I have been a member of the NMRA for several decades. I have been active in the local Division by serving as Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent. It was a great experience. Unfortunately, the Division was not able to find a space to build a club layout. I moved several years ago to an area that had no active NMRA Division nor were there any local model railroad clubs. I have recently moved back to North Carolina. Again, there are no active NMRA Divisions locally. My question is how does one find out about local model railroad clubs? They seem to be almost secret societies. There is no local ads nor anything about clubs in the NMRA magazine.
I am certain that there are many of you out there that have or do belong to clubs that have layouts. Do you like it? What is the good, the bad and the ugly of club layouts?[^o)]
Go to the top of this page, the light gray line. Go to RESOURCES/Model Railroad Groups/All MRR Groups/Fill in N Carolina (only), there about 25 groups listed. You can also fill in your zip code and a milage figure for a more accurate list, but it sounds like you know your area. You can also do the same with RESOURCES/Events to find what’s going on in your area.
I attended a model railroad show in my area. I met a member of a club who was displaying a small but beautiful N gauge layout there. He gave me a business card and I went to the club the following meeting night. I joined and am enjoying my membership with the club. That was seven years ago. It is not an NMRA club but borders on two NMRA divisions. It is 45 miles from my home. There are 20 members. Some people are just not comfortable in a club enviornment and prefer to be a lonewolf or don’t want to or can’t afford to travel. Visit a hobby shop. The owner may know of one.
My club has three layouts, a permanent HO layout, a permanent N layout and a modular HO layout that is taken to seven or eight shows each year. In addition several members bring their own portable layouts to the shows.
I recently joined a local club and so far enjoy going there. The Club has been around for years and lost the space they had for their layout so they are in the process of building a new layout. I haven’t been able to run any trains yet as we are just finishing the benchwork and have started in on the track laying. We have much wiring work ahead of us. The club membership is somewhat small, I’d say around 10 or 12 individuals, but I would say only 7 or 8 of us are regulars. The layout is plenty large enough for all members to be able to operate on at the same time. I have noticed that some of the members perfer more of the social aspect of the club and don’t normally participate in the construction of the layout. Time will tell if they have an interest in the operation of the layout. I have also noticed that certain members enjoy certain aspects of building the layout more than others and each member has a different range of talent and interests, which is what I would have expected. With just a handful of us showing up regularly, its like having your own large personal layout.
Fortunately everyone is laid back and easy to get along with especially considering we all have different interests in model railroading. There is an established track plan we are building from but it is easy to get everyone in agreement to deviate from the plan in the best interest of the layout. I like being a part of the actual construction of the layout and knowing that others who come after me will be able to enjoy what I had a part in building.
I know how you feel. I used to live in a large metro area with several large clubs and 5-6 hobby shops. A company transfer to a town in a corn field was a big change. One hobby shop(now gone), and at least a 75 mile drive to find a decent hobby shop. We did have a modular group about 17 miles away, but they lost their ‘free’ space and the group broke up.
There a Division about 100 miles away, and I started driving to their twice/year meets. I also found all of the local train shows over about a 3 year period. Between over a dozen train shows or flea markets and the remote Disision meets, I have met a lot of folks in the past 27 years. I have judged in local/regional NMRA meets, and just spent 5 years as a Region Officer. In the process, I have found several MRR friends in my area and we do get together at each others layouts. The down-side it that I have to put a lot of miles on the road to attend these functions! There is still no active Division in my area, but I find modelers who ‘lone wolf’ it at train shows.
Same boat for me. It’s roughly a two hour drive to the nearest club or hobby shop. I suppose someday after the kids are grown and out of soccer and baseball and scouts there may be time …
Thanks for the information. I would like to get back with a group of individuals who are interested in model railroading and interested in helping each other develop new skills.[tup]
Speaking only for myself, I find that the narrower and more serious the modeler’s personal master plan the less likely that person is to be a happy club member.
I have been a club member. I helped to found one club (at a presently defunct Air Force Base,) have held every elective and appointive office at various clubs - and am now a confirmed lone wolf who wouldn’t join a club if it had an operational, scenically complete layout in the house next door. That isn’t the fault of the club members, it’s a direct result of my choice of scale and prototype.
To those who are club members, and those who want to become club members - I salute you, but I won’t be joining you.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - when not howling at the moon)
If I were you, I would write another post and inquire if there is anyone here that lives near your town. Then you could talk more privately through the private message function of the forum.