Hey guys, and gals just seein’ if anyone was planning an open house sometime. My first one will be on May 14th.
Matt
Well, it’s not really MY layout, but our club has an open house twice each year in May and November. I don’t have an indoor home layout, but I have G-scale in my back yard.
I’m the lone maybe so far. It really depends if I can get a loop of track running. That sounds like a minor project, but given the size of the layout and where I have to go to close the loop, I will need to get crackin. The loop is about 450 feet long, and less than half the track is laid. The local NMRA division has 3 layout tours, fall, winter and spring. I would like to be ready to commit for fall, but spring may be more realistic.
Although the door is always open for anyone, I’m on the open house/tour list for the NCR convention later this year.
I had 12 nieces and nephews at my house over the weekend (All under 10). I don’t have a show layout by any stretch of the imagination, but there are many hours of effort in what I do have. It was a very nerve wracking experience for me! Fortunately, not misshaps and all the kids left happy and excited to have run a BLI locomotive. I don’t know how you guys with show layouts stand to have the general public poking around?
I’m planning on getting on the list for an open house in this area…one thing you should do is have some type of security set up for open house day…there are those that get on open house tours that are doing nothing but scoping out your property to make a grab at things that don’t belong to them …it’s sad, but yes, it does happen, so your best bet is to keep everything as secure as possible…don’t let anyone into areas of the house where you keep your valubles, and have some sort of crowd control…like, so many people at one time in the train room at one time, a waiting area for guests and those waiting to see the layout, and have someone like your wife, family members, or a trusted neighbor watching the places of your house where others have no business being…chuck
good idea chuck!
Open House is when I open my bedroom door and family members get a glimps of my layout as they pass by!
Seriously, I don’t ever have forign vistors come to my house to see anything railroad related. No open house planned here.
My garage door is always open when I’m working on the layout, so I suppose I have a sort of automatic ‘open house’ going fairly frequently. Usually it’s the neighbors, or the neighbor’s kids, sometimes a car will stop and some people get out and peer up the driveway asking if they could take a look at the train. I’m pretty open about it, if they’re interested, they’re welcome. No problems so far, and it’s kind of neat to see the looks on the kids faces–especially if it’s reflected in the faces of their parents. Hey, it’s a good selling tool, and let’s face it, we’ve got to get the new generation of model railroaders from somewhere, right?
Tom [:D]
When I had my old layout up and running I participated in lots of layout tours and open houses. I had a few buslaods of conventioneers from the San Jose NMRA National show a few years back when I was on the layout tour for the convention. It is a lot of fun to have people come by and look at stuff. You can meet some interesting people and be an ambassador for the hobby. Most are shocked at how cool it is…Many people still have the idea of trains as a loop around the tree and are quite surprised to see a MODEL railroad and how intricate it is…goes a long way to dispell the “playing with trains” derisive attitude that some have towards the hobby…(personally I love playing with trains, but prefer to call it “Model railroading”).
Quick suggestions:
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Clean up the train room. Put away anything lying about that could be stepped on, sat upon or broken by inquisitive hands.
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Get someone else to help run the trains. Nothing like rear ending that string of scratch built hoppers because you were talking to a guest.
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Feed em’. Snacks and drinks go a long way towards spreading good will (ever notice how train guys like to eat??)
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Cue up a few trains in advance. Get your best running stuff and fine tune it so there a no derailments. Put all the cool stuff that doesn’t run on sidings up front to look at.
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If possible, let kids drive trains…
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Not to be negative, but I enforce the “don’t touch rule”. I have had adults break fine scale models, ironically kids obey the rule. The main problem without the rule is that the visitor doesn’t know which items are OK to touch and which will break if handled. It is easier to have the blanket rule…You can always say “go ahead and pick it up” when appropriate…
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Have fun…
On my new layout there hasn’t been much to show until I just recently got a loop going. It will be a while before I get back to the train tour mode…I miss
Hi Matt
Was chatting with the wife about an open house for this summer. Would like to get DCC and have it up and running first. But as some of the above post state, the house is allways open to what I have up and running.
So if anyone here would like to drop by, feel free to “E” me a few days or so in advance…John
I’m in the majority, too. I have no intention of having a ‘viewing’, as this is for my pleasure, and my wife’s sainthood (Har!) in putting up with it all.
Naturally, when guests arrive, they inevitably gravitate to the layout by some point in the evening, and I take pleasure in their obvious delight.
On the other hand, I have made my telescope available at public comet viewings and world-wide Astronomy Day set-ups at local markets. But, that’s a whole 'nuther life.
-Crandell
If we have guests for dinner, etc. I will show them the layout if THEY bring it up. I do not volunteer to show them the layout. Especially if there are small children in the group. If they have heard about “Ed’s trains” and ask to see them I’ll give them a tour with a NO TOUCH rule. If “train guys” come over, well naturally we head for the layout. My layout is nowhere near the point where it would be of interest on an NMRA tour so I’ve never even thought about an open house.
Ya, I usually leave my garge door open too when I’m working on my layout.
Our club, the OMRS, is planning an open house in September…does that count? As for me, if someone wants to come by and tour my trashed out storage garage, they are welcome to drop by…as long as they take something with them!! Maybe that way I can get the darn room emptied out and start on the benchwork…
For what it is worth I like them. Where I am we have a well organized open house schedual in Nov. Last year we had a little under 100 layouts participate, year before over 100. I have been doing it for about 6 years now and never had any problems. I may take this year off not sure though. I say do it in an organized fashion with others participating.