Are there any clubs local to me?

I feel your pain, but there's nothing out in the IE.

The closest hi-rail club layout is in Hemet at Dynamic Hobbies, but getting there takes almost as long as it takes to get to AGHR.

Hey Matt, Do you know if there's anything in the Coachella Valley?

The club should be in Riverside, Corona, San Bernardino, or along the I-15 between Cajon and I-10 to be close enough to regularly visit. The Milepost 38 store in the Anaheim Hills area is way too far. The area around the Pegassis Hobby shop is about as far into LA that I want to travel for a club.

Of course, it is toy trains (MTH or newer LIonel) that interest me.

LDBennett

How about one visit to the closest club and see if anyone there lives out near you.  Then you may be able to startup a small satellite club of your own.   You could also put a notice in your local Craigs list and setup a meeting at a local restaurant for coffee until you establish the authenticity of the individuals.  That way you are not giving away your home address.  You may just have to start your own!! 

Haven't heard of anything in O gauge or O scale out that way. Other than Dynamic Hobbies, there isn't a whole lot in the way of O gauge dealers either out here.

I had looked into building a home layout. The problem with building a home layout (at least for me) is that I'm so busy that it would create a conflict of time and money between the home layout and the club. Also, there was the issue of available space sufficient for anything larger than a switching deck.

I understand not wanting to drive far. I commute 85 miles to LA everyday and when the weekend arrives, I don't want to see a car most of the time. I live in Hemet. Dynamic Hobbies does have a layout, but the economy has hit that store hard. If enough people had interest to form a club in the Riverside/San Bernardino area, I would be in. I belong to TTOS in Arcadia and will be joining the SP TTOS in Anaheim next month. I did belong to the AGTTA in La Jolla, but the drive was too much. I visited Matt and the AGHR layout about one year ago. It was a very nice layout and the members were extremely friendly. But due to work and family constraints, I could not join at that time. Hopefully, some others would chime on wanting to start something in the IE.

Bob

we have people from your area down all the time to run trains.  in fact we have people from all over the US showing up to run trains.  the members from out of the area make a day trip on a weekend once or twice a month. 

I've been meaning to make another road trip down to harass you guys, especially John Korling, but between club projects and work project (which suck out my extra weekend time lately) I haven't been able to get down there. The San Diego "Consortium" (SD3R, the H.O., N and O 2-rail guys) is a good group have all been very friendly when I've been down there.

Matt, the harassment would be most welcome, but it just wouldn't be the same without John P. there to pile it on.   At least the looming threat of trying to make me choke down a scrapple sandwich no longer exists.