I applaud that River City 3-railers and National Capital Trackers working to display together. There are many reasons that this is an uncommon occurrence.
1. Lack of universal module standards: Physical size of modules, number of tracks, spacing of tracks, wiring scheme and connectors, module height.
2. Control scheme: Conventional, TMCC/Legacy, DCS or some combination. We are equipped to run all 3 system concurrently. Since DCS does not work well with buss wiring (which modular layouts use) it required considerable time and effort with appropriately placed insulators, power feeds, and Deets filters to get reliable DCS operation. In order to accommodate conventional operation, we created a block wiring system to allow entry and exit to the yard. And TMCC/Legacy has its own challenges since it is dependent on the ground wiring of the building, and a properly grounded power outlet. Joining with another group and doubling the size of the layout is likely to produce unreliable operation. Or perhaps a group only runs one control system
3. Sharing 3 tracks across 2 or more modular clubs reduces the opportunity for club members to run their trains
4. Setup is already complex and time consuming, and would be more so when combining groups. For example our teardown of our 2 modular layouts (O and HO) took 100 man hours. Setup took even longer.
Our group is in York Pa, so fortunately we don't need to struggle with the logistics and expense of travel. We did however come off a 10 day display at the York Fair in July and a 3 days display in Strasburg in August. As a result, we did decline to display at October TCA, but we have offered to do so in April 2023.
Bob Glorioso
President, Stillmeadow Crossing Modular Train Group
Bob.....I concur fully......lack of uniform standards is a big issue......there was at least 80 man-hours of work (probably more) to build two new modules so we could connect....planning, carpentry, wiring , scenery and detailing. The planning started a year ago. We started building in late June and finished last Tuesday! The time was worth it and the integration was seamless.
Let me say, that working with the Trackers was fantastic. They are wonderful and great to run trains with. In fact, Tom and I officially joined the Trackers last year and have run with them at non-TCA events over the last 15 months.
The control system issues are also huge, as Bob said. My DCS engines worked fine this time. My Legacy/TMCC engines did not. However, some members had success with Legacy/TMCC......go figure......we were having ground issues in the building.
The time and expense are also huge.....you need some young people (let's face it, there is a lot of heavy lifting!). However, they are more likely to have jobs and family responsibilities.....and, less discretionary income for food and lodging, etc. So, a lot of time, you are left with a core of "healthy" older guys who are mostly retired. Time impacts set up....and, take down. Tom and I left Richmond 4AM on Wednesday and got home 10:30 PM Satuday night. Between the two of us, we easily spent $8-900 on lodging, gas, tolls and food. When I had a young family, saving for college, that would be off the table.
In addition, the logistics of getting everything together in the right place, at the right time, etc, takes weeks of planning......and, as with every club, there is a core that does most of the work.
So, though it would be great to have loads of groups at York every time.....it is more likely that we will see a lot of groups rotating over the years, with about 3 or 4 every show (hopefully). Personally, I can't wait to come back! I had a blast!
Bob, another observation that gave me a chuckle.......you retired and are now President of your group....less than a month after I retired, I became President of RC3R.
As an aside, Bob and I have a connection from way back. Bob and my future wife were classmates at the University of Maryland Medical School when I was an Internal Medicine Resident.....we hadn't seen each other in nearly 40 years and we put two and two together about 5 years ago when the Stillmeadow group was running trains at York.
Peter Condro
President, River City 3 Railers