Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

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Kimball McGinley
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Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by Kimball McGinley »

Wife and I are thinking about retiring in Europe in a few years. Make our money last longer than here in the U.S.

Where would I find a list of all the ride-on live steam clubs "over there"? Not interested in British Isles; taxes are too darn high there too. Would not be taking any equipment from here.

Any and all comments and re-directs welcome. Thanks in advance, Kimball
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Bill Shields
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by Bill Shields »

Unless you are 2.5 (UK), 3.5 or 7.25 equipment will be no good anyway

Ok..where are you going to travel?

It is a large continent. :mrgreen:
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
Bob_Whitfield
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by Bob_Whitfield »

Claude Magdelyns of the Brussels club has an excellent web page with a map showing the various clubs/tracks in Europe:

https://ptvf.eu/ferroliens/sites-5-7-1-4/
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Builder01
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by Builder01 »

Cheaper to live in Europe? Not sure about that. Many European countries offer many "free" services, these are all paid for with taxes. There is no free lunch. Taxes in Scandinavian countries are outrageous. I've been to England, France and Germany, it's all very expensive.

I see you live in Southern California. I was born and lived there also. I have retired in Pennsylvania. The high cost of living is not an issue of living in the U.S., it's an issue of California. Laguna Niguel is mostly upscale. I had a friend who's mother lived there. As a very blue collar worker, (machinist), I have retired quite comfortably in Pennsylvania. I could never live in CA like I do here in PA. My standard of living is way higher in PA versus CA.

Also, the northeast offers many livesteam clubs. Bonus!

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VGC
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by VGC »

http://dampf-modell-bahn.de/dclubi.htm

In 2013 someone in Germany told me that when being retired, he would go to Hungary because there he needs only 500 euros per month when he gets old and needs a nursing place.

In Switzerland, somewhere we read that the limit of being "poor" is set at 7000 Swiss Francs per month for a family of four people.
In about 2013 we heard that an old house in the montains was offered for 370000 SFr and that it only was such cheap because one needs a 4WD car to get there. Meanwhile the prices for houses have risen a lot in Switzerland as I was told.

In Germany the living costs are about 60% of these in Switzerland, but the lower minimum prices e.g. for flesh result from much less restrictive animal keeping laws in Germany. Flesh from really good animal keeping is not very much cheaper in Germany than in Switzerland.

If I would move from US to Europe, I would consider the happiness / life quality of the people. As far as I know, Denmark is really good and (I think) a lot cheaper than Switzerland. But I myself would also consider New Zealand.
pat1027
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by pat1027 »

Berkman
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by Berkman »

Unless you plan to live in eastern Europe, somewhere like Croatia etc, there is zero chance it is cheaper to live there. Have you looked at gas prices there? Housing ? grocery costs? Not sure how medical cost coverages works unless you are citizen.
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Builder01
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by Builder01 »

Kimball McGinley - I hope you and your family survived the recent fire in your area. I lived in southern CA many years ago and am very aware of the fire danger.
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gwrdriver
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by gwrdriver »

Berkman wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 1:36 pmUnless you plan to live in eastern Europe, somewhere like Croatia etc, there is zero chance it is cheaper to live there.
I agree, although I have a good friend, a model engineer and ex-pat Brit, who now lives in Istria, the Westernmost county of Croatia. He moved there because he married a Croatian woman and his quality of life would be, and has been, better than in England and he had a pretty darned good quality of life in England! (Or he appeared to.) I also have an old friend from school who lives in Spain. He's a writer and lives what we might call a somewhat Bohemian lifestyle and says Spain suits him to the end. The parents of one of my best friends visited Portugal some years ago and fell in love with the country. After many visits they announced they were moving to Portugal, sold their house (the children were adults by that time) and lived the rest of their lives there. In each of these instances it wasn't about things being cheaper, it was first, for a number of reasons, the place where they wanted to spend the rest of their lives.

So it kind of depends upon what your life plans, needs, expectations, and resources are, but one thing is certain, I would never just pick up and move without having spent lots of time, months, living in the place or area you think you want to settle. As Berkman says, if it's just about finding a place to live cheaper, you'll generally be better off here.
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Kimball McGinley
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by Kimball McGinley »

Just wanted to post a hearty thank you to all the helpful posters! You all gave me very good info and certainly plenty to consider. Yes, maybe just selling out CA land and buying a cheaper house will be OK for us... Kimball
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Just returned from a trip to Côte D’azure, Southern France. Heading back in the fall for the winter. We found the cost-of-living substantially less than on the West Coast. Comments above about high cost of living are simply not true for the area we visited. Surprised to see a fair number of retired Americans living there and having a great time. Did not find any live steam clubs on the med, however, apparently there are one or two in Spain, and perhaps maybe one in Portugal - areas with even cheaper cost-of-living. Don’t listen to keyboard warriors on the Internet, go visit for yourself and find out firsthand what it’s like. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
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gwrdriver
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Re: Live Steam Clubs in Europe?

Post by gwrdriver »

An important question to research is how long a US citizen can live in residence, on a tourist visa, before he has to leave for a while? 90 days is typical, and unless you're employed by a company doing business in your destination country, you can't just pick up and move, plop yourself down, and say I'm here for the duration. Most 1st-world countries have pretty stringent requirements for extended residence, or citizenship, even if you were to marry a native, and England seems to be the most stringent and have the most strangling red tape.

France has an interesting visa for retirees . . . you may stay for 12 months before renewal, indefinitely, as long as you can demonstrate you have independent means and source of income. The taxes are high in France, and just because you live in France doesn't mean you can stop paying US taxes.
GWRdriver
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