Do you belong to a Garden RR club?

[CandCRR]

An off shoot of this is what do you look for in a #8220;Garden Rail Road#8221; club?

[Anonymous]

There are no Large (G) Scale railroad clubs in my area of whose existance I am privy. The Area is South Texas, Coast Bend...Coprus Christi is the nearest major city of whichI would be willing to travel. Maybe one in Kingsville, Texas would be nice...or Alice, Texas.

San Antonio, Houston and Brownsville are hundreds of miles away!!!

[Anonymous]

nope homebound [:(]

[Anonymous]

I'm not a member of a Large Scale club at the moment, but I'm hoping to joing the one in my area soon.

Annie

[Anonymous]

I belong to two garden railroad clubs, the Central Iowa Garden Railway Society and the Cedar Valley Garden Railway society. I publi***he newsletter for the Central Iowa Garden Railway Society.
Richard Jones

[Tom The Brat]

"I'm not sure I'd want to be a member of any club that would accept me as a member." [:-,]

[Anonymous]

Yes - Central Oklahoma Garden Railroad Society. However, we are very small since GR is not very strong here in central Oklahoma. Trying to get a better foundation via displays and membership drive at upcomming train shows. Our next public event will be at the GATS in OKC in June. Stop by if you will be there.
If anyone reading this is in central OK and interested in finding out more about our club, check out our COGRS link on www.oktrains.com
Paul Davidson

[kstrong]

I'm a member of the Denver GRS (or will be once I send in my renewal...), but am not at all active. Basically, I send them money so I can play at the Colorado RR Museum and go on the summer RR tours. I work evenings, so I can't attend the regular meetings.

Later,

K

[CandCRR]

I was going to wait to ask this but since kstrong brought it up... Those that belong, what do you get out of the club? What makes it worth the cost of the yearly dues?
I know I belong to local historcal society in part to help them pay for keeping the local history of the town alive.

[bman36]

Hey there,
Just started a group here in Winnipeg. Informal for now. Plans are to get together once a month or so. Hoping it will continue to grow. Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

Will be joining the local club in a couple of days. Visited them for a meeting this weekend. Liked the group. Will be the first MRR club I've belonged to. Not sure what to expect, or what to look for. They seemed nice, and there local. can't ask for much more than that at this point.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

I've gained a lot of knowledge from club membership. Our club meets monthly at some member's home, and observes what the host has done and also gets to run on other layouts if the layout can accomodate the loco! You get ideas, and some discussion about what might not work and why!

We gain members thru word of mouth, setting up displays at the local zoo & C of Commerce sponsored days, and thru website. (SLGRC.org)

WE usually have a social period after business meeting each month with some eats, etc. then go play trains. We meet on 2nd sunday of month, 1400 during standard time, and 1600 during daylight time!

Club members are usually ready and willing to pitch in if a member needs a hand with trackwork or something, and there are always those who are more knowledgeable about some facet of the hobby than you are and it's great to be able to "pick thier brains"!

Between the Forums and the club, my knowledge is far further along than it would have been without them!

[Anonymous]

I said "NO Time" I have met one member of the local club online on MLS and in person. If I had a more liberal work schedule I would join in a minute[;)]

[underworld]

I would like to but I am not aware of any in town.

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

I don't know who started this survey, but please consider that this is an internatiional forum and only a limited number of countries use the term Rail Road, in most English speaking countries including Australia, New Zealand Great Britain and just about every where else they are Railways.

Rgds Ian

[van buren s l]

Iandor
The term '' railway" is used in the U.S. along with railroad. In my part of the country, before allof the mergers of the past twenty years, the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Norfolk and Western , the Southern and the Western Maryland were railways, not railroads. It doesn't take long on this forum for folks to understand such interchangeable terms such as car and wagon, boogie and truck, points and switch, etc.
On another thread you mentioned the number of posts in reply to inane threads. I heartily agree with you. Since I am tall and skinny, sitting down to go through all of the b.s. to get to the interesting posts is literally a pain in the rear.
Bob

[CandCRR]

Like just stated above I assumed that we would have the intelegence to understand what is ment by rail road, railroad, rail way, railway, and so on. Or ask what is ment if we really do not understand. Following that thinking since this is an international forum every post should be in several languages. Do we need a nitpicker forum for people that do not want to deal with the content of a post? To me this sort of disscussion is what makes many threads inane.

[Tom The Brat]

Ian, lighten up a little. It's more fun that way[;)]

[cacole]

The nearest club to me is over 70 miles away, so I don't belong due to the commuting distance.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Ian,
Perhaps that intolerance to other views is why we colonials split from the crown in 1776?

[powlee]

Although I have belonged to a small MRR for about 20 years, no one other than myself runs G Scale. In the British Isles we have a G Scale Society.
www.g-scale-society.co.uk.
It is split into area groups and hold a show and AGM once a year.
I have only been a member for a year so have not met many other members. Each area group has Open Days in a member`s garden through the warmer months where we bring along our stock to run. On a good day, as many as thirty people would be in the garden at one time.
I am bracing myself to hold my first meet this year.

All the best Ian P

[markperr]

I really don't know the difference between a largescale club and a garden railroad club. Been in this hobby going on eight years now. This past january, I found a club locally that has been in existence for the past fifteen years. Go figure. I went to a meeting and joined that day. Haven't regretted it. In just four months, i've been to four club meetings, worked a train show and have my own club module. That's more human interactivity with this hobby than the seven years previous. Well worth it, even if you have to drive a hundred miles to go to a club meeting. I drive fifty regularly. Next month's meeting is at my house, so my drive will be quite short. That's off-set by the month or so of prep that I have to do to get my pike presentable.

Mark

[vsmith]

Nope, most of the members of the regional clubs here are too far away from me. Also afraid dont have a lot of time to spare for a club, dont even have much time for my own layout[V]

[ondrek]

Id like to, but the closest one to me is a few hours drive. and i missed going to the leb train show to meet them.

[lgbra]

I am one of the two founders of the Pittsburgh Garden Railway Society. (1994 and still going strong) and was president for 6 years running. Due to having moved out of state, I am no longer a member but wish i were..

I can assure anyone that being a member of a club can be a great experience. Yes there are politics and petty bickering and all of that. But, the rewards are so much greater. Our club built a railroad for the Pittsburgh Childrens Hospital. we had a picinic every year where we rented a generator and everyone brought trains and track and we set up a real garden railroad (in the local park) We had meetings and shared ideas and experiences. We all met at least once a sumer and built a garden railway for a member (they provided the track, power, and most importantly, beer and food). And when we were finished that member had an operating, mostly landscaped garden railroad.

So.... Clubs can be great!

Lee

[John Busby]

Hi all
Being only 70 miles away doesn't rate as much of an excuse the one I belong to is only
3000 miles away
But then us Aussies have a peculiar perception where distance is concerned 500 miles is a sunday afternoon drive.[}:)]
regards John