So on November 17th 2021, I was able to hold my first ever open house to show off my modeling of the Wheeling & Lake Erie in HO scale. It was an interesting and rewarding experience for sure. Among the things I did right, I provided bottled water for any guests as well as seating in the area outside of the layout room. With it being a point to point, I didn't have to operate it or have trains running. I was able to focus my attention to my guests, and answer their questions. I ended up with 16 guests for about 3 hours of being open, so not too bad of a day overall.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
Wow, 16 guests... Congrats!
That's awesome!
Mike
Very nice - sounds like you had a rewarding day. A few general thoughts on open houses and layout tours, speaking both as a touring guest and as someone who has helped many friends with public tours of their layouts.
Wear a name tag with your name and something like "layout owner." If friends are helping you out, have name tags for them too.
Clear out as much clutter as you can. For whatever reason, model railroaders tend to be bit wider ("Exceeds Plate C") than average. Also a bit older. And painful as it is to write this, the less clutter the fewer temptations for people to take stuff.
Do ask people to sign in, and if they elect to do so, leave contact information. One clever way to do that is to have the cookies or other snacks near the register book. If you have snacks or drinks or both, do have a few garbage cans strategically placed. A buddy of mine who had his layout open for many NMRA conventions still likes to look at at the 1985 National Convention open house book because some of the most famous names in the hobby signed his register book - he had no idea until after they were gone!
Be prepared for folks who ask to use the bathroom.
Consider a simple one sheet handout with info on layout and prototype, perhaps a simple track plan. This can save you from answering the same questions over and over and gives people something to take home and study. Add your contact info if you feel comfortable with that. If you have done something particularly interesting or unusual, mention it on the handout. Not so long ago many layout owners had passes, or "employee timetables" for their layout that they'd also hand out as souvenirs.
Do be available to talk to your guests but it also helps to have trains running, including on a point to point, to avoid having the entire crowd gather around the host (like Thanksgiving visitors who all congregate in the kitchen) so ask a friend to run the trains while you enjoy your guests. People being people it helps if the friend knows enough about the layout (and the prototype if there is one) to answer any questions directed at him. If you do have trains run, use your most reliable locomotive and cars rather than just the nicest looking or most impressive stuff you own.
If space is tight and visitors are arriving by bus or en masse beyond the ability to have them all be in the layout room at the same time, be prepared with some way to limit number and time for visitors. Various ways to do this, one is to line people up, admit the number you can handle and then instruct others to come into layout room only when they see someone leave. But if the number is large you need a way to get people out. A traffic manager, maybe two one in the layout room one outside. I have seen people set up TVs with railroad DVDs running for the waiting guests. One guy had his son set up his Lionel trains in the garage so visitors could watch those while they waited.
But unfortunately I have also seen tour buses have to leave before everybody on the bus had the chance to see the layout because some people rudely overstayed their allotted 20 minutes or whatever.
Don't be afraid to "yellow tape" an area that has particularly fragile stuff.
Consider finding ways to make the layout better lit for the visit if it is otherwise somewhat dimly lit. Certain lights can clip on to ceiling joists for example.
This might sound odd but trust me on this: if you have surplus stuff you can actually make quite a bit of money with having a table of stuff for sale at a layout visit.
Dave Nelson
Dave, Thanks for the tips.
I had a guest book set up(next to the water as you suggested), so great minds think alike. If I get a busload of people, I'm gonna be swamped, since it's a winding layout in a 20x 24 room. I did have a second room set up with chairs(ssme area as the water) but I forgot to set up a RR DVD tv. Notes for next time. I'll also hopefully have my yard usable for next year to build trains(I've got to drill through a wall to make my yard lead usable as a location to build trains.
Sounds like your first open house was a success, and Dave Nelson's suggestions are all great. I have held a few open house sessions myself, in conjunction with conventions in town, and they're always fun but often a little stressful to prepare for. One tip I never remember is a guest book, but will definitely have to start once I host another! My layout room is a little tricky to get into, requiring people to duck twice and then step down, so I try to make sure that the tour organizer can let potential visitors know about accessibility issues. Water and cookies are a must (coffee is nice too if you have an extra coffee maker), and it's fun to have a video running (I have a big TV in the room next to the layout room where people enter, shoing Sacramento Northern videos since I model the SN.) Having a friend to operate the trains is excellent advice, so there's action on the layout, and from personal experience it's definitely worthwhile to have things you sell handy if you sell them (I write local history books and usually sell a couple.) I also like to have a giveaway keepsake; in my case, copies of a Sacramento Northern audio CD I helped remaster from vinyl to digital a decade or so ago (and had a few hundred copies in my closet!) In addition to having a wonderful space for a layout room, one of my favorite features of my house is a bathroom accessible from the backyard (where the door to the layout space is) that doesn't require entering the house, which is a plus if a visitor has to answer nature's call. My wife usually helps welcome guests to the train room, and if I can get a friend to run the trains while I'm chit-chatting, I do that; my layout is pretty simple to operate so sometimes I'll hand the controls to a guest. Right now I have some points where trains can run off the edge of the layout onto the floor as I'm preparing to add a bridge section between them, so before my next tour I'll have to work out a way to shut down the track a couple feet away to avoid having errant trains go off a cliff!
Agreeing to have an open house is also a powerful motivator to clean up the layout room, and also give the layout a thorough inspection and maintenance to limit gremlins interfering with operation in front of visitors. Track cleaning, dusting, fixing that dead spot in the track requiring regular 0-5-0 helper service, etcetera.