composition of the membership is so critical. They must share a common vision, and that can’t end with just the core group.
During the early stages, there’s a ton of decisions to be made and work to be done. Business meetings factor into the equation in a big way, often occurring monthly. That usually leaves the rest of the meetings each month devoted to work. Since everybody has probably had to make a significant financial contribution to get the club going (and keep it going), most if not all think they should have a say in how things are done…reference back to my original three items.
Once progress begins to be
If you have a local hobby shop or two, ask the management if they will allow you to prepare and display flyers with your name, address, phone number, etc. announcing the formation of a new club, and see what kind of response you get.
Contact your local newspaper(s), who usually print community events for free, and try to get notices printed announcing the same basic informatiion mentioned above for the flyer.
If you get no response from these efforts, I would forget about trying to form a club.
Speaking from experience a lot of work,time and commitment is needed.Start with a flyer at your local hobby shop and other stores that allow public notices and see how the response goes.If you have several modelers set up a meeting date to discuss the formation of the club.
For the comfort of all I arrange the first meeting at a restaurant and contacted the restaurant’s manager and advised him…Twelve guys sign up for the meeting so,the manager placed three tables together and reserved them for us.
It can be done with commitment,work and time.You will need all three.
Good luck!
Starting your own club is a large task. I think first you should seek out others with the same interest & get together a few times to see if it would be possible to work together. Then I would try the “Round Robin” type of group. This works well if everyone has space for a layout. If you live in an area that has enough model railroaders & a central place that you can use to meet, build & manage a larger layout or maybe go modular a club might be better.
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…
Really? The one I joined loves new members! I try to be there every week and never charge for anything I bring in supply wise. And every week I work on whatever they need help with. Heck I could be sweeping floors or repairing the hot water tank and I would be happy.
Edit: To answer the original posters (OP) question:
Have you considered going to the closest decent sized club and getting a copy of their rules and regulations? It could give you a good starting point. I’m still just a newb in the club department. So these are more observations based on talk with others than life long experience.
I’ve been to three clubs. (1 n-scale, 1 HO & O, and the one I joined HO scale only) Most of them work the same. Once, sometimes twice a year, someone suggest a change to the existing layout. The membership then usually votes on it, and then people in the club volunteer to work on it.
Then there’s modular clubs. A standard is voted on for the modules, then everybody makes his or her own module of their liking. If you want to show your club layout to the public, this is a great idea.
DCC or DC is a very very tricky thing to discuss. The benefits of DCC or DC is obvious. HOWEVER, many older modelers are afraid of the expense and complexity of installing DCC decoders. You will alienate many of them if you go to DCC. Those older modelers are a valuabl
I am a Lone Wolf modeler now, but used to belong to a large HO modular club. I left the club when my job took me out of town. Before I joined, the club had several layouts, but kept loosing their building. I was told that when the club had a layout there was lots of conflict. The club eventually shifted to a HO modular layout.
I served as Secretary of the Club for several terms and was involved in incorporating the club as a 501C3 (non-profit educational organization), and writing and publishing a monthly club newsletter.
Some club members insisted that we incorporate to allow the club to receive gifts and contributions. To my knowledge we never did. There was hopes the city would make space available at local park for a permenent layout, but that never happened either. When I was in the club we displayed our modular layout 6-8 times per year, including several GATS shows for which we were paid for displaying our layout. We also did several free shows, however most mall required that we purchase liability insurance to display our layout at a free mall show. As time progressed much of the “work” of managing club activities fell on a few people. We had a lot of club members who just showed up at a show to run trains, but did not assit with transporting, set-up or maintaining the layout.
I still keep in touch with some of the club members and the club still has meetings but is not as active as they once were. I would prefer a “round-robin” group that takes turns working/operating on various home layouts.
JIM
[#ditto]
Yes really! [:)] What you describe would have been me too. I would have just been overjoyed at the prospect of being in a group with others who share my passion for the hobby. Someone else mentioned that perhaps the club was looking for a particular type of member…I guess the guys I spoke to were clairvoyant because they were able to determine that I was not what they “wanted” without knowing anything about me.
Anyway, now I attend regular meetings at this online MRR club! [:D]