I received an email this morning that I was not expecting, in fact I read it three times to make sure I was comprehending the author's message. By the third time through however, it was clear, the N Scale of Bloomington Normal was disbanding. The club had its roots in the Bloomington, Normal area of Illinois in the early to mid 1970s. Back then the club was known as the NTrak of Bloomington Normal. I was introduced to the club in the late 1990s, when my host club of the time had them set up at the Lincoln Square show. I immediately found friends within this club and even while moving to Northern Illinois for about 10 years, stayed in contact with them. In 2007 I moved back to Central Illinois and immediately joined the group which at this time mainly did T-Trak and NTrak. As with all clubs, people came, and people went. Soon however the club started to change to reflect the interest of its core group. In 2013, the club changed their name to NSBN or N Scale of Bloomington Normal. This was done as most of us were no longer just NTrak. Most of the membership had transitioned into T-Trak. The club then became a group and some founding members either moved or sadly passed away. I stepped away as I had no interest in T-Trak and perused my own layout to take to shows then ultimately joining another Illinois N-Trak group. The NSBN group landed a great opportunity when a local hobby shop agreed to host the club as a place for them to store their N-Trak modules and make a semi-permanent layout. It was nice to stop in and see the progress on the Saturdays the group was working. While I had left the group over ten years ago, I always maintained friendships with many of the members and enjoyed their company. The group was even getting new followers and was making great progress in growing. Then this morning I received the news. It's almost like losing an old friend. The group was really run by three individuals that put the most time into it. I suppose with life demands and time it was too much. Like any club or group, a small group or individual is the driving force in scheduling shows, set up coordinator, news director and if need be, mediator. As I have often said, life comes at you fast, times change, people's tastes change. I'm sure it was becoming a challenge to get enough members to commit to set up at shows. Let's face it, hotels, gas and food are not exactly cheap and time? Time has become very expensive for many of us. In my area of Central Illinois, we had two, good N-Trak clubs and a lot of good quality shows. Now in 2024 most of those shows are gone and so too are the clubs. Is the model railroader of the 21st century not interested in clubs or groups? Could it be that many of us got tired of the in-club politics or maybe dealing with other members that had different ideas? I can honestly say that as an N scale modeler I am what they call a lone wolf. It has only been within the last few years that I have gotten active again in N-Trak and "joined" an Illinois group, (not club) N-Trak group. My employer Athearn released a survey this past spring and asked the question. Do you belong to a club? 64% of those polled said they were not and had no intentions of joining one. For those who are still reading this, I realize in 2024, long posts on a forum are not really a thing anymore, I do have a question. Are N scale clubs still relevant? This is an honest question, and I want to hear your answers based on your experience. There is no wrong answer, I just want to know your thoughts. Of course, let's keep this civil, we are adults, and we should be able to have differing views on subjects without rude and unacceptable comments despite what social media shows us. What say you?
The club that I co-founded, the Fort Bend Model Railroad Club, an NTRAK modular club, kind of withered away. We tried to get new younger modelers involved but the few that did join had too many other obligations. Many of the old timers either moved away or passed on to the big layout in the sky. The final blow came when the rusty roof on our intermodal storage container collapsed during hurricane Harvey and all our yards, corners and dog bone loops, as well as power supplies and throttles were destroyed by the torrential rain. We just split up the remaining club assets amongst the remaining active members and called it quits. I have since joined a very active NTRAK club in Austin, Texas. I also set up with two still active clubs in Oklahoma for train shows. There is still an NTRAK group in Houston but they have dwindled to just a few folks. The once dominant NTRAK club in Houston abandoned NTRAK and now have a permanent layout at a train store in Houston.
Where I live I believe I am the only N scaler within 200 miles ! I do enjoy reading about others who are in 'Clubs'. As far as the question...with the advent of the internet and train forums such as TrainBoard I am not sure if actual Clubs are still relevant. There are of course 'Conventions' that folks get together now and then...much like a 'Club'. Up here we have the Silvercreek Railroaders Club. Bunch of nice guys. It is HO-centric so other then generic railroading questions the exchanging of ideas pertaining to N scale are non existent. Even with that in mind I just looked looked at their FB page and even it hasn't been updated since 2014 ! I look forward to seeing replies from people who are actually in an N scale club.
This is a subject that I believe NRail should be interested in. I noticed that the number of Ntrak clubs listed on their website has dwindled to about 72 (the last time I checked). I believe it used to be over 100. Lots of reasons probably exist to include Ttrak, FremoN and other such organizations.
I’ve been a member of model railroad clubs but I have never belonged to a specifically N scale club. When I lived in the Mid-Hudson Valley (2001-2016) I joined the Olde Newburgh Model Railroad Club in Walden, NY. We had permanent HO and N scale layouts, modular HO, T-Trak N and an O gauge traveling carpet layout that was set up on folding tables. In 2016 we moved to Florida where I joined the Vero Beach Model Railroaders, not a formal club but an association of hobbyists. We don’t have a clubhouse or permanent layouts but we have a modular HO layout, a traveling 4x8 O gauge layout and have recently started N scale T-Trak. A friend and I are the only guys with T-Trak modules but we are hoping the other N scale guys will get involved. Since we aren’t a formal club we don’t have officers or club politics but we have all the social benefits. We have the normal ebb and flow of guys who come and go but we have a core of permanent members who keep things going. I like being a member of the group. It’s fun to get together, talk trains, attend shows as a group and set up our traveling layouts. We have a Facebook page (Vero Beach Model Railroaders) that you can see if you have a FB account. The groups and clubs that I know of are all doing well except the Olde Newburgh Model Railroad Club. They still have a good group of active members but the building that has been their home for many years is being sold and they have to move. So in my experience clubs are still relevant but I don’t know if exclusively N scale clubs are.
My preference has little to do with formal clubs. At times there is to much politics and one guy seems to be in charge of everything. Great if that's what you want. I prefer the Group advantage. Where there isn't a president, all kinds of committees and a membership fee. Membership is simply show up or not. Down side is they can disband just as easily as any club and for the same reasons. The Bear Valley Model Railroaders, as we called ourselves was made of a number of Toy Train Enthusiast and honest to God, Model Railroaders. We would help each other build our layouts. Get together for operations night. Which could be someone running a train in a circle while the rest of us railfan. Or we got into it and operated Locals, that had to clear the main for a crack passenger train. I failed to mention this is a collectic group of guys with everything from Garden Railways, O Scale, S Scale, HO and of course N Scale. There was only two of us with N Scale. Greg and I. He too bought a ticket out of here. Never good by Greg, just later. i'm sad to say it doesn't exist anymore. I think there's only two of the group left operating their layouts in the Big Bear Country, Big Bear lake, Ca. As to those who jumped off their layouts to go play with the big layouts in the sky. I can hear Big Steve, "Now that's not how you do that, you do it this way". Usually echoed by More Track Rick, that would be me. We will miss those guys who beat us out of here and left us behind. What kind of deal is that? Owen, our NMRA member. A member of the NMRA Ninja's. John, our honest to God Architectural Engineer, with the most authenic, prototype Santa Fe train equipment. A real operator. Russ, our redheaded hot rod enthusiast. Stubby, our well rounded enthusiast with the get'er done attitude. He too was a hot rod kind of guy. This was the core group. Richard, Pete and Tom were the real deal. Having worked for the railroads. Their input valued above others. Richard operating a steam engine at Knott's Berry Farm. Pete a retired PC driver. Tom a retired conductor for the BNSF. It was fun times. To answer the immediate question. NO! Clubs aren't on the way out. Where one club dies another will arise. Different ideas, standards and ways to build a layout or modules ... will take the place of the old ones. A new generation of Toy Train Enthusiast will take the place of the die-hard Model Railroaders. i'd bet, that too will change over time. So who said long epistles were a thing of the past. What is communications? Better then not being able to speak publicly, if you get my drift. Later All !!
The club that I belong to in Austin, Texas is a very loose organization. A one time dues of $20 to join and after that you are a lifetime member. There is only one officer and that is the treasurer. There are no club meetings and everyone communicates via an on-line (groups.io) site. One guy is a dealer for a lot of N scale merchandise and will order stuff for you only charging you for his cost. A very compatible bunch of folks with members from all over Texas and even one from Louisiana who shows up for shows to help set up and tear down as well as run trains. The guy who stepped forward to be layout coordinator lives in Dallas. The guy who stores the club trailer with all the club modules on his ranch is much younger than the group of us retirees. There are folks with young kids and quite a few adult children of the older members. At train shows, 20 or more of us typically go out to eat as some local restaurant after the show closes in the afternoon. They typically do shows all up and down the I 35 corridor from San Antonio to Oklahoma City. Our next show is in Temple, Texas in a few weeks.
That's the weekend before the Plano train show. Can I make both? Hmmm... Temple, 2.5 hrs... Plano, 1 hr...
Thank you everyone for the answers, very telling. What I'm hearing in the majority is that folks may like a group, but not necessarily a club with officers. We are seeing that trend in other hobbies such as car clubs. So, more questions if I may. If focusing on a group where there are no officers how does a group organize which shows to participate in? For me and my friend, part of Heritage NTrak, we look at it as we are our own manager. If we want to hook up with another NTrak club at a show, we ask them then become part of their group for the weekend. Communication. In the old days, clubs had in person meetings and newsletters. The pandemic finished that already declining process, and I have not seen a newsletter in a dozen years or more. Do groups get information through social media, email? I ask these questions because over the last 20 years, central Illinois has lost two NTrak clubs and while some have moved away, passed or moved on to other hobbies, there are still some who want to continue to go to shows and enjoy the social aspects of model railroading. My goal is to invite these folks into the Hertiage group without starting a new group or club. I guess Heritage is the new Conrail as the two big clubs did not merge or membership did not merge well and ultimately broke apart.
For Question 2, I suspect the local N-Trak/T-Trak club (more the latter these days) must have some sort of e-mail list or private group somewhere, or perhaps even the old fashioned phone chain. I also just saw a Facebook Group started for said club. I am not a member so I don't know more. That club still has an officer structure so I don't have an answer to Question 1. Overall, I'm not sure that things have changed all that much with respect to organizations of all kinds, not just model railroad clubs, with the coming of technology. That is... of the overall membership of organizations, there is a small fraction of the membership that does the bulk of the work, there is a larger fraction that just comes to play/belong, and there are a few people who just want to control everything including other members.
The Vero Beach Model Railroaders do everything as individuals under the VBMR umbrella. One member built and stores the 4x8 O gauge layout. The HO modular layout is mostly the work of 1 member. It is stored under the home layout of another member. 2 of us built and store the T-Trak modules. The O gauge layout is owned by its builder. The T-Trak modules are owned by the Jeff and me. To the best of my knowledge the HO modules are owned by the VBMR. We communicate by email. We are setting up the T-Trak at tomorrow’s train show. All members have been informed by email and any that want to join us are welcome. We have a Facebook group which most members are part of but our main means of communication is email.
Like I stated in my above posts, the AustNtrak group communicates with email through groups.io to organize things. People share photos of projects they are working on, share modeling tips and ask questions. Folks just volunteer to take on any club task that needs doing. I suppose the weekly railfan gathering at McNeal might be called a "meeting" however it is during the hours when most members are working and is mostly made up of the retired old timers.
Your post reminded me that the VBMR meet for lunch at local restaurants on almost every Wednesday and Saturday. Usually 4-8 guys make it on Wednesday and 10-12 on Saturday. If something needs to be voted on (it’s rare but it happens) it’s usually done on a Saturday or occasionally by email.
I'm a founding member of the Grand Rapids Model Railroad Historical Society, in Comstock Park, Michigan. We are a 401c Non-profit organization with dues of 15.00 per month. We have a HO Scale permanent layout, we have had many people come and go thru the years since we started in 1993. Still going strong!
I'm a member of an Online Club called Trainboard and I really, really, like it Don't have to drive anywhere and a ton of nice members Open 24/7 too! Went to the local club in my area years ago, the N Scale folk's at the time were not very friendly as I was brand new back into the hobby and asking about a cheap locomotive I had at the time that I took with me, and was kind of ignored as a newbie I guess. It's also a long drive for me. Maybe I'll try again one day, maybe? Of course your mileage may vary at a club. I kind of prefer to work on my small layout when I want, what I want. All my supplies etc... are here, etc... Thank goodness for that new fancy internet thingy
The UMTRR Gang is a bit of a "club" too... free and worth at least that much. It was great to meet some of the readership at Bethlehem, some for the first time, others after many years.
I am curious as to how T-Trak has impacted this situation. For good period of time there seemed to be a lot of interest and growth of area groups. Has that continued? Stabilized? Or diminished?
Based on my observations of exhibits by the club in my area, I'd say it's at least stable. Having smaller modules to bring offers more flexibility in what they can show, which allows them to display more often and in less traditional venues (libraries, for example). Certainly N-Trak was out in force at the National N Scale Convention in Bethlehem, although by the nature of T-Trak modules it didn't have the same footprint as N-Trak or Fremon. And that's OK! I expect it will be well represented at N Scale Weekend in Altoona next week as well.
I am part of a group of N-scalers with a modular layout we have sections of and meet up at shows about 4 times a year. It's a lot of fun, and some friends are also interested in joining in the future. However, this 'group' formed because we were all in a formal, organized club in southeast Ohio. The club itself, in my opinion, has about run its course. I guess the takeaway here from my experience is that formal clubs, with member dues, ranks, and voting, may have less of a place in this hobby's future than groups of friends informally meeting up with modular layouts. Hey, at least we save money not paying yearly dues!
