David Halfpenny
Western Thunderer
Thirtysecond said:I think we should press for a display of finescale 1/32 models at the next AGM (2017 - Godmanchester). When we ran a finescale display a few years back it was a great success but none of the committee at the time seemed interested in following it up. New committee now - you never know. Centrepiece could be Bagshot station!!!!!
Eleven months have gone by since Derek declared that aim, and we are now just days away from his dream coming true.
- The New Committee has, as hoped, espoused this cause - with puzzlement on a few faces, but with resolve and without demur.
- The G1MRA 1:32 Finescale Group has roughly fifty email subscribers, and its website is up and running, and growing as fast as I can feed it. It has already brought G1MRA more in new subscription income than its total start-up cost.
- We got a mention in G1MRA Journal 255 that dented my doormat this morning, plus the Launch plugs in Journal 254 last July.
- The 1:32 display at the AGM is to be as long as a mainline coach, and it's going to be a beggar finding a tablecloth for it (tomorrow's job).
- The headline banner reads: 1:32 - Exploring the Possible and everything shown will be to that scale alone.
- The centrepiece will indeed be Bagshot Station, just as Derek proposed (no pressure, Pete) which will be flanked by Chris Tolhurst's King Arthurs and Peter Rogers's coaches.
- Lawrie Loveless will be bringing a selection of his own and his competitors' stunning rolling stock to confirm The Possible.
- We hope to borrow Cookie's tiny but gobsmacking Dungeness Siding, courtesy of it's present owner (Cliff Barker, the only commercial maker of 1:32 scale track parts).
- Fred Phipps, whose new 5 plank wagon kit is out around now, doesn't have transport to come in person. So he's arranged for his wagon kits to be there, and we hope to display customer's examples of his locomotives and possibly coaches.
While the commercial manufacturers who are lending display models have asked us to make clear that their models have been designed to run on 'ordinary' track, we will not be neglecting better wheels and track:
- I'm glad Simon Castens is bringing a ScaleOne32 turnout, because many people don't really 'get' Finescale until they put their hand on a wagon, run it over a crossing, and exclaim that they "didn't feel the bump".
- If I can get my extension lead PAT tested in time, I shall attempt to demonstrate wheel re-profiling on budget equipment. (By which I mean hundreds of pounds rather than thousands.)
Nearby, but expressly NOT part of our stand (because it's not 1:32 and it's not to Finescale standards *) I'm arranging a separate display of David Viewing's very Fine and meticulously Scale 1850s rolling stock, in etched brass and industrial 3-D printing.
(* 10mm, apart from his John Dale locomotives.)
That's the Progress to date, and I hope to come back to y'all soon with Requests for Help.
David
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