AGM and Get-together 2008

"AGM & Get-together 2008"

"Business, yes, but mostly pleasure.."




The Annual General Meeting & Get-together brought members from far and wide to converge on a central theme. A chance to mix and chat with fellow modellers, to see what the trade stands had to offer and especially, to see what the club sales stand was tempting visitors to buy. Many traders were present this year with attractive items for the Gauge '3' modeller ranging from the small individual items such as track sleepers and fixing pins through wagon and loco kits to complete 'ready to run' products. Gauge '3' certainly has become much more popular, and more importantly, more supported by traders, over recent years.



The proliferation of models on display was a pleasure to see including items such as goods wagons, carriages, girder bridges, station buildings and even a steam powered rail crane. The crane can be seen in the top right hand photo. Many individual track components are now available for the modeller enabling fast construction of track and point work. Many items are available from our own members' 'shop' and other items are available through suppliers. One such supplier can be seen above right with a splendid display of components.



The club sales stand is always very popular. It offers for sale, items from members, on a small commission basis, the proceeds of which go towards the cost of running the club, hall hire and so on. As usual, the stand was full of interesting items at the start of the day, but almost empty towards the end. Items for sale included complete ready to run locomotives, a weatherproof station building, carriages, wagons and the all important accessories such as people, telephone boxes, signals and so on. One of our members is a keen scratch builder of carriages. He was pleased to display and talk about his LNER teak carriages. Made of plywood and with plywood wheels too, they looked splendid. The photo above right shows the fitted interior of one of his carriages.



The weatherproof station building previously mentioned, can be see above left. This was quickly 'snapped up' by a member who has a rather nice garden railway, which I have visited many times. The railway has recently been extended and a new station building was needed for the branch line, so this was a super opportunity to purchase. I look forward to seeing the station in its new setting later this year. Look for pictures later, amongst the gallery pages where you might see the station in its new setting. Richard was showing me a bridge that he had recently made. It is quite light being made from aluminium angle and strip, held together with aluminium rivets and so is fully waterproof. He had built a girder bridge also, of similar construction.



Trade support was very good. The photo above left shows prospective purchasers examining the wares on one of the trade stands. This stand was offering many accessories for the live steam modeller including pressure gauges, clack valves, lubricators and so on. Other items included a wagon kit and a brake van kit. There are quite a lot of kits available now for Gauge '3'. The photo above right shows some activity on the club sales stand. There was lots to rummage through here. The station building mentioned above can be seen on the right of the picture, before being sold.



A saddle tank loco trundles round under its own steam (above left) and, examining a possible purchase (above right). I think members who attended the day will agree with me that the meeting was a very successful one. There was ample time to chat with fellow members and modellers, to discuss latest projects, to drink tea, to make those all important purchases and to enjoy the atmosphere that surrounds these friendly events. We are all now looking forward to the summer sunshine, and the garden running sessions which start very soon. Running sessions for the 2008 season will be published in the March Newsletter. If you would like to join the Gauge '3' Society, information about joining can be found on the Membership Benefit's page.

Text and photos © D Smith