Help Please! G1MRA Spring Meeting, April 2019

If you found the 2018 Woking AGM and Trade Show too much of a trek, you missed a treat, but now have another chance to shine at Shepshed. Same good venue as last year, again open to the public, but this time with indoor catering :-)

Last year we had eleven Finescalers on four tables, and I need to know soon how many tables to book for this year.

So please get in touch quickly - reply to this email or ring me on 07813275621

Remember, non-commercial Exhibitors get free entry, Work in Progress attracts at least as much attention as finished work and, if you played the “Won’t go South of the Thames” card last autumn, you can’t play it again this spring ;-)

(As ever, our group stands are for showing, telling, explaining and enthusing, but not selling, which needs a separate Trade Stand: arrange that with Stuart Hithersay.)

“Shepshed 2018 was everything a Gauge One show ought to be - open, friendly, buzzing without being over-crowded, with lots of interest in trains, products and techniques. Shepshed is little more than a village yet, because it’s near a number of major junctions, people were able to come from most corners of England and Wales."

G1MRA AGM and Trade Show, Woking 2018

was also open, friendly, buzzing and full of interest. We turned out three tables this time.

Bob’s Finescale layout Hatherleigh Junction is one of the best ever scenic layouts in Gauge One, and this is just a snippet from Hornby Magazine August 2015:

Ken Martin, although busy on his own stand, lent us his amazing ‘breathed on’ Accucraft Prairie Tank. As it looks murky in my phone shot:

I’ve taken the liberty of adding one from the G1MRA Newsletter & Journal:

Next up, a selection of Work in Progress from John Butler:

His elegant Maunsell E1 locomotive demonstrated the radio gear's operation - there are no fewer than four servos in that open cab:

The set of three "Birdcage" carriages, all in various stages of construction, illustrate how David Jenkinson's classic "words & music” work out with just Plastikard and a few hand tools. Although David named his book “Carriage Modelling Made Easy” because he took shortcuts in construction, John’s models show the high standard achievable. As did a skim through the copy John displayed.

John's 1:32 Scale Virginian hopper car shows how to upgrade currently available Piko hoppers, which are economically priced, and produced using tooling from a long defunct maker of 1:32 stock.

Leaving our stand for a moment, here’s Finescale in another scale, this spectacular Cape Gauge SAR/SAR undercarriage being 3’ 6" Gauge at 1:24 on Gauge One track:

As was, back on our stand, my Finescale r/c Class B Climax, built from a High Noon Locomotive Works kit by Graham Harding, who died the day before the show and will be much missed:

Embryo 1:32 Finescale Group Layout?

Through the kindness of a Deceased Member’s estate, and the good offices of Terry Geeson, we now have some sort-of Finescale track. Specifically, two Markway crossovers, each Trailing (for UK left-hand running) and four feet long. Both are new, and laid to G1MRA Fine, namely for 42+mm back-to-back wheelsets. Construction is Code 200 brass bullhead rail, soft-soldered without chairs to 8.5” long copper-clad PCB sleepers, gapped for 2-rail, backed with plywood and sprayed dark brown.

So, while not neither to 1:32 Scale nor of finescale appearance, I’m expecting them to take most forms of Fine Scale wheels.

May we start a conversation about what to do with them, please?

Potential Finescale Gauge One Club & Layout

Thanks to those who assisted Geoffrey Clark and Alan Crowther. If you recall, they wanted to start an indoor G1 club in the Midlands. They’ve been welcomed into local G1MRA Area Groups, and have been invited to build a 16’ 1:32 Scale portable layout for their local all-scales Model Railway Club exhibition. Spreading the word :-)

Sinsheim Technik Museum Germany 22/23 June 2019

The biggest 1:32 event in the world:

https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/gauge-1-meeting

G1MRA’s foray with Live Steam in 2018 was a great success, so your passport to see 1:32 in all it’s glory is to Volunteer for the 2019 expedition.

Gauge 1 North Saturday 13 July 2019 at Bakewell

“North” meaning “half way up England"

http://gauge1north.org.uk/Gauge-1-North-2019.php

Let’s have a 1:32 winner of the I Built it Myself competition!

Spreading the Word

You are welcome to email me material, either for these occasional newsletters or the website.

(The newsletters all end up on the website anyway:

https://sites.google.com/view/132finescale/home/news )

Various ink on paper editors’ pipelines contain a few Finescale articles, but they can always do with more.

If you feel diffident about writing, we can find you a Ghostwriter or Editor to help pull your material together.

As Assistant Editor of the G1MRA Newsletter & Journal, I must declare a vested interest here, though by all means submit material to any publication you like.

A few will even pay you.

Internet Forums are another, quicker, less formal, way to publish.

Again, I have vested interests (viz my general-interest "Gauge One Railway Forum" on Tapatalk, and “Gauge One Railways” on Yahoo Groups) though do consider alternatives:

“Gauge One Model Railways” on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/659767510848279/

(F*Book Phobic? Don’t blame you!

But, as this is a Facebook Group, you can create a minimal Account (with no personal details) to read and contribute. That way, you can avoid the notorious dark underside.)

Western Thunder G1/32 section

http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?forums/g1-32.28/

This is a division within a ‘larger scales’ Finescale forum.

OK there’s a GWR bias in the prototypes, but it’s not compulsory, and it’s the one site in all the world most sympathetic to our aims.

David Halfpenny

1:32 Finescale

1.32.finescale@gmail.com

https://sites.google.com/view/132finescale/