Is there a club in the southwest that’s not a Labour camp

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Hi, I know this is a bit of a moan, but is there a club in the southwest that is not a Labour camp? . I don’t mind doing my bit, however I do want something in return, and that is to be able to run MY locomotive without pulling the public around. Is that too much to ask? Maybe it is. I know clubs need money, however when public running is the be all and end all. And there is no or very limited access to the track to just do your own thing, ie play with your own loco. Then I don’t see the point. So my question is, is there a club in the southwest, that allows members to just play with their own locomotives without signing their life’s away to endless public running or maintenance. Moan over.

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Sometimes you get clubs on someones private land who don't cater to the public

Once the hard cash brigade move in on an entity the club ethos and cameraderie does tend to go out the back door, happened to a gardening club I've known for 15 years and a private park I've known for 30

Money attracts the wrong kind of people

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Not sure what you mean by hard cash. maybe it’s me but the fun is just not there in clubs anymore.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

"Labour?" or "labour"?

Right, for one thing, do you want to join a model-engineering society or not?

You seem determined to want to join a society but then to deter invitations!

Now, you say you "don't mind doing your bit" , which is a positive point. After all, there is little point in joining any club for any hobby unless you are willing to put something into it to help its continuation. The world is full of societies running on a high proportion of their full membership doing nothing to help it, so burdening needlessly the active members who do care about the club enough to be involved in its public events, maintenance, etc.

There are clubs that do have tracks but are not tied to public running-days, or have only a few a year; and even in those that are tied I expect they have members who only use the railway outside of those events.

My own club is in the South-West, ish, depending where you class that region; and we use our ground-level track only very rarely for public events (and have reduced the portable-track events); but I am afraid your comment about "labour camps" makes me wonder about what you want from any club.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

When we had a track, members could use it at almost any time that they wanted, but Sunday afternoons were for public running.

This aided club funds, ensured publicity for the Society, and the hobby, as well providing fun for children of all ages.

We still have folk reminiscing about how their children and grandchildren enjoyed the afternoons..

We enjoyed it, otherwise we wouldn't have done it, or still be searching for a site for a new track

Despite lockdown, and the lack of a permanent track, members still turn up to assemble, steward and run on the portable track.

For many members of the public, seeing a locomotive in steam, even a small one, is a novel experience..

It can bring new folk into the hobby, whilst expanding the knowledge and understanding of the non technical.

Many of us are retired; if we do not encourage new, younger people into the hobby, our clubs, and our pleasures will die.

So don't begrudge the odd couple of hours at the week end to help your Club!

I'm not a loco owner, so mostly steward, and only very occasionally am allowed to drive, so my axe is not particularly hard ground!

Howard

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

I haven't joined any of the local clubs, basically because I'm profoundly disinterested in model locomotives and track. I haven't yet found a club in the Midlands that isn't primarily rail oriented.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Insurance £900 – £1500, rent £500 – £2000, speakers for club meetings £300, website £100. Running a club is expensive even before you do anything. Unless you have a huge membership that can't be covered by a reasonable level of subscription.
Many clubs only run for the public one day a month leaving 27 per month for private running.

St Albans has no regular public running so has to run an exhibition for two days. Is setting aside the last weekend in September when the holiday season is over too much effort?
Exeter does public running only on the first Sunday of the month plus events with the portable track but lots of days are available as our lease allows only private use on most other weekends.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Peterborough members have a wide range of interests. Take a look at the picture of our stand at one of the now defunct Spalding shows, and mother pictures on our webslite.

At one of rallies, it was a close run thing as to which won the trophy, a model of a clyde puffer, or a cutter grinder.

Road engines, stationary engines, miniature artillery, tooling, clocks and boats were among the exhibits, as well as locos and rolling stock (in all gauges ).

We used to organise an annual steam rally, predominantly for road engines, but stationary engines tooling, and railways featured, along with a boating pool for the local boat club. Some road engine owners gave rides on their trailers.

At a recent local show, one of the road engines was in steam and moving about, behind a roped off area.

At other shows, road engine have given rides to the public.

Hereford cater for all tastes, they have their own boating lake!

Don't tar all clubs with the same brush.!

Howard

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

My sentiments entirely Michael and Mark,plus the other Model Engineering disciplines go out the window at the same time.

[kevin laxonParticipant @kevinlaxon28008]

Michael,Mark & Bernard,as far as I can see the days of a model engineering society actually promoting model engineering seem to be long gone in preference for nothing more than public train running for financial reward, I for one miss the organised talks & club nights when like minded people had the chance to exchange knowledge & have a general friendly chat over a cuppa & biscuit. I also had good times running loco's on private members days with several friends, there was just one person that would turn up almost every time & announce "should we run for the public".needless to say I left the society.

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

I was going to suggest "Padmes". I looked in on their website three years ago but it now seems to have gone. They had a private track not open to the public. I am not sure what the "P" stands for, but the rest of the word could be "and disrtict model engine (eering?) society". Don't hold me to that though. I have found an old email I sent them back then about meeting up with them at Callestick to see if I was interested in joining. If you send me a PM I will forward the contact email address. I live in Illogan near Redruth. I never did go because of the covid restrictions.

Lee

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Padmes

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

From what I have seen over the years a large number of club members are only in clubs to keep their locomotive in test. As I stated I do understand that clubs need income, be it from membership fees only or topped up by public running. However I think that one person missed the point, being more interested in pointing out an error due to predictive text. Anyway there is a point which many clubs have come to in which members being able to enjoy using their own locomotive to just stream around for an afternoon or a few hours during the week have been totally overlooked by the drive for more public running, or not allowing private use of the track by hiding behind health and safety. Enjoying the hobby of model engineering is giving way to just almost working at a club. Has I said. I don’t mind doing my bit, but I do want something in return. And that is simply to be allowed to use my locomotive without the need of dragging the public behind, on days that suit my available time and not a clubs odd idea that once a year is good enough.

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

No-one is obliged to do public running at our SW of England MES. In fact I think its fought over a bit as we don't really do much public running, less than ten events a year I reckon. It's just a nice quiet place for us to run our locos with our families while chatting with the other members.

WWSME, West Wiltshire Society of Model Engineers. They are laying more track at the moment but no-one is obliged to help, most just assist as part of the give and take that comes with a club.

If you are interested we are based just north of Westbury in Wiltshire. If it's of interest I can ping you some details.

[Simon CollierParticipant @simoncollier74340]

We can run at our club any time we like. The only rule is, there have to be two people in case of an accident of some kind. I like public running days as it is the only way to give the engine useful work. Puttering around light engine get boring very quickly unless you are testing some modification or repair.

[Rex HanmanParticipant @rexhanman57403]

Andover and District MES only have one public event a year. You can run whenever you like, except for a few dates in the pheasant shooting period. There's always work to be done, but no one is pressurised to do it, it's purely voluntary.

Some members pay their subs, get a boiler test and run their engine, nothing more. Others commit many hours to keep the club running.

I believe you get out what you put in, not every one feels that way.

We make every effort to be a model engineering society, not a railway club, but the membership is biased towards trains.

Check out our brand new website at http://www.admes.uk, which at present reflects that bias. More content will be added soon, it's only a day old!

New members are always welcome.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Posted by Rex Hanman on 27/07/2022 22:46:05:

I believe you get out what you put in, not every one feels that way.

Very true. And there are lots of side benefits in the friendships you make and contacts you have for help and advice.

[sam sokolikParticipant @samsokolik60334]

Kinda sounds like you need your own tracks…

Some people are not people people..

sam

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

The Newton Abbot club is very happy to accept members who want to run at any time as long as safety rules are met – and that's mainly making sure you have two people present. If there are more than two locos, we also have a few basic rules to help avoid accidents. No public running as our lease doesn't allow it but we are organising monthly running Sundays when you can expect to find others running as well. Trying to cover people who want a quiet time, maybe for getting used to a new loco, as well as those who like running in company.

Of course we warmly invite all members to come and help with general maintenance – every Wednesday morning so it's easy to remember, tea and biscuits provided! – but we recognise that not everyone is free to do that.

Visitors very welcome if you want to come and take a look – pm me for more info or look at NADMES.

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

I seem to remember reading a Post many moons ago, regarding a man and his young son who tried to join a Model Engineering Club. When they explained that they were not interested in building railway engines, they were quickly ignored. Needless to say, they got the message !

Not everyone likes to play with locos, there are other things in life, equally interesting. Clubs need to see this and cater for it before their club dies, which it will. Since there are no such clubs in this quaint little land, this is not a problem, we just do our own thing. I did find the same attitude in other clubs, swimming/cycling, ect over the years, where a large membership was welcome, in order to pay for the hire of a pool for the benefit of those who wished to train for racing ect, but were otherwise ignored. Like someone else said, I just walked away.

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

WWSME has a very broad range of interests, steam is just one part of it.

Don't judge every club by the experiences here please people, we are very friendly!

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I think my own Society – Weymouth & District – is among many in hosting few or no public running days on its own track.

Our ground-level 5" and 7-1/4" g. track, "table-top" 16mm-scale outdoor circuit and any amount of room for miniature traction-engines, are available to members and bona-fide guests on most Saturdays and Tuesday evenings.

Public running is limited to very rare side-shows to events in the school itself; very few and far between even "BC".

Even our portable railway for external, fund-raising events is used fewer than 10 times a year; but does rely on the goodwill of volunteers to transport and operate it.

.

Much of the non-running activities on site is maintenance – including gardening that seeded our internal joke about adding that to the society's name. A few members do both: attending on a Saturday to use either railway, and to engage in permanent-way or horticultural care.

A member who once complained that these days are not "model-engineering", was soon reminded that we don't have a fully-equipped club workshop, so do our model-engineering at home. The club site is for operating the models and testing boilers, but importantly, also the social forum, based around a small club-room with basic kitchen facilities.

.

As for the all-important tea-&-biccies, we don't give them away, but invite donations of either comestibles or the heady sum of…. 20p!

.

So you are welcome here to use the track as often or little as you wish, and whilst hoping you would also lend a hand with looking after the facilities, you need not fear spending every weekend driving public trains round and round!

(On club days. The secure school grounds and minimum-two attendees rule, are their own restrictions; and the site's management also decrees at least one first-aider among attendees, of any organisation, using the grounds.)

[LukerParticipant @luker]

My humble view is: if you visit a club and they don’t have your specific branch of interest in ME then that’s a great opportunity to start a group within the club.

We have public running days on all our members or open days; that’s how we stay afloat. There’s enough room on the track for everyone and all members are encouraged to bring their loco’s (or anything of interest for that matter) for the public to have a look at and discuss with everyone present. The ‘odd’ little loco’s (that don’t necessary pull public) bring the foot-traffic that puts the bums on the paying rides. We also have an open table for members to show their builds which often ends up in discussions and appreciation from the public.

Personally I don’t like hauling public, but I’m there most days with my little loco’s…

It really does boil down to how you look at things!

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Ten years ago, Peterborough lost our track, but we have always meet twice monthly (Except when shut down by Covid ).

One way and another, it cost us members but we still have our "Bits and Pieces" meeting followed, two weeks later, by a Speaker meeting.

We usually have a stand at a local Show about three times a year, where the display is tailored to the theme of the show, but tries to show a variety of interests within the Society.

Picture into my album of our stand at one of the Spalding Hobbies and Model Engineering Shows

And, where possible, we also run the portable track at events.

Hopefully, we try to accommodate everyone..

Howard

Why doesn't predictive spelling correct my typos?

Edited By Howard Lewis on 28/07/2022 13:10:14

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