@PVan posted:Francine,
Unless you really require running long trains (to be able to enjoy the hobby), you might consider building something smaller. I only have a 10'x10' spare bedroom available, which doubles as my office. I am building small "modules" (not conforming to any standard), which are easy to move and can be connected to form a larger layout. If one reads the major railroading hobby magazines, one might be left with the impression that a completed, basement-sized layout is a requirement before being able to enjoy the hobby. While those layouts are impressive, inspirational, and may sell magazine copies, they are not necessarily the reality for a lot of us with limited space, limited hobby budgets, and limited time.
You may want to spend some time browsing through the "Layouts" section of the NASG's web site to find some inspiration.
As to clubs, I was an active member of the Houston S Gaugers for 10 years. I finally stopped being an active member, mostly due to time pressures (I'm self-employed). But, the reality was, that in those ten years we added not a single new member to the club. Of course ,that is only one data point, but if that is consistent throughout, then members are leaving clubs mostly due to old age, but no new members are joining. My gut tells me that today's 30-, 40, and even 50-year olds don't value the concept of belonging to a club as highly as the pre-Internet-age people. Before the Internet, you had to read magazines to learn stuff, and join a club to actually get real, personal help and advice. Nowadays, you can figure out how to make a tree from scratch by watching a ten-minute video on YouTube. While I have no crystal ball, I don't think there is much of a future in clubs any more. But I could be completely wrong on that. Either way, I am back to just being a lone-wolf modeler and having a good time in S.
- Peter.
Without hijacking this thread, given the reality of houses in many places, clubs still provide a place where you can operate a large scale layout and do things a lot of home layouts cannot do. Lot of people live in apartments, or in houses without basements or small ones, etc, so a club is a place where they can be part of a dream layout (not to mention even if you have that perfect outbuilding or that big basement just ready for the mega layout, how much time, money and effort does that take? Obviously people do build magnificent layouts at home, but time and money can limit that, too
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