fail safe

Personally I think a new 7mm scale society is needed, to get away from the Guild baggage, concentrating on the more finer scale aspects of the scale. Unfortunately the 'S7 Group' have the best name available. Maybe as they have always been a 'group' as in 'S7 Group', they would concede to a society taking the name S7 Society? S7S sounds good to me.

It is, and they have nothing to do with Gauge 0 groups which are in effect model railway clubs, sometimes within general model railway clubs anyway. Area reps are just representing members nationwide and internationally in allotted areas and have to feed into directors at board level. Most people have never met one! Heavens knows why it has to be so complicated and pompous..

Yes the Guild has no area groups, anyone can join a group anywhere, they are all independent 0 gauge model railway groups, with 0 gauge acronyms. The Guild likes to hide behind this one because they do have so called area managers who have nothing to do with the groups officially. So nobody has to belong to the Guild to go to Guild exhibitions, to join 0 gauge groups, or buy Guild publications. You may have to buy the Gazette a little late at a guild exhibition stand but its news value is next to nothing anyway as it is always way out of date.

With this result I certainly won't be re joining. I will not give them another chance. They won't change because all the ideas for the future came from reformers and people who left anyway! The guild will just slowly revert to its arrogant destiny as members get older and go to the big model railway club in the sky. As others say, a new 7mm scale society is a bit pointless in this day and age because many people get their fix on a forum like this or Facebook. And for a modern railway fix there is already MIOG. Roll on Heaton Lodge Junction, which is the best thing in 7mm scale since sliced bread, and not a jot to do with the Guild.

Lots of us were there at the time. The reason there are so many versions of all this is the Guild has always spoken to its ordinary members cryptically, and is still trying to do so to this day. The corporate arrogance and secrecy is one of the reasons many of us got so fed up and are no longer members. ASLRM was formed as a result off the split, there is no doubt about that whatsoever. It was Slaters who then stopped the discount to Guild members. The current Secretary has been a board member since the 1990s. You can see who was involved and when they resigned on the Companies House record for 'The Gauge 0 Guild Ltd'.

Why is 'modern image' a category in itself? Are you saying anything post 1968, fifty two years ago, can be in a separate category! Seems a bit silly these days and unnecessary, maybe a rethink needed on this as surely ''locomotives and rolling stock' are just that, 'locomotives and rolling stock'. Why complicate it?

I'm informed by a reliable source that it's been announced the Guild accounts have now been audited, but the secretary will not reveal the name of the auditor or give any other information. There has to be an extraordinary reason not to do this. Some prominent members are now calling for the election to be halted, and some are calling for a vote of no confidence. Doesn't look like I'll be re joining any time soon to say the least. Railway modelling is supposed to be a pleasant pastime without all this rubbish. I feel sorry for all the good members who are unaware of this going on.

Me too, and soon there may well be a few more of us if the Reform candidates don't win seats. Even if they do there will be a massive up hill struggle to truly reform the Guild as the culture of secrecy is so embedded.

Its become a bit more complicated than that. As I understand it this is not about an open and public recommendation as to who to vote for, which would be allowed, its about secretly emailing a third party to use personal email addresses from the database they have access to, to persuade and influence members in local area groups with a message and 'advice' on who not to vote for, with the reasons included, and as such is widely recognised as not legal or ethical.

I am reliably informed there have been calls for the Guild management committee elections to be halted due to skulduggery amongst the ranks of the management. Doesn't surprise me. Glad I'm not part of it any more.

Thats it in one. How that would encourage things to move forward. Brilliant.

That may be true, but we are on a precipice at the moment with that 'healthy support', as many of the valued traders in 7mm are retiring or about to retire. Perhaps because of the RTR influence they are not being replaced. Especially worrying are those who also supply small parts, accessories etc such as the late lamented ABS who's owner consumed so many names, like Classic Commercials and Cavalier, only to have them disappear without trace on his passing away. I could list maybe a dozen who have disappeared without trace over recent times. Nobody could retrieve everything but at least some effort in one or two areas would help, even as an arbitrator. I'm the first to admit I haven't got the answer. It does need creative thinking.

I don't think they were talking about large items for sale to members, just maybe a few useful items that are difficult to source. Something that would support the scale like the S7 group do with the Exactoscale parts otherwise unavailable. I'm sure with a bit of creativity there would be a few unusual items that could be stocked. This in turn would make being a member more worthwhile. Management has to date categorically refused to do this with the usual lame excuses. They always know best and rarely listen to ideas. If they do put any into place they always claim it was their idea. Also, Artytype are paid to do a hell of a lot for the Guild and maybe they could stock items and administer this under the watch of a volunteer. One problem with the Guild in this matter is that it claims to be all things to all 7mm scale modellers. So what should they stock? Items for course scale or items for fine scale? Or even the various narrow gauges? In any case I'm afraid what the Guild has always lacked is imagination, consequently this issue is unlikely to be solved until there are separate groups for the different concepts in modelling. After all there is an S7 Group already.

Meanwhile I'm told on good authority there are a small number of Guild management supporters disrupting the reform candidates discussions on the Guild forum. Not arguing necessarily in support of a management committee, who refuse to engage at all, but to make the reform candidates look faulty and misguided. The result of the election will define the Guild for the next decade, in that it may well either prosper, or slowly fade into obscurity after this. Don't think I'll be rejoining at this rate.

Eh? I didn't raise it I was taking the proverbial out of it. Think you need to read back over again!

Oooh my numbers smaller than yours, I must be more important.

Take the plunge it's good having a clear out anyway. Good for the soul. And most people find 7mm scale so much more rewarding.

Smaller layouts are popular in 0 gauge. The famous Hursley was built into garage. Looking on Facebook groups it seems garden railways are also becoming more popular and not just older people. 0 gauge gives you more for your money in that you don't need so much stock to be of interest. The sheer weight and presence of locos and stock is satisfying enough. Once modellers come over to the scale they are smitten. Resistance is futile.

Ah yes, thats been around for ages.

Do you mean Heaton Lodge Junction ? if so then no definitely not. They hadn't hard of it until a few weeks ago! On micro layouts I've seen members take the proverbial out of small modern depot layouts.

I'm not sure anyone has actually suggested outright that older people model steam and younger ones diesel. It's more the fact that the GOG membership itself is made up mostly of older people who mostly model steam. It's not clear cut though, and there is bound to be a bit of both. When I was a member until March I couldn't see much at all that was informative on post steam modelling, either on their forum or in their Gazette. Much more on here such as Heaton Lodge Junction. I'm told few Guild members on their forum had even heard of that layout until a few weeks ago when a modern image modeller mentioned it. Then apparently someone in the Guild management suggested they could use it for publicity to get members!

Exactly Hursley and the MRJ show had the most humongous queues of all time, it's gone down in history. Ironically Hursley, and Inkerman St from the MR,J had nothing whatsoever to do with the Gauge 0 Guild. Those layouts and other features in MRJ set a trend in fine scale 7mm scale that the Guild didn't seem to notice or be able to capitalise on and hasn't done so to this day. The layouts were never featured in the myopic Guild Gazette because its a members only magazine, and yet the Guild has always laid claim to 0 gauge in a way that one would think you have to be a member to model in that scale. A similar thing is happening today with RTR and modern post steam interest because the Guild members are vastly steam oriented. If that's what they are, then so what. Why don't they just admit it and happily get on with being what they are in stead of pulling their hair out over not enough modern image and diesels etc. They will never be representative of such a broad spectrum.

Having been a Guild member and now a non member I can say there are a lot of very good people in the Guild as members. After all, why shouldn't there be. However. Most members renew out of long standing habit. Most members model the steam period. One director said last year, he hated the modern railway. So many ideas have been rejected its just became surreal to watch it unfold. The main problem is that the organisation itself has become secretive in some respects at a high level, and is a self perpetuating phenomenon, and as such has drifted into todays world without noticing the passage of time to some extent. Most of the people who have run the Guild over the last twenty years have been dominant, arrogant and know best, and if the face doesn't fit they won't answer you or entertain your ideas. You have to suck up to them to get anywhere, or behave in a subservient way in order to demonstrate you are not a threat to their status quo. This may sound a bit melodramatic but it is strangely true, and is why the Guild doesn't appear as relevant today as it should be. And if any Guild management are reading this, then what did they think would happen to those who threatened to leave, and then did not renew their subs this last March? Did they think their influence could reach out to stifle public debate?

Ah yes I agree and thats why I said 'MIOG is that now". I'll stick with them, as its not like belonging, more like agreeing on interests.

I don't think anyone can be too old, its just younger people have more energy and are up there with the latest ideas. Thats probably one of the guilds main problems. Needs more of a mix. They obviously were younger once, (one of them has been a director since the 1990s), but it has become about a self perpetuating lack of trust. Older gentlemen who maintain their controlling circle of interest and Just can not let go. Most of the MIOG guys look a generation younger to me and do things differently on line. Perhaps guild members and some others actually need the act of paying a membership fee and the comfort of 'officially belonging', and all that brings with it. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but maybe that won't be the way 'societies' exist in the future, who knows.