Lone wolf--that's me too--for several reasons. 1) I wouldn't have enough time to meet with a club. I'm too busy with stuff at home, teaching, music composition, and the National Guard. 2) I can't spare any $$ for a club. I need it for my own layout, and I have to build my layout as cheaply as possible due to helping with my daughter's college bills. 3) No one else in the household shares my love of trains. And 4) I really enjoy figuring out ways to build the layout (benchwork, track design, electrical, scenary, structures, operation, etc.). I certainly do enjoy searching the internet sites for how others do it, though. And many thanks to some of you and MR for all the ideas and help. I wouldn't mind striking up some email conversation with some of you for ideas.
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid." John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima"
Personally, the Lone Wolf approach works for me. Activities on my model RR are somewhat sporadic, I like working on it, but many other things compete for my limited time budget. By nature I'm a spontaneous person and there's enough structure in my career life and getting my kids to their scheduled events that another entry in my daytimer such as a club meeting is not particularly welcome.
What would be great would be to know of a few other model RRs within a reasonable distance from my home that would be willing to do the round robin thing I've seen in some other posts on this topic. Laid-back informal layout tours, operating sessions and mutual assistance would be enjoyable. Swapping custom-lettered cars would be fun.
Above all, the layout in my basement is my own design pretty much prescribed by my space limitations, construction abilities and time restrictions (fairly low maintenance.) It features a mainline loop with hidden staging and a branch line terminating in a small industrial town with a trackplan pretty much patterned after the Timesaver, providing switching puzzle fun.
Charles
Hillsburgh Ont, Canada
Interresting post! Wow! 4 kids huh? Amazing. I am surprised you even had time to write a post :)
Anyway, I have only one kid, a 2 year old boy...who loves trucks, trains and diggers and well anything else that looks big and makes noise.
I totally know what you mean about "stealing time". I usually do my stuff real late at night or very early in the morning...when everybody else is asleep. I normally don't get more than 30 minutes or so otherwise.
I like it though, going at it alone, sometimes I find some club members are "way too into it". A little to intense for me. I just love building things. Making models, scenery and track work, electronics, etc. Running trains really is not something I really care too much about. I tend to favor "hands-off" continuous running loops or whatever automation allows it to run continuously. My "ultimate layout" would be one that ran without me touching a thing!
I moved about a year ago, so my previous layout needed to be destroyed. I only put about 4 years into it. But probably got as far as someone with a bunch of time could do in about 4 months! But it was fun. I am now sketching, thinking, planning about my next one. My basement is much bigger now so who knows.
I am just building structures, kits and things now to keep my interest up since someday I will need them anyway. My hope is to get started on another layout within the year...but we'll see. Right now running a saw while everyone is asleep just doesn't seem in the cards. Maybe in a few years my son will be able to help. That is the hope anyway.
-Kevin
tstage wrote: Ballantrae Road wrote:I'm a lone wolf too. When I started I wasn't aware of any clubs close by so I just started by myself from scratch. I've learned a heck of a lot in the past year and a half. These forums are really helpful. TomYa' know, I hadn't really realized it until Tom's final sentence above, but...anyone who essentially frequents this forum to glean information, socialize and/or respond to threads like this really isn't completely a lone wolf. Yea, you may work on your layout alone, or not belong to a MRR club. But what you learn and share here on the forum is, in all reality, like someone coming over to your house to help you on your layout, or visa versa.A true MRRing lone wolf won't be reading the words that I just finished typing out... Tom
Ballantrae Road wrote:I'm a lone wolf too. When I started I wasn't aware of any clubs close by so I just started by myself from scratch. I've learned a heck of a lot in the past year and a half. These forums are really helpful. Tom
I'm a lone wolf too. When I started I wasn't aware of any clubs close by so I just started by myself from scratch. I've learned a heck of a lot in the past year and a half. These forums are really helpful.
Tom
Ya' know, I hadn't really realized it until Tom's final sentence above, but...anyone who essentially frequents this forum to glean information, socialize and/or respond to threads like this really isn't completely a lone wolf. Yea, you may work on your layout alone, or not belong to a MRR club. But what you learn and share here on the forum is, in all reality, like someone coming over to your house to help you on your layout, or visa versa.
A true MRRing lone wolf won't be reading the words that I just finished typing out...
Interesting thread. Some don't want to be in a club because personalities and agendas don't seem to match well. Others don't have time to be active in a club. And some live too far for club membership to be practical. Only a very few admitted they would never join a club, even if it was a group of like-minded folks. But even those folks are a regulal part of the Forum.
I suspect this and other forums provide many of the features of a club - except the club layout. At the same time, this forum has pretty much taken the place of Bull Session in Model Railroader and other now-missing sections of the magazine.
As for myself - when I started as an adult in model railroading in Coos Bay, OR in 1975, I joined an informal club that was located in the upstairs of the LHS. I probably joined for the discount at the LHS as much as any other reason, because I was at sea too much and missed most meetings. But the club was my first exposure to how much a painted backdrop added to a scene, and my first inkling of modeling a particular region or era. As a teenager, I had just modeled other people's models that I saw in the pictures in Model Railroader. The club was also an encouragement to me to keep progressing on my home layout.
A move to Pensacola, FL and a new club - but the club layout was still in initial stages of construction, just like Coos Bay. But the friendships and the pizza fellowship were worthwhile. Learned more.
A year later, I moved to Hollywood, FL, and ended my ties with clubs. I became more active in sailing, and the trains sort of faded away, especially with increasing job responsibilities.
Four years later, and I'm at Purdue U, working on my masters. There was a nice student model railroad club and layout, but I was already explaining to my 2-year-old that Daddy couldn't play just now because of his studies. My home layout died.
Another move, I attend a local train show, and start a 4x8 Lionel layout to do with the kids. I'm going to document this one with photos and get myself published. Never happened. 6 or 7 more moves and various reincarnations of the Lionel 4x8. As the kids started leaving home, the Lionel got left stored in the garage.
Kept buying MR, NG&SLG, and occasionally RMC when I would visit LHS during business travel. The bug just wouldn't go away. At times, I would dream of getting my HO going again. Other times, I would think just get the Lionel going again. Then I saw the On30 in person, and it was all I could do to keep my wallet in my pants! Finally decided the last 2 kids just didn't really care about the trains that much in their teenage years, and I could move on to HO/HOn3. To fight back the dark side of On30 (structures and scenic elements are too big for me), I bought a couple hundred $$ worth of HOn3. Still haven't sold the 3 rail O yet.
Became active in the forums when I was forced to spend a weekend away from home due to lack of flights. Joined a few Yahoo groups of interest, and found that all these keep the desire to build a layout burning.
After my father retired, he became active in the NMRA, and was working towards his MM when his health broke down. But his example led me to try the HOn3 Symposium nearby last year. First mr event for me except GATS shows, and I had a blast.
Still haven't got time for a club, but I am getting some good fellowship and encouragement from the forums and occasional events. And I guess that's the bottom line - for most of us, the hobby is not really complete without some interaction with fellow hobbyists. Or, at least it's a lot more enjoyable that way. IMHO, very few of us would sustain a life-long interest in the hobby without some social interaction with other model railroaders. The true lone wolves are very few.
my thoughts
Fred W
Joe Giunta
Reading over these last 6 pages or so of responses it makes me wonder how a MRR club even exists! There could be a number of factors that influence this observation, one is that those who are into clubs don't cruise the fora and therefore don't respond, and the other is that clubbing is a relative rarity in the MRR world. There is hardly enough scientific data here to support one idea or the other.
I for one am a "lone wolf" (although I prefer to be thought of as a tiger) for all the same reasons as has been already posted. If you think it's tough in HO or N scale to deal with a club, try Garden Railroad clubs! The brief contacts I've had were all negative. It would seem that these people were not interested in model trains, only the garden railroad as an expensive accessory to the McMansion they lived in, and they wanted you to know it and "ooh" and "ahh" at all the expense they went through to pay the landscaper to build it for them. Unless you had the latest high tech super-gizmotic-EM2000-ultra-cutting-edge-whatzitz then you were scorned as "poor" and nobody would talk to you. Nah, you can keep that nonsense. I'll run my trains in my garden, swim in my pool and have a BBQ all at the same time thank you very much.
BTW, any lone wolf that finds their way to the VA Beach area is more than welcome to stop by for a visit! We'll put some steaks on the grill and have some fun!
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
Yes i.am a lone Wolve and i like it that way .to much B.S in a club and to many rules . I have enough rules at work my hobby is my time.
I used to belong to a club but to many bosses
well thats me
I work on my layout as I like when Iike ( between work and chores around the house )sometimes a week goes by with nothing getting done, but its my train and mistakes are my fault. I don't praise others for their workmanship but don't blame anyone for ploblems either. I might get more done with help but??? then whose is it in the end???
my
Peter
WilmJunc wrote: Do you have your own layout in your home and primarily work on it by yourself or with a family member or two? I'd like to work with other folks on a layout but I don't have the time to drive over to a club layout and work for a few hours. I don't think that I could afford the club dues either. With four kids still at home, I grab any few minutes that I can and go up to my train room above the garage and may only do something for 20 or 30 minutes sometime. It seems that the "lone wolf" is frowned upon, but I don't feel that I have a choice if I want to participate in this hobby. I'm just curious how many contributors to this page are also in the same situation, and how many belong to clubs.
Do you have your own layout in your home and primarily work on it by yourself or with a family member or two? I'd like to work with other folks on a layout but I don't have the time to drive over to a club layout and work for a few hours. I don't think that I could afford the club dues either.
With four kids still at home, I grab any few minutes that I can and go up to my train room above the garage and may only do something for 20 or 30 minutes sometime. It seems that the "lone wolf" is frowned upon, but I don't feel that I have a choice if I want to participate in this hobby. I'm just curious how many contributors to this page are also in the same situation, and how many belong to clubs.
There is no real "right way" to do things in this hobby. There may be some type of status quo one might think is right but that doesn't make it right and no one has any right to frown on you. If a club cramps your style, by all means don't feel you have to join one. If you feel model railroading is an escape giving you time to yourself without any interaction, then by all means keep it to yourself.
My venture into N scale started with a 2x4 putz layout I put together when I was living and working out of town. Just a grassmat with roadbed track and inexpensive plastic kits I assembled. It was an enjoyable way of killing time and nothing more.
I sometimes see rants such as how the ready to run crowd is missing the point of this hobby and blah, blah, wha, wha. They are blowing hot air and have no clue. Just ignore them and have fun your way.
I, also, have chosen the "Lone Wolf" path. Ditto trying the club route - only to tire (quickly) of the politics and BS. My layout is a fold-up switching one in our garage and I find myself spending many hours working and operating. All the committees involved with the Sweethaven Harbor division (Central New England Railway) always agree with my suggestions and expenditures (Did I mention this is MY world?). I use model railroading as a vehicle to lower my stress...every club, with which I have been associated, has done quite the reverse. So good luck and keep "pushing iron." Who will care if you run 36' truss-rod box cars with a cut of ACF cylinderical hoppers?
Ray
Central New England Railway
Pulling Toward the Future
"Keeping my hand on the throttle...and my eyes on rail."
John W. Myers
canoncityxp wrote:Right on, man! If I ever scrape together enough time to visit my Virginia brother, I'm stopping at the local grocery and supplying all the grub for that BBQ. I like the way you think. I enjoy being a lone wolf. It's my investment, my rules and my vision. Sign above the Train Room door : NIT-PICKERS WILL BE UNCEREMONILY ESCORTED OUT ! ( family made me remove the one that mentioned being shot ). I don't have much say about what happens in the real world but down here on the CCX , I'm king and FUN is the password.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll pass any visitor providing food, that's my job and I'm proud of it! I've got a few fine Southern cooking secrets that will put a HURTING on some ham! But do bring your own swim trunks, that's one thing that no guy would ever share, no way no how.
Count me among the "lone wolf operator" group too. Was into S gauge from 1954 to 1970 (grandpa bought the first set on the way to the hospital to see me. After all what was a grandfather to do with three girls. I was the first boy and by golly I was going to have a train set.) and then got away from it for a while. Traded everything for N in 2004 due to space contraints and am in the middle of building a 28" x 54" Great Northern / Northern Pacific set up styled after the plains and foothills of Wyoming / Montana, that I can slide under the bed when not in use. The wife thinks I'm nuts, but for now I'm having a good time planning, diagraming and satisfy the need to "run trains" on the kitchen table top for an hour or so every week or two. Other kinds of clubs have left sour taste in my mouth. The politics thing. So I run trains, read and enjoy, and let my imagination move me to what and where I want.
Still, I go to conventions, pick club members brains when their showing their stuff and enjoy some talking to some if they don't look down on me for not being in their club, but there can be only one engineer. When the grandkids come along, I may feel a little different, but for now, I don't have to answer to anyone about mixing different vintages of equipment or if that freight car really would have been on that railroad. I pick what I want, because it appeals to my eye, or sense of humor or has a name that means something to my for other reasons. So what if it isn't prototypical. I only do it because it's fun. Living northwest of Chicago, the C&NW was always around as a kid. When we rode the train, it was always an adventure. Still is today, wheather its a ride on 1:1 scale or watching 1:160 scale after dinner with the latest MR mag and a brandy. Trains make me smile.
Viking54.
I myself am not a lone wolf. I am part of a club, and love being part of it. The club I belong to is for workers(or family members) who work in a company. It's a relatively small club and there are really no politics. The members can work on whatever they want, and run whenever they want. I have enjoyed being a part of it, and have learned a ton. Plus now I live only 20 minutes away so Now I can go more often.
-Smoke
I'm a lone wolf because I haven't found another group of like minded people in the area of extreme northern NJ. I model N scale and it seems everyone else models HO or larger. I find Model Railroader magazine articles very helpful in building and maintaining my layout. I've converted to DCC a couple of years ago and my train time has been more enjoyable since then. I pick up tips at train shows and that helps with the learning curve. It's nice to know there are others accross the country that are like minded. I'm retired now and have all the time I need to do as I please. I enjoy the building more thant the running but both are fun. Always remember: If it isn't fun it insn't a hobby!