Do You Belong to a Model Railroad Club?


"I wouldn't be able to bring along any of my locomotives or rolling stock, as they would short circuit everything..... "

That seems to be the purpose of many clubs -- a social center where fans can bring their own trains to run. My uncle's club in Florida had a long-standing low key competition on carrying cases.

Are there many clubs out there with specific focuses beyond providing scenicked track? Historical recreations, scheduled operations, etc.? It seems like it takes the focused vision of one person to build this sort of railroad.
Why would your equipment short circuit everything ???
 
Im a member of The Hub City Central MRR club here in Marshfield, WI. We have about 35-40 members, with about a dozen or so that make up our core "active" members.
 
Are there many clubs out there with specific focuses beyond providing scenicked track? Historical recreations, scheduled operations, etc.? It seems like it takes the focused vision of one person to build this sort of railroad.
I would say from my experience that most of the clubs are operations based with scheduled operations being the norm and "play days" roundy-round free for alls are the one offs.

One operationally oriented club I belonged to had the problem of people not comprehending that. Despite giving them a copy of the rules of the road, an official time schedule, and requiring them to participate in three operating sessions before they joined; they would still join and 6 months later be griping about having to run their trains on the schedule (or worse they couldn't run their trains at all since they didn't fit the era). This in spite the fact that they could run their trains at anytime else when we weren't open for the public. In one meeting after hearing what ended up really just being a 30 minute gripe, my statement was "Then why did you join an operationally oriented club?" sigh.
 
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The club I belong to (http://www.wrmrc.ca) is quite clear about realistically modelling the specific features and operations of a specific area and a specific time period (Sudbury, Ontario in the 1970s decade). Anyone who joins knows exactly the sort of club they're getting into and there's no political debates about "adding a coal mine here" or a "logging branch there". While small modifications to the plan happen from time to time, the vision for the club layout is pretty clearly laid out.

It's not for everyone, and there's a couple of other more "freelanced" clubs in a 50km radius, but our particular club draws members over a larger area who are specifically interested in more rigorous operations.

(I should say though, that I have been to a scheduled operating session at one of the other nearby clubs several years ago, and haven't been to the other - which has a reputation locally (or at least among some of the "serious" modelers and operators) of being a bit more "flexible" but I don't know if they operate at all or just do general running. But I see the variety in clubs as a good thing for different peoples' tastes.)

I moved to a different city a few years ago, but stayed involved with my club, although I can only attend weekend sessions now. In my "new" city (actually moved back to my childhood hometown) there's no formal clubs with permanent layouts, but there's a loose association of modelers that gets together socially about once a month at various member's houses.
 
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No, I'm not particularly social, and I don't have enough time for my own layout (which is currently taken down), let alone a club layout. Maybe in a billion years when I retire... ;)
 
I never belonged to a club of the traditional sense. But, back in the 80's, I met a couple of fellows at the MRR shop. They invited me to their home layouts. In turn, I invited them the following Saturday to my layout. We got along well and had a lot of fun, so we made it a regular meet. Almost every Saturday, we met at someone's house in rotation. We ran operations, did some building, watched videos, railfanning, went to shows & open houses, etc. Another guy joined our "club" and we did this for almost a year. Since then, 2 have passed and the other moved to North Carolina. I still keep in touch with him and the highlight of the conversation is always about the fun we had with our "club".
 
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