Any opinions? Mine was too expensive; $15 per month, and I could go once a week. That’s $5 every week! After 6 months you get a key, but how often could I go anyway? Plus, the club was moving, the main reason I joined was operating sessions, but there was supposed to be one every month, but somehow they kept getting canceled. I quit after a few months.
Is your club worth it?
We have several clubs around here but I don’t belong to any, just do my own thing. The clubs do amazing stuff and have nice layouts so we visit on open houses. Iknow of someone who was in a club but ultimately it just wasn’t for him…I guess it depends on which one you’re in. It’s not something I personally would get involved in…I do belong to a historical society though.
I will be joining a club shortly. There is an N scale club near me. I model HO right now and want to get involved in N scale so they are the logical choice. I think it will be a good choice.
John
I am a member of 2 HO clubs and 1 N Scale club…I enjoy all three clubs as the members are a great group of guys and yes I consider my dues money well spent…
To be sure I been lucky enough to join good clubs over the years that has great members…Sadly I do know of one “bad” club that has their “ruling clicks”…Thats never good in a club.
I tend to prefer my own company. This is not to say that I don’t see how being with others could be fun, entertaining, developmental, and so on… I would probably also enjoy helping others less experienced than I am, although I need a way to go myself.
All-in-all, I don’t see me joining a club, even if there is one where I live. I tend to be busy, and I have tended to avoid organized anything over the course of my life. For example, I have had success in keeping myself in good condition. I could never be in a gymn long, with the music they tend to pump out and following along with someone telling me to do this, now that. No thanks, I’ll stick to cycling and running and gardening…and my own layout…and music.
We don’t have dues at our club mainly because were finished with the layout and it is more of a train display for local celebrations. Its sort of a coffee and BS club on Tuesday nights, anyway I have my own layout at home.
I actually still not sure how a club work…who pays for the initial capital outlay?
As a newb who got back into the hobby a year ago, I felt joining a club would be beneficial to me. They’re a great bunch of guys, and it’s nice to be able to run my locos on a layout as I’m not even close to starting my layout yet. Getting hands on experience in construction is nice, too. Having said that, as far as gaining the knowledge base in the hobby, I’ve gotten the greatest volume of information/education from reading several Kalmbach books and being a member of this forum.
Jim
Because our club is still construction in progress, our operating sessions take a lot of work to get set up. If the ones who really want to operate don’t help set up, the sessions get cancelled.
We also operate on two other layouts, so there are three operating sessions and one open house (running trains for the public) each month.
A club is always a trade off, and from what I can tell is as soon as someone starts thinking it is “their layout” is when the troubles start. Many things done on a club will not be up to ones personal standards or done in a fashion they want it done. Can’t let that bother you.
There have been a couple times I was ready to walk away - but I didn’t. Just remind myself it is just a club and everything is good again.
If it wasn’t for the club layout I would not have access to 36" radius curves or any place I could stretch out a 40 car train. No place to get hands-on time experiencing other peoples equipment. I would have never learned how to hand lay track, or use india ink for painting plaster. I would not have learned how to make various pine trees, ballast track, or become an expert at installing decoders. Belonging to a club has made me grow into a more well rounded Model Railroader.
A minor point, but clubs aren’t “train clubs”. Train clubs would be for trains. They are model railroad clubs.
I’ve been in an informal model railroad club for over 20 years now. No home layout and associated problems, we all do our own thing on HO scale modules.
Bob,I have heard train club used for years…So,either model railroad club or train club works for me since its no big deal…
If $15 mo. is not worth it to you - dont!
CLUBS are associations of people, for sharing something in common. Some for contributing. Some for using. Some just for commeraderie. Workers go more than once a week.
MOST Clubs RENT SPACE, ALL use ELECTRICITY, and share MAINTENANCE - whether the the layout is completed, or not. If YOU enertain some friends , you use YOUR electrity, heat, serve coffee , and pick up afterwards.
ALL Clubs have rules, like it or not. ABIDE or get kicked out.
Life is not fair - or cheap. Try Joinning a Country Club.
There are two that I know of in my area. One of them has a pernament layout that is going to need re-building and alot more members if it should return to it’s happier days. Another is a modular club that occasionally sets up for people to visit.
I have found it better to build your own and run as best as you can because there is no sense of pernament presence of the clubs in my area. Here one day, gone the next.
Maybe one day there will be space somewhere to build a layout with good qualities that will support a small group of people who want to run trains but not necessarily have the room to run in thier own homes.
The original incorporating group.
Most clubs rent space, design & rebuilt every 10 years or so, because they have to relocate.
‘Modular’ clubs bring portable sections to a common location to ‘exhibit’ shared sections and make a completed loop.
$15.00 aeach month is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of building a small layout on your own. It may sound high, but the actual money per month would not even purchase one good turnout today.
I’m fairly new back into it myself, enoy doing my own work with a few shortcomings and enjoy checking out the clubs during family day…due to work, raising a family, no time but if I was retired…definatley would try it out…unless of course…the politics[:-^]
Yeah. I could only go once a week becuse the rest of the time the building was locked. Once you were a member for 6 months, you got a key and could go anytime you wanted. The reason I like having my own layout is that I can operate it and work on it whenever I want.
I am part of a train club. The dues are $15 a month and they meet twice a week. I usually only am able to make it once a week. I have a key and I go whenever I want. All the members are nice and we ALL like to operate, some more that others but you get the point. I was out there yesterday with a couple of other guys getting ready for a show this upcoming weekend. The members all work on what they want to work on. I myself like scenery so I tend to do that alot.
-Shorty
Some clubs can be good and others bad. I guess we have been lucky as I have been a member 23 years so it must have been good for me! Now our dues are only $25 per year we have 3 shows throughout the year that brings in working capital in addition to dues.
We support 4 layouts but they are not large in comparison to some clubs that have only one scale. But living in a rural area we have to have the 4 layouts to attract members from all scales.
Most of our members have their own home layouts and the members take turns having OPs sessions, as the club layouts are really only for show displays. This makes it easy to gain experience on many different types of layout designs and learn different techniques in doing scenery, track laying and benchwork as all of the layouts are in different stages of completion.
A number of members have stated that they thought they were fairly well experienced when they joined and figured that they would not learn much due to the show type of layouts the club has. But once they were there a while they were amazed at how much they did NOT know. And they were able to save lots of dollars by using ideas that they saw first hand on the club layouts and the member’s home layouts.
Now most of them would never have met the other modelers as they did not know them otherwise and some club members are a little shy about having strangers at their home layouts. Once the new member has some time at the club and they show an interest in learning they get a key and are also invited to participate in the OPs sessions. They soon are one of the regulars and so it goes with then next new member.
We have over 40 members and some travel an hour to be at our meetings. If you
I’m only 20 and don’t really have the time to be in a club. I’m working during the summer to pay for my study abroad trip next summer and with gas prices the way they are and the distance I drive for baseball, big kicker to the little income I have. The nearest clubs I know of are 45 minutes east or west. It’d be nice since both are modern day based.
Maybe later in life when I have a place of my own and am settled down I’ll think about it. For now I’ll stick to my small 4x8 layout and looking online at people’s websites.