Back in the early to mid 1980s I was an avid N-scale model railroader. That is until 1987 when I demolished my last incomplete layout to make way for remodelling my home. But while I did have a some track and the beginnings of a yard, I never got anywhere with what I was trying to do. I don't remember all of the details of that track plan but it was located in a 10 foot x 13 foot room and it was shapped like an E. I still have part of the benchwork but it's covered by all sorts of junk stored there in the wake of our last remodel in 2004.
I bought two Woodland Scenics Modurail modules (1 straight and one corner) and the benchwork that is made for them. They are great but over the last 4 years I haven't gotten too far with them since I had no plan in mind other than to take over the finished half of our basement which is also loaded with all kinds of junk and debris left from the last remodel. Some of it is still good and some of it is saleable. But the rest of it belongs in a dumpster.
So where do I run trains these days? That's why I recently joined an N-Track club which is about 16 miles away from home. I got in touch with them after finding out that such clubs do exist in the New York City area. Where did I find them? They were listed on the World's Greatest Hobby website.
The first time I went there I didn't take anything with me figuring that I'd meet the guys and see if this was place I could join and be accepted. I was. And I also did some work during that first session in helping a member put in part of new siding on his module. They were preparing for a show they would be involved in and it was nice to see that I still remembered some of the stuff I had thought I had forgotten. I joined the club that very day.
I took an Amtrak train with me to the next session. The locomotive was a Trix C30 in Amtrak markings and for Bachman Amtrak Heritage cars. These were purchased back in the early 1980s and I had chaged the trucks and couplers to what were then called Kadees (now Micro Trains). So I put the locomotive and cars on one of the tracks, turned the throttle and nothing happened. I certainly knew it was possible since those wheels hadn't turned since 1987.
I told one of the club members about it and he took out his Minitrix wheel cleener and did a noce job on cleaning the C30s wheels. The train ran but it was noisy. I understand that was a problem with all Trix N-Scale locomotives and I do remember that the ones I had were noisy but they weren't this noisy. I also found that the C30 ran hot so another member said he would look at it to see if he cold do something with it.
He took the shell of and immediately said that the motor and contacts were dirty and that the other parts of the locomitive needed cleaning and lubrication. He must have worked on it for an hour. But at the end of that time I had one nicely running antique locomotive that still had some life in it. It ran cool and it pulled the four cars I had brought with me very nicely along the club layout.
So why should one belong to a club? For the comeraderie and the help one needs to fix things. It also serves as a nice place to run trains.
More on this topic later.
Irv
On Joining a Club, Part 2
Clubs are great places to meet other people with the same hobby. They're also a great place to learn new things.
One of those things was how to properly clean wheels, motors and contacts and how to properly lubricate the gears that transmit power from the motor to the wheels. I've read about it before, but never understood either the process, the materials to use or even how to properly break in the freshly shopped locomotive chasis. I couldn't have done that even by watching video because there is no way to ask questions while doing that.
Now some of the readers might think what I just write is dumb, but I think alot of people have dropped this hobby because of the frustrations that one encounters when they try to do things on their own or without someone to show them ropes.
In today's world of the Internet, questions can be asked and answered by just about anybody. But doing it or seeing it done is so much better than any other method. That is possible in a club because there are always folks there who have been at it longer or know more about the gritty details of routine maintenance than are disclosed with virtually all of the model railroad train sets one buys. Even the introductory books don't talk about it much nor do they talk about the fact that most train sets sold around December 24 don't have good locomotives in them.
Since the last time I wrote, I attended the show which N-Track club attended and participated in. There was another N-Track club there so the layout not only consisted of a number of modules from my club but they were connectected to various modules from that other N-Track club. It was therefore a really large layout. But, because of the N-Track convention in another state, it was not of the size that it has been in past years. One of club memberes told me that one year in took two hours to for his train to make the circuit at scale speed. Now that is BIG.
I also helped the club members bring the modules back to the club room and to set them up in a configuration that would allow us to run trains. That was this past Tuesday. This Sunday I am going to have my first experience actually conecting the modules to each other. I expect that will be an adventure so I'll keep you readers informed of what that was like.
Irv
It really IS amazing the
It really IS amazing the impact a club can have. Our local NTrak club just formed last october....our first setup was in january with the 4 club corners and 8 modules at the local mall. The mall owners happened to be in town and were so impressed they issued us an open invitation to set up whenever we wanted. We set up again in march and april....at the april event we got a front page story in the newspaper and a "human interest" story on the TV news. We just did a june setup at the mall and we got moved from a side area to the center plaza of the mall...the setup was up to 20 modules plus corners. From that, we got an invitation to set up in the Museum of the Rockies over Christmas this year, from the 20th of dec. thru the 4th of jan. We'll actually be featured in all the advertising for the Chistmas season. The NTrak club drew enough intrest that an HO modular club also formed about a month ago. In less than a year model railroading went from something a few people did in their basement to something EVERYONE knows about. Kinda neat!
But you are very right about the advantages of clubs. Everyone brings something different to the mix and it's a lot easier if someone SHOWs you something rather than tries to explain it in a forum or e-mail.
On joining a club
You are right that is easier to be shown rather tan read about something you've never done before. But I found that I have a place to run some stuff I either haven't run in a long time or never got the chance to run before my old layout was torn down.
It is amazing what still runs and what doesn't. Just this past Tuesday I found that all my Trix stuff still works though one F-7 I have really needs to be cleaned and lubed because it sounds like a mixmaster trying to blend nails. The other works just fine. Go figure.
Irv
Irv
On Joining a Club Part 3
After getting all of the modules back to the club room, setting them up and connecting them, we found that there were unexpected electrical problems. It seems that our four lines (red, yellow, blue and green) had problems caused by gremlins! The red line ran fine. The yellow and blue lines seemed to be run by either the yellow or blue power packs and the green line had dead spots.
Many things were looked at including the connections between the power packs and the rails, the rails themselves and the wiring from the power packs. We just gave up and left it for the work crew on Tuesday.
I arrived at the club on Tueday and waited for the rest of the guys to come. When the problem was explained they went thru a check list of possible causes and finally found that somehow the power packs must have gotten fried in an electrical storm that happened over the weekend. They were swapped out and everything was reconnected and things ran beautifully.
I got to run my big hook wreck train. Of course I had to use my Trix C-30 to pull it because I hadn't yet tested either of my Trix F-7s yet. That came next. One ran fine even though it hadn't touched a rail since 1987. Of course it does needs some work but it was good enough to run several loops around the layout.
I then took out my other Trix F-7 and put it on the wreck train. It ran but it sounded like a mix master trying to blend nails together. I let it run around once and pulled it off the tracks. Boy was it dirty. It also needs to be lubed. I'll do that at home and test it on my test track to see if it works.
Joining the club was the best thing I ever did as far as model railroading is concerned. It has given me and incentive to clean my train room so I can finally get the new layout started. It also gave a chance to see what can be done with a little work and the proper materials.
Irv