Our club is in trouble I fear. The two main driving forces have not been around so much. One has been sick, the other has a job in retirement that keeps him away. The club president, I think, is looking for guidance from these two, and not much is happening. In 2006, not much has happened on the layout except that the area has been cleaned–and it needed it. Stuff has been organized.
But everything else has deteriorated. The main is dirty and needs repair work. You just can’t get around the track. Forget the sidings and spurs. They are impassable, unless you like pushing wooden trains. The yards are full of cars that don’t work and the yards are clogged. The yard ladders and throats are broken and dirty, so all three yards don’t work. In short, all anyone can do is run the main, but there are constant problems so there is a lot of standing around waiting for trains to be re-railed.
But the problem is more basic than that. The club has no vision. Anyone runs any era or road name train they want–PRR E7s pulling NS Top Gon’s. CSX Dash-9 pulling Virginia and Trukee box cars with cat walks. I want to set up operations, other people could care less. No one wants to do any work. It’s a social club where people complain that the DCC isn’t quite right.
So if I was President of the world. I would pull every car off the track and clean every inch of it. I would have the club vote on the era they want to represent and choose which cars fit that era and the industries on the layout that they could service. Then, the cars could come back after they had been clean, weighed, and checked for properly aligned Kadees.
That’s what I would do if I were president.
It’s more likely that what I say will get the kindly advice, “Just make your suggestions and sooner or later, some of the things might get done. These guys have been here a long time and they are used to doing things there way.”
If its “not your job” make it your job. If you don’t like the way the president is running things, run for club president.
I faced a very similar situation myself a few years ago. The club had grand plans for a large layout, but nothing was getting done. The building that housed the layout just happened to be a cross the street from where my wife did our food shopping. Well, when I dropped her off for shopping each week, I went to the club and started cutting plywood and laying track on the benchwork that was already in place. This encouraged others to start building more benchwork, etc.
Leave the club and start/join another that satisfy your needs.
Take charge! It won’t be very popular but all organizations need strong leadership when it appears that it is going no where. Be prepared for criticism and membership leaving or asking you to leave. If you survive that stage, you may have the club you are looking for.
You may never get the specific era/locale you are looking for since so many have money/time invested in the current layout and rolling stock. Maybe you could look at alternating eras from one operating session to the next if you have enough equipment to represent a particular one.
One guy has done that. I and another guy did the main by hand a couple weeks ago. But until they clean the cars, it’s a waste of time. They were dirty by the time they had run once.
i am a member of a club that has a 26’x36’ ho layout that needs a lot of work. when i joined the only tracks that could be used were the three mains and dc was the only way to run trains. i started by rewiring the clubs traveling layout and have become the clubs wiring guru. and am now the vp of the club. another new member started doing an up grading of the scenery and he is the new president. when i joined there were switches that connected the three tracks that were unusable due to broken throw bars and no way to connect them to powered switch machines. i installed caboose ground throws and now there is a way to move back and forth between them. i also put the throws in one of the yards and now sometimes you have to wait to switch some cars there. i was also instrumental installing dcc to the layouts running both dc and dcc at the same time. since then we have gained at least 10 new members, work is beginning on track repairs and wiring updates. our membership spans many decades in age from 10 to over 90 and run everything from sp steam, to nyc subway cars, to conrail sd’s at the same time. we are managing to have fun and attract some new members at the same time. some of the older members only come to run trains and talk but they are some of the founders since the club was founded in 1942. maybe you will have to take some first steps as i did to motivate the other members.
EVERY CLUB has to come to some mutual agreement. OFFICERS are appointed to run things. Meetings are most often attended by ‘Interested Members’. So, Get a ‘Quorum’.
Specific complaints:
“The main is dirty and needs repair work. You just can’t get around the track”. MAINTENANCE is a way of life - track and building (& Bathooms don’t clean themselves). Volunteers or appointees to DO the work. 2 Track cleaning cars, maybe?
“The yards are full of cars that don’t work and the yards are clogged”. SIMPLE. Buy a box of yellow stickers that ANYONE can ‘Bad Order’ a non working item - by writing down the problem and getting CLUB approval for ALL such ticketed items to be removed to a storage area. Members can still leave items at the club, but it clears track of defectives .
“Then, the cars could come back after they had been clean, weighed, and checked for properly aligned Kadees”. GOOD idea. Our club has a manned ‘STANDARDS DEPARTMENT’ and all cars must pass NMRA weighting, gauging, KD couplers, and a rolling minimum, or it’s flagged. Equipment with non complience can not be left on the layout. Someone can run their train with non-Kadees - but takes it home.
Remember, THAT, you can’t do anything about - except under Majority voting. It’s THEIR RR too.
OUR Club’s President enforces these rules - having been set by members - MAINTENANCE is just one of these. We have it in our bylaws.
Hello Mr. Mouse (Chip), and Happy New Year… Sorry to hear about your club layout and all. I hope it all gets back to normal soon. Who knows, you may actually end up as club president before it’s over. As far as I’m concerned you’ve got all the qualifications - a great amount of compassion for the hobby being at the top of the list. Not to change the subject, but are you still into cowboy action shooting?. Tracklayer
Chip,It doesn’t work like that…A club is a community and things need to be voted.NO club will last under DICTATORSHIP period! You must make motions and those motions in turn must be second and then voted on.
First motion should be layout maintenance.
Then a car inspection program must be in place…That is where ALL cars are removed by the membership and cleaned and serviced…Then BEFORE any car can be returned to the layout they must be inspected by “car inspectors” and they should check for correct wheel gauge,correct coupler and trip pin height and owners identification mark or number assign by the club.This applies to locomotives as well as far as coupler and trip pin height.
We had a nasty layout before we rebuilt the layout back in 93 and during this time we voted in a club id number for each member,a locomotive/car inspection program based on our club’s standards and what to do with bad order cars…Today we operate twice weekly and call work sessions as needed on Saturdays-about every three months for routine maintenance and general clean up followed by pizza and railroad videos.
I have a modicum of tact. But my fear is that people just want things the way they’ve been for 15 years. Like I said. No one’s doen a thing in the last year. And when I mentioned something before, there was a lot of looking the other way and chainging the subject.
Chip,I been there and understand your problem…That’s one reason the club rebuilt the layout after a split up over policy and dictatorship and near closure.
Gotta ask…Does your club hold operation sessions where train are ran or are they a “fellowship” club and the layout sits idle?
This is where you give everyone at the next gathering a little dose of reality. You take the floor when you are normally permitted, and you tell them that the way things are just isn’t working for you anymore. Then, you explain yourself, in unmistakeable terms.
You tell them that you enjoy running trains, and bringing them all the way here isn’t a particularly rewarding experience with a cruddy track. Sharing a cruddy track with rolling stock that has no interested owners, or so it seems, is also not making your bi-monthly forays out into the cool and dark something to look forward to, nor to discuss encouragingly with your spouse over breakfast the next day. And so on… just use clear and bold words that are going to have their attention while the floor is yours.
If you can count on their support, as well as concrete assistance from at least one other member, and are willing, you could tackle much of it yourself. You just know they’ll be mighty grateful, n’est-ce pas?[;)]
I fear, though, that taking too much of the strain in this group will not have any rewards except what you create by the sweat of your brow, and then only as long as you continue to take up the strain.
(Shorter version of above: they don’t give a flying #@%$.)