Trouble is ... humans are political animals by nature and issues may soon arise even in a small group. However, it's supposed to be about the fun of sharing the world's greatest hobby. New group members should demonstrate a suitable hobby-related purpose, eagerly participate in group meetings, and host an occasional meeting as expected. Anyone could signal waning interest (or they "got what they initially came for") by simply not coming to a few meetings and quietly dropping out without going away mad or stirring up a revolution.
Mike Mottler really says it there. I think when we say "no politics" we really mean "people who model exactly like me and don't disagree with me." The hobby has become more diverse. At one time, Lionel meant non scale toy trains. Now it's different. It's not a matter of one way being more correct than another.
And we can see evidence of that diversity (and politics) right here on the forum: One company versus another. One operating system versus another. One track system versus another. Scale versus traditional: Witness the comments on any Mendards topic. Here's a company taking advantage of available tooling, making attractively priced traditional items (and a couple scale ones), yet many want them to become LionScale at Menards prices.
Someone once posted a comment to me saying "If you're not running with command control, you can't possibly be having fun running trains." Now, there's an opinionated statement and absolutely NOT true at least on my layout. Just because something is popular here on this forum or doesn't get many posts about, doesn't mean that is reflective of the hobby as a whole, or what sells and doesn't sell. Even Scott Mann said in so many words, what people say they want made and what they are willing to buy are two different things.
It's not a matter of politics but of acceptance and diversity. I like non-scale 027. I don't mind the scale product: I enjoy seeing people's projects and layouts, even though it's not how I model and operate. But I can't help but wonder, if I brought one of my engines to run on someone else's layout if they would welcome my contribution and interest, or if they would heap criticism on me saying "You can't run that on this layout. We allow ONLY scale stuff."
Sure, that in part is preference. But it runs a close risk of becoming politics. Democrats hang out with Democrats and Republicans hang out with Republicans. They have different philosophies but sooner or later they have to compromise, accept the differences and work with each other. When that doesn't happen, the politics can soon ensue.
Same for the train hobby and for train clubs. Again, just food for consideration, but maybe when people say "no politics" they might be saying "people who model and operate exactly like me." And in this day and age in the hobby, that's getting harder to do.
