November is Model Railroad month here in the States. In the past, the Central Indiana Division, NMRA has held a regular Meet/Dealer Show at the end of October or early November. But we have never stressed promoting the hobby. This year we are. We are holding a free admission Meet in cooperation with the Pike Township Lion’s Club (Indianapolis, IN) Pancake Breakfast (the pancakes cost, the Meet is free). We will have clinics and portable and modular layouts and an on-going scenery construction project. The first clinic of the day will be aimed directly at young modelers with a car kit construction clinic. They will get to keep the car and some of the simple tools that they used to build it. Everything we do that day will be aimed at introducing the hobby to new people. This was before we heard about Kalmbach’s ‘Greatest Hobby in the World’ program, but it certainly ties in with it. Why tell you this? I would suggest that there is still time for clubs and organizations to set up something for November. Advertise it! Let people know about the hobby. Don’t just put a notice in a hobby shop. That’s nice, but it is preaching to the choir. Get something in the local paper, or on radio. Perhaps you might get an active display in a shopping mall. Get some help from a local shop if you have one. The sky is the limit when it comes to ideas. It IS a great hobby, so let’s tell people about it! Roger Roger Hensley - rhensley@localnet.com == http://cid.railfan.net/eci_new.html == == East Central Indiana (ECI) HO Scale Railroad ==
Our Model Railroad Month Meet was quite successful. We had around 15 young future engineers make and take our cars. We have 47 LBF assorted cars left for future make and take clinics and we are keeping 24 Walthers cars on hand for the same. The Walthers cars are very good for beginners and the LBF cars work well for the older youths that attened. We recruited 3 or 4 new members for the NMRA which was our secondary purpose for this meet. The primary purpose was to expose all ages to model railroading and we did that quite well. The Pike Township (Indianapolis IN) Lions Club had a pancake and sausage breakfast in conjunction with our train show and they said that was one of the best turnouts they have had in a long time. So we both benefited from this joint venture and hope to continue this joint event in future years.Our Model Railroad Month Meet was quite successful. We had around 15 young future engineers make and take our cars. We have 47 LBF assorted cars left for future make and take clinics and we are keeping 24 Walthers cars on hand for the same. The Walthers cars are very good for beginners and the LBF cars work well for the older youths that attended. We recruited 3 or 4 new members for the NMRA which was our secondary purpose for this meet. The primary purpose was to expose all ages to model railroading and we did that quite well. The Pike Township (Indianapolis IN) Lions Club had a pancake and sausage breakfast in conjunction with our train show and they said that was one of the best turnouts they have had in a long time. So we both benefited from this joint venture and hope to continue this joint event in future years.
On Sunday afternoon, I was a volunteer at the booth for WGH at Trainfest in Milwaukee (admission was free, 17 and younger, with adult). My understanding is that you can request the WGH booklet from Kalmbach for distribution at shows(getting started in model railroading) and they also had WGH stickers that the kids seemed to like. Ray
We have posted some photos of the promo meet at the pancake breakfast on our division website for those who may be interested. Visit http://cid.railfan.net/ and take the Photo Album link for 2001-2002.
Or should that be "America's Greatest Hobby"? It just seems like this has been promoted only in the US, to my knowledge none of the UK magazines or manufacturers have shown anything about it, which I can only assume means that they haven't been approached about being involved, which is a shame. With increasing globalisation, net access, a very healthy chunk of UK modellers doing US prototypes as at least part of their modelling it would have been nice to see this actually marketed as "The World's Greatest Hobby", as I believe it is. Please don't get me wrong, I hope all your efforts go well and are succesful. I also don't want you to think that we don't do anything ourselves, my local club here in the UK coincidentally has an open house at it's clubrooms in November every year, and visitors to our local model shop get invites to that, it's usually a fun day and often provides some useful contacts for the club. All the best, and apologies for my quick bout of grumpiness
Grumpiness forgiven. We can be very provincial over here at times. You comments about UK modelers applies to down under as well. Sometimes (frequently) we forget that model railroading IS indeed world wide and that others are doing some fantastic modeling work.
Quite a few years ago, when I still lived in Paris, Texas, I taught a class to a Boy Scout troop for the Railroading merit badge. We went over freight car types, different locomotives, signals, safety around RR tracks, and started building an HO scale layout. It's pretty easy to be a merit badge counselor- just contact the local Scout office & volunteer your services. Not only did the boys learn about the hobby, but they also learned about how to stay safe around the railroad.
I've organized a Model Railroad Exhibition for this weekend. Nothing fancy, just a lot of trains running on a few loops of track, to be set up wherever I can find space! We'll have trains running in HO, N, O and G scales. Friday is just for the kids from the elementary school across the street; Saturday is open to the public, no charge. Next year I hope to have an HO modular railroad up and running for the show. That should bring in a lot of people! Pat
Years ago when Department stores used to have window displays for Christmas, My dad would do the construction with materials and products furnished from the store's stock. He made little signs mounted on flat cars that advertized several clubs in the area with their phone numbers on each. Most of the time they used Lionel, and occasionally would haul some sale item in gondola cars. One was done for a Jewelery store, that carried jewelery that really sparkled in the spot lights he placed at appropriate angles to show off the gems. Practically everyone will stop and look at a running train in a window. It could be a way to advertize your up coming train show too.
