http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/artic...elds-to-cn
Not sure if anyone here caught this article yesterday. Not sure exactly how I feel about this. It is a travesty and a sick twist of irony that the Layout will not survive and the reason for that is because of all Corporations, it is Canadian National that is forcing them out. On the other hand, I am somewhat surprised and angered at the fact that the club members knew this was coming for 5 years and now...for all intents and purposes... its a travesty.
What do you guys think? :|
Saw it yesterday. Will be in Montreal next week and hope to visit. I wrote up my last visit (2010) in The Gauge e-mag (see page 6&7): <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/magazine/jul10/jul10.pdf">http://www.the-gauge.net/magazine/jul10/jul10.pdf</a><!-- m -->
The club's website is here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.canadacentral.org/Bienvenue_EN.htm">http://www.canadacentral.org/Bienvenue_EN.htm</a><!-- m -->
Not really a travesty, although the irony factor is high... Not surprising that the club cannot move. It is a huge space, and with only 40 active members, such space is not really affordable at current rates. Without being members, neither of us knows for sure what they have planned.
Every club goes through cycles, and they've had a few already. The warehouse is not their original site, and the layout is the third incarnation in that space. It is remarkable that they've had the continuity - I am sure it will continue in some form or other.
Andrew
I have seen many clubs go through moves to different places. I have seen many clubs disband, after tearing down their layout. There is only one way a club can be sure of longevity, and that is to, as a group, own the building their layout resides in. That, can get extremely complex as founding members die, or move away, unless there are specific guidelines for the transfer of ownership. Lake County Model Railroad Club, survived an " almost loss of their rental space", because a new landlord had "other plans" for the property, and the possibility of that loss, never goes away.
There is only one permanent thing --- "change". It is always and ever the heart of "The Plan-of-the-day".
I suppose, though, that there may be something to be said about the Quixotic practice of "tilting Windmills".
Kind of sad, nevertheless...the curse of large layouts everywhere.
Stories like this make me so happy that our group, Scale Rails of Southwest Florida, a 501-C-3 organization, is purchasing our own building. Our mortgage is down to a little over $13,000.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.scalerails.org/">http://www.scalerails.org/</a><!-- m -->
dwight77
Our local club went through much the same problem two years ago. After almost ten years in a local museum, a change in directors brought a change in direction. That change didn't include a model railroad layout. Its surprising how fast ten years of work can be turned into a pile of scrap lumber and wire. A lot of the benchwork was salvaged by one member and now resides in his airplane hanger. Needless to say I won't be interested in any permanent layout in someone elses building again.
That's one advantage of a modular club. Although you need to schedule time for set-up and take down, and you have to find a rental hall, the layout is designed to come apart, and members take home their pieces until the next time...
Andrew
We started out as a modular club but when one of our members became a board member of the museum, he arranged for us to use an empty building which we spent a lot of time and money finishing and wiring. Most of the modules became the basis of the "permanent" layout.
If they knew the end was coming 5 years ago, then I can't say it's a travesty, sad it is, but the owners seem to realise that everything has an end too.
It is a shame they couldn't find another space, but even so, moving a layout that size is also near impossible, a lot of the scenery will probably get damaged beyond repair in such a move, so it's best they find a smaller space, which is probably easier, and start over, with 40 members, that's also easier to maintain. Take videos, pictures etc and preserve it as a memory.
Koos
What an awesome layout. What a shame that it must go. Too bad some rich guy with more money than he knows what to do with wouldn't lease the building from CN for the next 20 years.