Benefits of joining the Gauge O Guild?

[Guest dilbert]

I see discounts at certain shows, which is fine if you're able to go to that show.  But what about traders, do certain traders give discounts to guild members?

 

Traders give discounts where applicable and for differing reasons... ask, and in the worst cse the reply will be no!

 

 Jeez is that what it costs? I can't remember the last time I used the train in England. Fancy living back there? Not.

 

I can understand that POV.

 

Incidently, "Heathrow Express" is expensive because it's a fast service.  There are cheaper ways, just slower ones like the tube.

 

It's expensive because of its market potential - the tube isn't cheap either  £4 minimum ticket? ... dilbert

[BrushType4]

Join the guild, it's only £24 and it brings you in to contact with a large family of o gauge modellers that you may otherwise not do on the Internet. The magazine is great too.

[Ohmisterporter]

Why not join for one year and see how it goes? If you decide it's not for you simply do not renew your membership next year.

 

I was a member for about ten years and found that my interests were moving towards narrow gauge, so I gave it up. I also made the trip to Telford for the Guildex shows that I consider cracking value for money for 7mm standard gauge modellers.

 

Thinking about this reminds that every AGM there would be proposals from Ian Kirk and others trying to change the way things were done. He was invariably opposed by the committee and voted down. I used to enjoy watching the Old Guard defending their position on everything. There was even a rule that nobody could hold an office in the guild until they had ten years membership in. Now that can't have been one of the original rules when the guild was founded could it? Then when the forum was about to be launched there was a delay because "The committee will have no control over its content". That was the whole point wasn't it?

 

Regardless of this enjoy your modelling and above all have fun.

[cromptonnut]

That's one of the things that worries me, I have 'experience' of national societies in the past which are very much like an "old boys network" and if you don't model the right things (ie steam) and scratch-build everything out of biscuit tins and cornflake packets then you aren't a "real" modeller.  There are other things behind my reticence that I don't feel are appropriate to share openly.

 

I am going to the show at Bristol and I'll see what sort of response I get.

[BrushType4]

Also, by joining you have online access to all the previous guild publications. That's got to make it worthwhile.

[TheGhostofNigelGresley]

 I also see a mention of some of the small traders not having a website but advertising in the magazine - which is an ongoing bugbear of mine, in the 21st century I want to browse and shop online first.

 

I'm not a member - yet. For me, you have hit the nail on the head above, there are unknown numbers of small boutique businesses run from sheds up and down the country and the best way I have found to date of researching their offerings, indeed their existence, is through the traders page of the G0G. Thing is, you don't need to be a member to do that and I'm not sure that the rest of it is enough to prise £24 out of my wallet - the more so for living in London and having to travel to Middle Earth for a show.

 

And yes, I do feel a bit guilty about taking advantage of their excellent directory without supporting the Guild, but, but.........

[cromptonnut]

I'm not a member - yet. For me, you have hit the nail on the head above, there are unknown numbers of small boutique businesses run from sheds up and down the country and the best way I have found to date of researching their offerings, indeed their existence, is through the traders page of the G0G. Thing is, you don't need to be a member to do that and I'm not sure that the rest of it is enough to prise £24 out of my wallet - the more so for living in London and having to travel to Middle Earth for a show.

 

And yes, I do feel a bit guilty about taking advantage of their excellent directory without supporting the Guild, but, but.........

 

I'm in London too, Bristol is doable, Reading is doable, Kettering is a bit too far for comfort and you can pretty much forget Halifax and Telford - I'm likely to spend as much getting there and staying overnight as I would at the traders so it makes little sense in even considering attending.

 

I'm not sure the directory or magazine is really still a lot of use for the 'small traders' if you still have to write with an SAE to get your hands on a catalogue of stuff that may or may not be of any use to you.

 

I've had a look at some of the websites of the traders at Bristol, for example, and have made a shortlist of the ones that look of particular interest, and what products they happen to have that may be worth looking at or purchasing.  But for me, the point of going to a show is to see the layouts - but even with the Bristol show it just tells you the name of the layout and who is bringing it, nothing actually about the layouts themselves.  Surely it shouldn't be difficult to at least say what region/time period the layout is based in even if you can't put the whole description of the layout appearing in the show guide on the website.

 

I really do despair sometimes about how our hobby markets itself - here's me, reasonably experienced and by no means a beginner modeller, struggling to find out what's going to be at a show, so how will "random family whose son likes Thomas" find out about whether it's worth going to the show or not?

 

Same principle for the guild - without examples (such as a free downloadable magazine back issue) how do they expect people to just part with £24 "in case it happens to suit their needs"?

[glo41f]

Hi Everyone

 

Well what a lot of points raised here! I have been a member of the Guild for over 30 years now and consider it an extremely worthwhile organisation. (By the way the subscription is reduced for retired folk to £19). In that time I have met some fantastic modellers and been able to visit some wonderful layouts. I usually attend two shows and find them very rewarding. Best of all is the extremely active local group which has modellers of all abilities and interests and the facility to run my stock and test it all out. I no longer purchase any model magazines as they  all have a "sameness" and concentrate on the popular scales (for obvious reasons.).

 

I am not aware that the Editor of the Gazette restricts articles to "steam era" stuff. He can only reproduce what he is sent after all. The guild has some fine modern era modellers (Chris Turnbull with his scratchbuilt units at Cromer and the Apethorpe junction crew to name two) but I guess that for most of us the modern railway system lacks a lot of interest with the sameness of the stock. I personally model the steam/diesel transition period which for us here in East Anglia covers the late 1950's. It was a time of change but the old ways of working were still around.

 

If anyone is in two minds about joining then I suggest a visit to a Guild show or ask at any show where the Guild has a stand. I often man one of these and answer such enquiries as best I can. In the final analysis, it is down to you how you spend your money and whether you feel you have obtained the value you want.

 

Enjoy what you do.

 

Regards

 

Martin

[Barnaby]

Hello

I am a member of the Guild, have been for several years and will continue to be so I also think the Gazette is a great read.

Yes there are some complaints when some more general modelling things are discussed ie the boat build mentioned above but there are a considerable number who like me applaud the wider aspect of our hobby. 

For me some of the Guild members want it to have a very narrow field of view heavily biased towards the engineering side of things.  There are some who complain about the internet and emails saying users have an unfair advantage on offers for sale etc, they seem to want to drag the guild back into the dinosaur world.

 

I sit on the fence when it comes to era chosing to model 50's to 70's so as to be able to have a mix of steam and diesel and the guild gazette seems to reflect about 2/3 steam to 1/3 diesel but that then probably is how the membership's interests are noted.

Until trecently the forum was lacking in a "Your layout" topic, they do have a "workbench" heading but that seems mainly to consist of heavily engineered models.  I like to look at these posts but would also like to see a more modeller based angle taken.

 

DLOS

I beg to differ from your statement about this forum doing nothing for you,  I have received assistance from both forums but then I'm probably coming at my model world from a different direction than you.

 

It was a breath of fresh air finding here, lots of headings covering many topics with many people only too happy to help you out be it with track plans, how to do a specific task, or give you the information you seek. 

 

For me I can spend hours on on here but only minutes in comparison on the Guild forum.  When they revamped the forum some years back the first forum heading was "guild matters" I posted asking if it would not be better to have "modelling" as the first heading, they did change it so.

 

The web site is seldom down and is rock solid in it's operation and as such is always available. I do think the guild takes a much more engineering based look at modelling and there is no doubt that DLOS is a very fine model engineer where as I if anything lean much more towards the RTR side of things. 

 

It may be that the Guild caters for a more engineering approach to our hobby while here a much broader brush approach is taken however I'd like to think we both can co-exist in harmony enjoying our models together.

 

regards

[stephenashton]

I joined over the Chrismas holidays as I'm just starting to get into O Gauge. I feel I've already got my money's worth as I have spent hours reading the back catalogue of the gazettes. So I'd say to join for a year and see how you get on with it! 

[Dava]

I've found the GOG really helpful since starting to model in 7mm standard gauge 2 years ago. The 'sales & wants' works well and if you are after something obscure you can advertise and someone will usually be able to offer it. Its a friendly community and online you can always get practical advice. The only fear I had was all these super-engineers would be superior to my 'arts & crafts' hack-jobs but it has not been like that. I do find the RMWeb forums more dynamic but there's room for both. And £24 scarcely buys you a wagon kit, let alone a RTR wagon, these days.

[johnbirch72]

Ohmisterporter said "There was even a rule that nobody could hold an office in the guild until they had ten years membership in". Not so. A member may not be made a vice president unless he has given at least 10 years service to the Guild. VP's have no authority, it's an honorary title given as a thank you. The Guild is very happy to have volunteers step forward however long they have been members,as all too often there are more vacancies than volunteers

[bendy1]

I joined a couple of years ago and I would say that has been £24 well spent. The magazine alone is easily worth the money and with the online forum, the gazette archive, sales and wants etc etc provide resources that I look at regularly.

 

Rmweb is also valuable and in combination with the guild provide a constant source of info for o gauge stuff.

 

In short, join up and enjoy!

[chaz]

I have just joined. Not sure what the benefits will be but I was very impressed by the Gazette they sent me.

it seems to me that £24 for a year is neither here nor there - for that piffling sum one might as well be a member.

 

So why have I only just joined when I have been modelling in 7mm for years? Well, with Dock Green just about finished I hope to take it to several shows. I don't think it would be right to take it to GoG shows unless I am a member.

 

Chaz

[Sandy Harper]

If it wasn't for the Gauge O Guild I doubt that you would have the quality and spread of ' '0' gauge Shows' that are now available.

 

Kettering and Halifax are run by the the Guild Events team but note that these are one day 'TRADE Shows' mainly for members, with a token number of layouts on show. Guildex, held at Telford, is a two day show and is the annual gathering of the Guild with a much larger number of layouts which are all well described in the show guide available on the website prior to the show.

 

The Guild also spends money on supporting other '0' gauge shows including the large Bristol and Bolton (despite some of the uninformed comments made before) trade shows as well as many other smaller events promoted by local groups around the country. Any local '0' gauge group is able to apply to the Guild for financial assistance toward their event.

 

Of course non members are always welcome to these events and the Guild is very keen to promote '0' gauge modeling in all its forms.

There is a lot of benefits of being a member, other than just the magazine.

 

Remember that the Guild is run by individual members who are happy to give up their time to service these benefits for the rest of the members. It can only do what members are prepared to offer to do and can only publish the articles sent in by authors. The Editor has no control over what arrives on his desk and is constantly asking for new articles to print.

 

All this talk about elitism, engineering etc is all unfounded rubbish and has no bearing on the Gauge 0 Guild of the 21st century. It is a club for railway modelers, what ever their persuasion.

 

Take the plunge, you might even enjoy it!

Regards

Sandy

[3 link]

I totally agree with all you have said above Sandy and another plus is the DVD library which I think has not been mentioned up to now, for me the archive section is such a bonus and no doubt whoever spent the many hours compiling the information done so in their own time.

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

[Ian Allen]

I renewed my membership a couple of years ago after an absence from railway modelling, and it's something never to regret. The Guild, Gazette and Forum benefit all members and content is for the members by the members. I have found members to be friendly, informative, witty and above all accomodating and welcoming. If there was an "elitism" then I believe it is long gone. Sure, there are those who express a desire for more realistic/dead scale modelling, but equally, there are those who enjoy RTR and simple layouts.

 

Like this thread, there are always two sides to a discussion, pros and cons voiced from both sides, but the biggest reason for me being a member of the GOG is that of being involved with the leading organisation promoting O gauge modelling, supporting traders and shows, meeting fellow modellers, taking inspiration from said modellers and the ability to help fellow members. I know one could argue that you can get that on RMWeb, but it's too large a forum. It was mentioned that RMWeb is more dynamic, that it may be, but by the same token one can easily lose track of where a thread is, or even finding you have 3 pages of catching up to do after being offline for a couple of days.Sure the Guild forum is more sedate, but does that not indicate that members are actually off doing some modelling ?

 

As for shows such as Telford and Halifax being "too far", that doesn't prevent modellers from Australia, the USA, France, Netherlands, to name a few, from attending, it's all relative to how important it is for you. Hotel rooms for the group I am involved with were booked for Telford 2013 during last years Guildex.

 

Cromptonnut, if you do attend the Bristol Show please speak to GOG representatives, or get someone to point you in their direction, you'll see first hand that that they are wecoming and can allay your fears or concerns.

 

One thing to remember is, that without the Guild all those years ago, O Gauge modelling would not be what it is now, or thriving as more modellers move up to 7mm.

 

Ian

[greenglade]

I've not been on the forum for a while... what with all this talk about the guild I just tried to log on and have forgotten my password...lol... sent a request for new one but nothing yet...

 

Pete

 

Now sorted... I didn't read the instructions... it's not like the usual password resets..lol

[M51625]

i joined the guild as a 20 something newby to the scale, while the magazine was good i didnt like most of the articles as they generally started with ' i chucked all the castings and scratch built everything' thats not what somebody who is just getting started wanted to read, i found the discounts traders offered were very few and far between.

 

Thank googness for people like Jim Megowan

 

Also its seemed to matter what you were modelling and why, the old boys club definately existed, and if you were not doing it their way you were not doing it right. needless to say with the advent of the internet i could see any benefit of staying a memeber and i havent been for the last 10 years.

[84B Oxley]

I've heard this 'old boys' club argument many times in relation to the Guild and can only say that in my personal experience that's just a load of old codswallop, I was made to feel welcome from day one, and that was over twenty years ago. The longer you are in it, the more chance there is that you will be persuaded to become a more active member and put something back into the Guild. Wasn't it Winston Churchill who said,  'Ask not what my country can do for me but what I can do for my country.'?  Same could apply to the Guild.

Jeff

[Ohmisterporter]

Wasn't it Winston Churchill who said,  'Ask not what my country can do for me but what I can do for my country.'? 

Jeff

That was President John F. Kennedy.

[steve fay]

I joined for a year and never renewed my subscription. I don't go to a lot of shows so the discount isn't used a lot. The magazine was good but as I don't build loco kits a lot was of no use.

O gauge is getting more popular and I find you can get just as much information on here Western Thunder and Railnuts on Facebook.

I won't say I wouldn't join again but I didn't bother with my subscription and never really missed it.

I joined the 7mm yahoo group and found that a bit similar so cancelled by membership.

a lot really find it use full so may be give it a go and see what you think, If you find it's not for you don't renew.

[Mike Boucher]

For me, I've been a member for probably 15 years.  I've never been to any Guild show.  I've met probably 5 other guild members over those 15 years.  But, living in the US, that's not a surprise. 

 

Why do I keep paying the dues?  The only benefit I get is the Gazette and the Guild Forum.

 

The Gazette gives me interesting modeling articles.  Even things that I have no interest in (like an article on making operating signals on a "current day" layout) usually has some tidbit of info that becomes useful, or a modeling technique I hadn't seen that I might try.

 

The Gazette gives me model reviews.  Those can be VERY useful when I have to buy kits unseen.

 

The Gazette gives me "new releases" information.  And this isn't just the supplier sending in a notice, this is someone wandering the exhibition halls, taking pictures of the latest stuff on peoples stands.  A few things have been added to my "want" list based on this.

 

Those are two things I don't get from Rmweb, unless I just don't know where to look.

 

I read the gazette from cover to cover, from the opening editoral to the letters to the editor.  I don't think I've ever put an issue down and thing, "wow, I got nothing out of that issue".  I think its worth the money, and considering the exchange rate and the added cost for an overseas member, its about the same as getting a plastic wagon kit from Slaters or Parkside Dundas.

 

And BTW - even being in the US, I've had 3 articles published in the Gazette (2 simple "how to", 1 photos from a US O scale show)

[Ruston]

 

 

Technical manual was way over my head.

 

Can someone please explain what is contained in this Technical Manual?

 

I'm not a member but have thought about joining a few times (mostly whilst stood in a queue at one of their trade shows or Telford and wondering if I break even by getting in for the members' price after I've joined) but without knowing what I'm getting for my money I'm very reluctant to join.

[Guest dilbert]

There have been several posts about "what do I get for my money?". I get the impression that some people feel that signing up to the G0G is like dealing with a second-hand car salesman... the CD version of theTechnical Manual at the moment is priced at £7.50 - in relative terms that equates to a pair of 7mm wagon axles and wheels or ~50% of a DCC decoder. If people are thinking that 7mm modelling is going to get cheaper (when compared to 4mm) then they are going to be in for a shock... alternatively, the Technical Manual is way underpriced... can someone please explain what the issue is?... dilbert