Today, I had the time of my life as a model railroader.
During the past year, I have gotten together with a few fellow O Gauge model railroaders located mostly in the Northern Westchester County, NY area on an approximately monthly basis.
We call ourselves The Railboys.
I think that is a nice name for a train club. However, if any of you folks happens to be an enthusiastic female model railroader who checks us out and would like to join the Railboys, I, for one, will move heaven and earth to advocate for you to be able to join our local train club and, then, maybe we will change the name of it so it's more inclusive.
A few of us who have layouts have taken turns hosting the Railboys get togethers.
They have always been enjoyable, but today's get together was terrific. I think the reason for that is we are now very relaxed about sharing with each other our passion for the hobby. Also, the Railboys has grown during the past year; now we have about 15 active members.
Below is a video I took today of a train decorated for the upcoming Christmas and holiday season running on the beautiful home layout of one of the Railboys:
I think The Railboys is still in its embryonic stage. My sense is that it will remain informal. At this time there are no dues, rules, etc., just a cast of characters with a lot of joie de vive getting together and having some good food, comradrie and conversation, mostly about trains. Will we grow and become more formal? Who knows? It's possible, but what I'm most confident about is that The Railboys is here to stay. The friendships and fun will continue for as long as we continue to dance on this good Earth.
Incidentally, a few of the Railboys are active Forum members including yours truly. I will keep the other Railboy Forum members anonymous until such time that they may choose to identify themselves.
For food, each Railboy brought an appetizer or two. IMO, that was a great idea. The appetizers were delicious.
If any of you Forum folks is interested in checking out the Railboys, you can send me an email. My email address is in my Profile. My feeling is the more the merrier.
If anyone would like to share their enthusiasm for their local train club, please do so on this thread.
It's wonderful to connect with fellow model railroaders at a local train club as well as on this Forum.
My wish for each of you, my dear Forum friends, is that you are able to connect with a local train club. I know many of you have been blessed to belong to some fantastic local train clubs, some of which have World class museum quality layouts.
Arnold
