for the last year I have been looking for a MRR club to join. There are several clubs within driving distance but it just boggles my mind how they are operated. MRR is supposed to be fun, I thought. So when I chatted with some of the members of the clubs at their open houses it became quite apparent how stiff and rigid they all are as well as all the crazy internal politics. The most common item that prevents me from joining any club is their notion of a) This is the road we model, b) You are only allowed to run this equipment that operated during this era, c)If you wish to operate anything else, only during a designated night once in a while.
This kind of attitude only allows a very select few individuals to have any interest in joining a club layout. If for example the club models abc road and someone is interested in running their UP Gas Turbine they are basically discouraged to join. Yet at the same time these clubs have signs up looking for new members. Sure not everybody gets along all the time and also there have to be certain standards for equipment quality, ie steel wheels, Kadee couplers but lets not restrict what can be run on the layout to such a degree to discourage people from joining.
What are your experiences with MRR clubs? In my opinion it only makes sense to appeal to a broad group of modelers, so create scenery that is North American and run what you wish. As long as certain NMRA standards are followed it should be fun for everyone. Also of course when it is open house have Thomas run around the layout with a friend of his for the little kids to light up their eyes even more.
It sounds to me like you are doing the same thing in reverse. Trying to define a club as a thing that appeals to all modelers most of the time. FUN is different things to different people hence the different kinds of clubs. We tried loosening the rules at our club to appease certain members. It was a disaster on many levels. Now the club gets a lot of new members attracted by the openness, but most leave after a short while when the realize that “chaos rains” isn’t as fun as it sounds at first. The biggest gripers? The ones who don’t like rules and are causing the chaos. Not to mention that a 23 years of $ savings for a new club room/layout was blown through in just a few months mostly wasted by lack of planing and reworking the rework. I haven’t been to a meeting, operating session, or public run in over a year and nothing close to being engaged for more than two. Can’t stand the chaos and total disrespect everyone has of everything that had occurred in the previous 25 years history of the club.
People should find a club that agrees with their modeling philos
I can only agree with what has been said indeed.Trying to find a club that does fit best with one’s philosophy is the way to go.However,in many areas,finding a sufficient number of interested candidates to create a viable club is already a daunting task,so finding a sufficient number of candidates with similar interests is next to impossible.
And even if setting the bases to a new club could be achieved through discussions (and negociations I might add),many modelers (like me for instance) see their interests change somewhat as time goes on and their knowledge and skills evolve so that after a while you end up with a melting pot of diverses interests.Nothing wrong with this though…as long as no one starts imposing his views,wich is almost inevitable unfortunately.
A club is composed of different individuals who all have their “ways to do”,with different interests,skill levels,knowledge and budgets and conciliating all these differences is no easy chore.This is probably why most modelers are lone wolves.One can accept following a general rule in the interest of the collectivity in day to day living,but will not tolerate being dictated how to run his hobby.After all,it’s HIS hobby the way he wants it…no other way.If a club’s members vote on a subject and the vote doesn’t suit his likings,he’ll simply jump off the boat.
One of the advantages of being a lone wolf is that I get to do it my way all the time. Of course the disadvantage is I have to do it all, all the time.
I would think if you can find the right group of folks, it’ll be a lot of fun. While I have never been in a MR club, other organizations i have been in, have been fun. It seems to help if the group isn’t too big.
Maybe the best thing Frank, would be to find/join, or start a “round robin” group. A friend of mine has one where they go and work on/operate each others’ layouts on a rotating, monthly basis. That way, you can model what you want, when you want, and how you want without any poly-ticks involved from the rest of the club. Likewise, when you go to another guy’s layout, he’ll want things his way…which is fine, it’s his world!
You get the camaradarie of fellow model railroaders, and the autonomy to say “hey kids…we’re doing THIS today.”
Just a thought, your results may vary.
Chris[8]
Note: in the interest of “full disclosure,” I am a member in name only of the guy’s round robin group, not having participated in any of the activities to this point.
Most formal clubs (the kind with a charter, by-laws and elected officers) start with a very like-minded group of people, and usually wish to model the Home Town railroad(s) as they were in some hypothetical glory day now long past. Friction occurs when:
One of the founders gives up on trying to model 4 tracks up the Hudson in favor of one track over the Rockies. The others can’t tolerate the thought of a D&SL Mallet smoking up the Water Level Route…
Somebody from somewhere else who models something entirely different expresses an interest in joining…
The by-laws get amended to require museum-quality modeling - real glass in every window and a full crew in every detailed cab and cabin…
The club electrical standards are set up for locomotive-hauled trains, and the new guy wants to run a six-car DMU set with power at both ends…
Any other set of rough edges in contact that you might think of…
Items 2, 3 and 4 above were deal-breakers in my past searches for possible clubs to join. So, of necessity, I decided that I prefer being a lone wolf rather than a mis-fitting cog in a machine not of my design. In each case, I was polite, praised the clubmembers’ efforts and explained gently that I didn’t want my choice of prototype, detail level and modeling technique to be a source of discord. My hosts agreed, and we parted friends.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - my way)
Sorry to hear of the problems that you are having finding a Club in your area, I have run into the strict club rules in the past and in defense I guess they feel the need to keep things in order.
But unfortunatly all the clubs here with these rules have all ended up fracturing over the years and some have even disapeared all together.
What we have done is we meet every Saturday all year at each others layouts and talk club buisness at these times, what projects we have in the works, dues, etc.
We have recently finished our Module a year ago and we have shown it many times, we have no set rules on the rolling stock or engines as our club members as we all model different eras. So you run what you brung, and most likely will always have it that way, we do have strict rules on how we operate at shows on the modular, this is mostly so no one’s expensive engine or Box cars end up on the floor due to mis communication and everyone has a chance to operate their equipment.
It may sound weird but we also have no President or any higharchy, we all work together and one person usually is the lead on the newest project and the rest of us all pitch in to get what needs to be done, done.
It may not be the best club situation around but it has done us well for over 6 years now and don’t see it changing any time soon.
Our local club was slightly ridged when I join at age 16 (I am now 36), everything had to have Kaydee couplers(no other choice back then other than horn hooks) and had to be pre 1956. Mainly eastern roads were favored and prefered, but as long as it was an older model, anything went. Now its a free for all and we have everything from SD60’s and Dash9s on stack trains to Bowser Challenger class steamers on coal trains and everything inbetween. I will say its not as fun anymore. The club is designed around operation and simulation of a real railroad with car card forwarding system, interchange with members home layouts, either thru the club layout or to industires on the club layout. But the hodge podge of power and era of equipment has really killed the illuision of a real railroad. I myself prefer steam power, mostly that of the NKP and PRR and run such at the club. The ridged rules that once exhisted gave the layout more believeablity in being an actual railroad, going thru the transition from steam to diesel. That is gone now and its just a big train set for guys to run engines that either dont fit on thier home layouts or it has become an extension of their home layout and the illusion has been lost. This brings up the question one must ask oneself when looking to join. If the layout doenst fit what you model at home, can it be something you might enjoy in extension to what you already model? We had guys back then that modeled in different scales, different eras ect, but they had a few pieces of equipment to bring and operate at the club layout. The change in eras to them was a something different, something fresh and a break from the norm of thier home layouts. I still belong to my club, we meet every saturday night, I run my PRR steam engines and when I run the yard, most everything I send out has steam or first generation diesel on it. The membership is dwindling to just
Therev are a few clubs in my area. I joined one that does modular railroading as well as a permanent layout. The modules alow me to build and run what I want and the layout is prety sticktly stuck in a operations theme that has a lot of pasenger operations. There are some freight and any one can run what ever power they bring. The only objection I have with the club is a few members let thier small children run trains. Mostly unsupervised. It gets frustrating being rear ended by a speeding train.
Maybe starting a freemo group would be another option.
I’ve joined several different clubs over the years, and looked at several others that I didn’t join as I moved around the country. Here’s why I did & didn’t join:
While living in Philadelphia, PA in 1980, I looked into joining a club in Sodertown PA. Before you were even allowed to touch the layout, you had to be “certified” by passing tests (scenery, wiring, etc.). While the layout ran well, it wasn’t outstanding. I didn’t join because they made it seem more like a business than a hobby. They were featured in MR a few years later.
While in Lompoc California in 1984-86, I joined the Lompoc Valley Model Railroad Club. They had one rule - tackle whatever project you’d like - just don’t be offended if something you do gets reworked later. The whole idea was to have fun, and I did. Very loose organization - the idea was to model railroad.
While in Seattle in 1987, I looked into the Boeing Employees Model Railroad Club. What an overall unfriendly group! Anyone interested in joining (and anyone who worked for Boeing was eligible - theoretically) received the cold shoulder. You basically had to bull your way into the group. Whether this was intentional or simply the result of the snooty attitudes I don’t know. I did not join that club. What they may be like now I have no idea.
Also while in Seattle a couple years later, I joined another club, located in the town of Seatac, just north of the Seattle airport. They were just starting a new layout. Like the Lompoc club, you could tackle construction of any part of the layout that you wanted, with help if you wanted it and without if you didn’t. It was made up of a bunch of very friendly people who main goal was to enjoy their shared interest in model trains.
My best experience of all was at the Schuylkill Model Railroad Club in Phoenixville, PA in 1994 (I said I moved around!). An long-established cl
Cool. I belonged to the SVMRRC between 1973 & 1979. If you operated on the branch line you operated on track I laid.
While the modelers had a wide variety of interests the layout itself is firmly based in the SE Pennsylvania area. There are certain advantages to having a unity of design in the layout. One of the best concepts is to chose a sort of generic scenery and that will allow many different scenarios. If the railroad wants to operate in an organized manner (car forwarding and such) it requires car cards and cars to support industries etc.
One club I belonged to after I moved away from Phillie did not have a unity of design and there were huge fights over what was being built on the layout. People coming in “after hours” to rip out portions of the layout other people put in because of competeing plans. There was also the person who would buy boxes of a particular car, for example two of every bulkhead flat offered by a manufacturer, and run them as a train. While he had fun, a 30 car train of solid bulkhead flats didn’t do any attempt at operations very much good.
Some rules and organization can be good, too much can be bad.
Some “do what you want” can be good, too much can be bad.
I had a similar experience in Clarksville, TN. I was stationed nearby and found a local club that had a layout in the basement of a home for slightly wayward kids. The guys were great, friendly and very accepting. They taught me some stuff and things I already knew how to do they let me jump in and work. When it came time to run, I got to operate my CB&Q stuff right next to L&N, Southern, NC&StL and other southeastern roads.
My biggest kick was making trees for the club while deployed to Iraq. They sent me all the materials for furnace filter trees excpet paint which I had to scrounge myself. It kept me occupied outside the work schedule and kept me in touch with my close friends.
To the OP, maybe join one that’s close to what you want to do. You may find the experience grows on you as well as the people. In many cases you are trying to not only get into a club, but break into a group of friends which can be even more difficult.
My first ever contact with a local HO scale club was when I was assigned to Fort Huachuca and was still in the Army. A local hobby shop had only one locomotive available – a Bachmann DD40X.
When I took it to the club, one of the members looked down his nose, snorted, and said, “You’re not going to run that on MY layout!”
Well, excuse me – I thought this was a club – I never realized it was a privately owned layout.
I have an interesting situation up here in that the informal roundrobin group I’ve become part of has put together a ‘unique’ set up wherein a layout like mine now ‘interchanges’ with a CP main at one end with the other end being a BNSF branchline.
This gives us a chance to run a number of things on each others layouts as part of an ongoing schedule—every layout we visit on a given night starts where it was left at the other fellows layout the week before. Because we are a combination of N scale and HO scale there are these ‘issues’ between layouts of looking more like collectors when we run our HO or N scale and leave the HO or N scale trains on the shelf![(-D]
As a student, I was a member of a model railroading club. Being in Germany, it was a well over-organized affaire, with a list of by-laws, a mile long. Club life seemed to focus around organizational issues and bull talk, instead on building the layout and operation. Within that club, there was a group of “narrow gaugers”, mostly young folks like me.We enjoyed very much building and operating the narrow gauge line integrated into the club´s layout. Out of this, a friendship developed, which lasts until today.
One day, the club´s board decided to endthe narrow gauge activities and had our work torn down. The day we found out, we all left the club - never to join any formal club again. The narrow gaugers of the past are now a roundrobin group, building a modular narrow gauge layout.
for the last year I have been looking for a MRR club to join. There are several clubs within driving distance but it just boggles my mind how they are operated. MRR is supposed to be fun, I thought. So when I chatted with some of the members of the clubs at their open houses it became quite apparent how stiff and rigid they all are as well as all the crazy internal politics. The most common item that prevents me from joining any club is their notion of a) This is the road we model, b) You are only allowed to run this equipment that operated during this era, c)If you wish to operate anything else, only during a designated night once in a while.
A lot of “advanced” clubs does that…One club I am a member of anything goes…The other was rather strick on running electric locomotives without overhead Catenary…Well we didn’t have any overhead so no GG1s,AEM7s, ALP-44s etc could be used…
What are your experiences with MRR clubs? In my opinion it only makes sense to appeal to a broad group of modelers, so create scenery that is North American and run what you wish. As long as certain NMRA standards are followed it should be fun for everyone. Also of course when it is open house have Thomas run around the layout with a friend of his for the little kids to light up their eyes even more.
Most clubs that I have visited seems to be relaxed and laid back with “anything” goes attitude.
Over the years I been a member of at lease 8 clubs and all was relaxed except for some ground rules-mostly KD couplers and no GG1 type locomotives during open houses and all but one club pooled their cars and locomotives for general operation.I was in one club that voted in metal wheels and about a year later voted to strike that requirement from the equipment rule
I used to belong to a model railroad club back in my hometown when I was in high school, leaving when I was in college.
When I joined in 1988, it was a good time. I learned a lot and was having a fun time with it. Five years later in 1993, I was between my freshman and sophomore years in college. Things had changed, and I wasn’t too happy with them. Even though I was 19, I was considered one of the “kids” in the club and lumped in with the 10-12 year olds when it came to not being allowed to tell visitors to not touch the layout, trains, etc. We had a police that if your trains were not on the layout (ie. in their boxes under the layout), they were not to be touched. During one open house, our president had a friend who was visiting, and he was being allowed to run the trains, even though he wasn’t a member. I arrived with a couple boxes of trains, put them under the layout, and went to another part of the building for a few minutes. When I came back, the president’s friend was going through my boxes and putting my trains out on the layout. When I talked to the president about it, he said that there was no problem, even though I didn’t know this guy and didn’t appreciate a stranger going through personal property. Prior to going off to college, our club had started a second layout in the other half of the building and connecting through the wall to the original layout. We were each assigned a section that we could scenic as we wanted. When I went to college, my section was completed. My dues were also paid when I went to college so I was still a full member. However, when I came back to the club in May 1993 (dues still paid), I discovered that my section of the layout had been redone. The reasoning for that was that they apparently figured I was no longer a member since I hadn’t been to the meetings for so long. They knew I was at college and paid my dues on time so at th
The problem I find with many clubs is that they are made up of people! Some descend into the mire of internal politics and or cliques. Others have personalities that scream “If you don’t do it my way I will take my toys and go home!” On the other hand I have been privileged to be involved with civilized bunches of folks who just enjoy sharing and running trains. You just have to try different groups until you find the right one for you. John
I’m pretty sure the club you’re talking about is mine, because I know you visited an open house day and I was talking to you there. Let me just explain our side and you can make your own decisions.
The specific philosophy of our club is modelling an actual place on an actual railroad in an actual time frame. All track layouts, locomotives, structures, scenery and equipment is/will be based on what actually existed in that time and place.
Here’s some of the advantages as we see it:
internal politics are almost entirely eliminated; since the vision and goal of the club is specifically defined, there’s no infighting from groups pulling in different directions (“let’s model horseshoe curve” vs. “let’s model a narrow guage branchline” vs. “early steam” vs. “modern diesel” etc.)
simulating the actual operations of the layout rather than running around in circles. Some may prefer the more free-for-all approach, but some of us prefer the feeling that we’re actually simulating something with a purpose. Kind of like a huge role-playing game. To each his own.
car and locomotive standards (eg. kadees and metal wheels only, weight