Model RR club shutting down....maybe

ta152h0 · October 22, 2009, 03:34:14 PM

The Boeing Employees Model Rail Road Club may be shutting down as the company downsizes and shes assets. Need a place to resume operations and that is hard to find here in the NW. Similar fate as the Boeing Employees Midel Airplane club. The average age of the council operating the club is rapidly increasing (most members are retired )

Jim Banner · October 22, 2009, 06:34:23 PM

Bummer.

Jim

Johnson Bar Jeff · October 23, 2009, 12:23:40 PM

Sad news.

I wish everybody luck--in this economy, not just the club members.

CNE Runner · October 23, 2009, 05:21:49 PM

I guess times are hard for model railroad clubs. Here, in Alabama, just about every club is actively looking for members...with little success. Have we become a nation of isolates?

Ray

jonathan · October 23, 2009, 08:59:31 PM

I wonder if time is a more major factor. I really want to join the local club here (PWMRC). However, between kids' activities, homework, housework, career, yard, and paying a little attention to my wife, there's barely anytime to steal away to my own layout, let alone a club layout or weekly meetings. It's a shame, too, because the dues are cheap, and they have a really cool layout in a working train station. They are constantly repositioning ladders, stairs, etc from the vibration of the big freights wizzing by all day.

Jonathan

CNE Runner · October 25, 2009, 04:22:54 PM

Excellent point Jonathan...in our fast paced, modern society time can be a rare commodity. Frequently I haven't the desire to work on the Monks' Island Brewery layout and just feel like 'vegging'. I can only imagine the time constraints that working full time and taking care of a home/family/children brings - let alone adding in the responsibilities of being a good club member.

Another possible cause could be avoidance of the politics club membership brings. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of club is involved; more than 3 members can generate internal friction. Personally, I have tried two model railroad clubs (since retiring to Alabama) and was made painfully aware of the 'poor fit' each made (one of the problems with being conversant in psychology I guess). The Monks' Island Brewery (and the Newburgh, Dutchess & Connecticut before it) are run by a committee of one...all decisions (even the poor ones) are unanimous. I find my layout is a refuge from the pressures of the required social interactions of daily life - I suppose club membership would diminish this tranquility.

Again, just my opinion.
Ray

sparkyjay31 · October 25, 2009, 06:43:51 PM

Time. Not nearly enough of it to get to everything. You guys sound just like me. I'm in a club and modified my membership to inactive. I cannot get down there nearly enough to justify the cost these days. I can't even get the time to work on my layout in my own basement never mind a huge new layout 30 miles away!

Johnson Bar Jeff · October 26, 2009, 04:11:46 PM

Hmm. It strikes me that the comments I'm reading on this thread about time constraints in people's lives might also be relevant to the discussion of the demise of kits and the expansion of RTR.

jonathan · October 26, 2009, 08:47:18 PM

JBF,

You make another good point. That being said, when I do have some precious time to work on my layout, I'd rather be building a kit... things that make you go... hmmm.

Jonathan

Johnson Bar Jeff · October 27, 2009, 11:01:08 AM

Quote from: jonathan on October 26, 2009, 08:47:18 PM
JBF,

You make another good point. That being said, when I do have some precious time to work on my layout, I'd rather be building a kit... things that make you go... hmmm.

Jonathan

The way I look at it, the sad thing about the demise of kits is that it takes away that option. Some folks who are short of time may prefer to invest the time they have in running trains, and so they may be more inclined to buy RTR equipment. But with the loss of kits, we lose that option for folks who do enjoy investing the time to build a kit, even if it is a "shake the box" kit. It's a sad situation.

ta152h0 · October 27, 2009, 10:04:00 PM

Two things are killing the enterprise. Expensive builing maintenance and a possible flooding from an aging dam (Howard Hanson Dam) (loss of real estate ) and community apathy in trains and model railroading. 100 years ago this area was a pinnacle of railroading with any family having more than two members working for the railroad to now, where Burington SantaFe just rumbles thru town. If I was mayor of Cle Elum (North Bend,, Issaquah I woulhave a model railroad in City Hall.The towns mentione were railroad giants in 1900..

adari · October 29, 2009, 11:04:54 PM

To bad.
My friend had to sell his whole model railroad collection (at least 2000 pieces plus his whole layout) I didn't talk to him for a month and when i called him to run a new engine he said he had to move and already sold his layout.
Its to bad that was one of my favorite layouts and train friends

Johnson Bar Jeff · October 30, 2009, 10:59:20 AM

Quote from: adari on October 29, 2009, 11:04:54 PM
To bad.
My friend had to sell his whole model railroad collection (at least 2000 pieces plus his whole layout) I didn't talk to him for a month and when i called him to run a new engine he said he had to move and already sold his layout.
Its to bad that was one of my favorite layouts and train friends

That's awful.

I'm trying to deaccession some of my collection (to make room for the rolling stock I keep buying

), but if I had to sell it all, it would kill me. Some people have kids. Some people have pets. I have trains. ...

Seriously, I feel very bad for your friend.

bcjim · October 30, 2009, 12:09:14 PM

Just happened at the Laurel Apple and Wine museum in Kelowna B.C.
Was a 20+ year old large layout depicting the old packing houses and water front with rail wharf, nicely done.
The building received a major grant to refurbish it, the wine sales area is the money maker for the museum not the layout.
The layout was just dismantled and the assets were split among
the members. They talked about looking for another location which would be next to impossible to find but the killer was the fact that all but one
of the members are 60-80 range with no interest in starting over.

Jim in Kelowna

adari · October 30, 2009, 03:25:41 PM

Quote from: Johnson Bar Jeff on October 30, 2009, 10:59:20 AM
Quote from: adari on October 29, 2009, 11:04:54 PM
To bad.
My friend had to sell his whole model railroad collection (at least 2000 pieces plus his whole layout) I didn't talk to him for a month and when i called him to run a new engine he said he had to move and already sold his layout.
Its to bad that was one of my favorite layouts and train friends

That's awful.

I'm trying to deaccession some of my collection (to make room for the rolling stock I keep buying ), but if I had to sell it all, it would kill me. Some people have kids. Some people have pets. I have trains. ...

Seriously, I feel very bad for your friend.

Thanks

Its to bad

News:

Model RR club shutting down....maybe