G Rail Nottingham show 2018

Taking up chris01's point about a garden railway convention, we attended the 2014 event in Orlando, we both really enjoyed the time there, our daughter and son in law came as well, we did a coach trip to an old railroad and rode the train, great experience, then on to visit garden layouts. Good atmosphere in the hotel and a 2 day trader event as well. Now, it appears that they are suffering with organising further events!
The thing is, who would organise such an event here in the UK ?? G Scale society, of which I have been a member of for nearly 20 years, seems to struggle with getting volunteers to run a show,and get a committee of eager people, not sure about 16 MM but they haven't tried it yet, as far as I am aware. It would need to be in an area where there was a large group of garden railways in existence, a good convention style hotel, with reasonable rates, and somewhere traders would be prepared to travel to for a couple of days, oh and there was a last night dinner as well, not fully attended but a good evening with train style entertainment................... Perhaps GSC members should organise it!!!!!!!!
Dave
 
chris m01 said:
And maybe there needs to be more thought about how to make it easy for potential newcomers to start a garden railway and at a reasonable cost.
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That is exactly the purpose of my layout a few posts back.

DSC_0738 - Copy.JPG

...guy on the phone, he's not calling his Bank Manager.
 
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The wider West Midlands area has a fair few garden railways and of course the SVR. I’m pretty sure the small and specialised trade events that our sadly passed friend Steve Warrington put on in Telford were successful; there seemed to be plenty of people there. Chacewater with the Harz isn’t far from Telford either. Just thinking out loud...
 
Layout looked more 'sectional', rather than 'modular' to me.
A few 'modular' tips picked up over the last 40 years....... 4 legs per module, even with adjustable levellers, are a pain. Use two per module and join modules 'elephant style.
I hinged mine to the end of the module, with the cross section of the legs hanging out past the end, so that the next module could rest on that.
Don't get sucked in with rails ending short which require gap filler sections... that introduces two potential misalignments per joint.
Invest in plug in jumper wires, screwing into chocolate blocks is a real time consumer.
If Joe Fourthumbs has to be included, get him a mentor early in his module building. It will pay dividends.
There is little room for individual expression in a successful modular layout, it really is more than 4 inches from the Rockies to the Coast, no matter what scale you model.
 
A convention is a great idea. No, I am not going to organise it. Lots of people moan that its too far to a show - add a few hundred quid for a couple of nights in a hotel (and your partner will want to come and be expensively groomed), a gala dinner and the convention fee.
Ha Ha, 6 will turn up - or perhaps 2.
 
I think in the US the distances are so great that people WILL travel between venues for a 'regional' event.. - Even to car-pooling to get to private gardens..
In this country it is even difficult to get people to cross the road from one part of something to another!

The obvious choice (size-wise) in the Midlands, would be Statfold.. Loads of room, already a critical mass of railway 'stuff' :):nod::nod: and possibly a 'host' who would be amenable to the idea. - Though whether it could be arranged is another matter??
I am sure a 'heritage bus' shuttle could be arranged from Tamworth NR station?
There are reasonably large-ish hotels within the area, mainly due to not being too far from the NEC.

Problem with both Telford and Chasewater is they are not particularly large sites.. Great Central can spread their event over the whole railway.

There is also the problem of slotting in a 'new' event into the calendar, so it does not clash with the already established shows.


As for G-Rail .. I would guess it is already provisionally booked for 2019, so it will (I suppose) be at Harvey Haddon again?? - Though this will depend on how the GSS view the success (or otherwise) of this years show.
 
I would hope the GSS are having a review meeting pdq, Phil.
 
stockers said:
I would hope the GSS are having a review meeting pdq, Phil.
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I have no knowledge of the GSS AGM, committee meetings, or procedures.. But I believe there are regular meetings, so am sure there will be a review of these things? - New venue, at relatively short notice (most 'rolling' shows are planning 18 months - 2 years ahead), and new volunteers. All a learning curve.

If 'we' are not prepared to step-up and volunteer, we do not have the right to be too vocal in complaint.
 
Up to a point Phil, I agree with you. I respect the volunteers for their input.
However - they are happy to take our money! Works both ways.
For me, the annual show is a corner stone of the association.
 
stockers said:
Up to a point Phil, I agree with you. I respect the volunteers for their input.
However - they are happy to take our money! Works both ways.
For me, the annual show is a corner stone of the association.
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Yep. They take our money. Organise a show (hopefully breaking even)*. Produce a magazine. Organise Society insurance cover. Umbrella the regional groups. Promote the hobby..

* Even Peterborough only made a small surplus.


As an aside:
I tried to revive the Chasewater model show.. I had a reserved 'yes do it', BUT other than site, and a few power leads, there would have been little support from Chasewater itself.
I just could not finance the hire of marquees, etc. myself.. Especially not knowing if it would break even.
 
As a members show I don't think making a profit should be the 'be all and end all'. Obviously they both (16mm and GSS) need to control costs but its a members bash.
 
A few more points:
The US show appears to be put on in conjunction with the US Garden Railway magazine although they don't always review the show afterwards .
The show we went to, there were folk from all points of the US, Europe and Australia.
Then you have the option to purchase the 'show car' in this case a US box car decorated with the show logo and plenty of cups/ mugs, glasses all engraves or with transfers advertising the show and the 'got to have' the T shirt!!!
My wife very much enjoyed the show but then she was the one who encouraged me to get a railway in the garden ( not that I needed much encouragement !)
Having just got back from a weekend in Poole, where we went to Swanage Railway for the dining train experience , on Saturday afternoon, I would be more than happy to spend time at a convention hotel to enjoy our hobby, as I get older, I find the 240 mile round trip would have been too much had we not travelled down on Friday and back today, this was one reason I did not go to Nottigham , having been promoting G Scale at Reading the day before.
Dave
 
Hi All,

A few thoughts I had when reading through this thread. I was not able due to other commitments to get to G-rail this year so I can't comment on that other than having seem some of the photos, and as none of my local personal friends went, I can't ask them ether. I did go last year to Stafford, and helped run one of the layouts. Numbers did not seem high but maybe people were just spread out which makes it a nicer exhibition from that point of view than say NEC/Warley where it seems you can't move. The National Garden Rail show in Peterborough seem to hit a happy medium there, busy but not packed which they do by having nice wide isles which gives a sense of space. As others have said they did make a small surplus. G-rail and NGRS used work together and hold their shows on successive day which seemed to work well, and now both shows have new show directors this happy situation may happen again, to the benefit of both societies, traders and visitors.

On the subject of modular layouts, the 16mmNGA does already have modular standards up and running, which seem to work well. They cover both 32mm and 45mm track standards as many 16mm members run on 45mm. Whilst there are more 32mm modules out there, there are a good number which are just 45mm, have both 32mm and 45mm, or have dual gauge track, including my local group indoor layout which includes dual gauge on the main running line.

I know there was, (and I don't know why), some historic reluctance from G scale soc. to join in with the rest of the garden rail modellers, who model in scales between say 1:12 and 1:24 on track 32mm or 45mm (but in extreme, from 9mm up to 75mm). Maybe the younger generation will be able to overcome this, and we who play trains in our gardens can all play nicely together. I did not renew my G scale membership after our local group had a major split, I was not there at the meeting when it happened but suddenly half the members no longer got emails etc. about meet ups and the atmosphere at the following meeting was shall I say frosty. I gave up on them as i can't be doing with stuff like that and we have an excellent, very friendly 16mm local group which more than keeps me busy with meet ups to play trains. Personally however I am still friends with many of them and indeed I still have many G scale soc friends who come to our open days, where the G versus 16mm thing is happily ignored I'm pleased to say. We play trains, eat, drink, and generally put the world to rights.

There are 'rivet counters' and 'it looks ok from 10 feet'; beautiful fine scale and 'Thomas/Pepper Pig/Greendale Flier' trains: garden and indoor; live steam, electric, live diesel, clockwork, air, (and I am sure other driving forces); each person has their choice. I still think we should get along, we have much we can learn from and enjoy with folk who do not model in exactly the same way we do. Surely this is how a garden railway exhibition should be run, so lets start talking nicely again, we will all benefit in the long run

These are just my thoughts please take them in the positive way they are meant. If I have upset anyone, sorry, please feel free to ignore me, but let's not fight over our differences.

David
 
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