The Golden State Model Railroad Museum (GSMRM) is the organization responsible for the building and grounds at our location in Point Richmond. The members of the East Bay Model Engineers Society, all of whom are members of the GSMRM, build and maintain the layouts located in that building.

There are two ways to become involved in the Golden State Model Railroad Museum and/or the East Bay Model Engineers Society.

Joining the Golden State Model Railroad Museum

Members of the museum provide support for the museum through their membership dues donation of $24.00 a year (family $45.00). Members receive free admission to all our shows for the entire operating season.

 

Joining the East Bay Model Engineers Society

Members of EBMES take an active role in building and operating the layouts. All members of EBMES are also members of the Golden State Model Railroad Museum.

The best way to join the EBMES is to visit us on one of our work nights, held every Friday night from 7pm to 10 pm. Talk to the people building the layouts and see how you might fit in. We have need for people of all levels of skill, from absolute beginners to experienced modellers.

New members enroll as Apprentices with one of the three scales (N, HO, O). After a period of not less than 6 months but typically less than a year, an Apprentice may be considered for elevation to status as a full member. Apprentices are evaluated on their enthusiasm, participation, and contributions to the club.

Dues: Apprentice dues are currently $72 for the 6-month minimum period of apprenticeship, which also includes the GSMRM membership dues.

Regular Member Dues: $20 / month ($240 / year)

 

Why you should join a club, and specifically our club

There are several great reasons to join a club.

Sharing the fun:

No one can relate to your love for trains the way other modellers can. Have you ever tried to explain to someone with no interest in trains just why the model you purchased, or better yet built, is so special? At most you get a "that's nice". Fellow modellers appreciate trains as much as you do.

Learning:

Perhaps you already know everything there is to know about building models, wiring a layout, making scenery, etc. But if you don't, there's no better way to learn than to work side-by-side with someone who does.

We have people of all skills in our club, including people who can build things you wouldn't believe possible. You can learn those skills at our club. For example, are you tired of commercial turnouts that don't work quite right? We build 'em from scratch and they work better than commercial ones. Plus, we can build turnouts for any particular location or situation, e.g., curved turnouts, crossovers, slip-switches. N-scale is currently building dual gauge turnouts -- try to find that in a hobby store. The fact that turnouts cost $1 to build versus the amount you pay for one in a store might be important to you as well.

Cost:

As we all know, model railroading isn't the least expensive hobby around. When you design that monster home layout with 55 turnouts you may not realize how expensive that can be. Conservatively, the turnout is $10, the motor is $10, and the electronics, wire, etc to control it is another $5. So each turnout is roughly $25 at a minimum. And you want 50 of them?

We have 50 of them. In fact, we have many times more than that. We build our turnouts and buy electrical components in quantity. Our people know how to build sophisticated control systems for state-of-the-art model railroading. And all of that is paid for by the regular dues. So, for the cost of your yearly dues you can have maybe 6 turnouts at home, or access to pretty much anything you could ever want.

Any money over the dues that you want to devote to the hobby you can devote to getting the rolling stock that you particularly like. You don't have to spend money on lumber, paint, lighting, track, scenery, power supplies, etc.

Do the things you want to do:

Modellers often like one particular aspect of the hobby but aren't so interested in doing other things. Maybe you like detailing locomotives, but you don't like mixing plaster? At a club, you can focus on what you like to do, and the other stuff gets done by other members. Your detailed loco will look a whole lot better running through realistic mountains than it will on the infamous "plywood plains" of someone who doesn't like building scenery.

Sharing the maintenance:

Any hobby requires a certain amount of maintenance, e.g. track cleaning is the bane of many model railroaders. Many hobbyists find that keeping up with the layout they've built at home can be quite a chore. It's much less of a chore if you share the maintenance with a large number of other people. Plus a club can afford some things that you might not be able to as an individual. For example, we don't have just one track cleaning car, we have whole strings of them.

The sheer size of the club layout

Tired of having your train go around your home layout in 3 minutes? Try our N-scale layout. It will take you a full half hour to go around it, even at a good speed. You can run trains of realistic sizes -- 30 or even 50 boxcars if you want. Passenger trains of 10 or 15 cars that look like they are really going somewhere, because they are. Our layouts are over a dozen scale miles long!

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