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Badgerland S Gaugers News

"…. A social club for the promotion of model railroading—
especially S gauge including American Flyer, hi-rail, scale
and other facets...

Badgerland S Gaugers Charter

Attendance:
I hope to God that nobody showed up. However if someone did arrive and didn’t bring a shovel, Brad was given BSG permission to shoot.

This was one of the only times that I remember, that our swap meet was cancelled due to inclement weather. Now our only hope is that BSG’s feet aren’t held to the fire for the hall rental. For those of you who may live closer to Lake Michigan, you may have felt that the canceling of our events was premature. For those of you who live in Western Waukesha County, I only hope that you can dig out prior to our March meeting. Needless to say all areas of Southeastern Wisconsin were affected quite differently. For practical purposes and the safety of our membership, it was in everyone’s best interest to just call it a day. I know that Jim Starosta would still have been the first one at the swap meet and the Goeke family would have had to endure another terrifying ride with Dad. But that Mel Gibson Braveheart routine is not for all of us.

Sunday March 25, 2007
1:30 pm
Roy Meissner’s
Location:
N6459 Highland Court
Merton, WI 53056
(262) 538-4325

March Meeting – Roy Meissner
Sunday March 25
April Meeting - Dick Kloes
April 28^th & 29^th Titletown Train Show Green Bay
September Meeting – Trumann Garrett & Art Doty Date T.B.D.

Call Ron Schlicht, if you wish to host a General Meeting. There is no specific criterion for hosting a meeting. Weekday evenings, Saturdays or Sundays are acceptable. If you want to schedule for next year it’s not too early.

Badgerland Train Trade Show
Knights of Columbus Hall
3200 S. 103^rd St. Greenfield, WI
8:00 A.M. To 12:00 P.M.
2007 March 25

Lionel Swap Meets
Knights of Columbus Hall
1800 South 92nd St. West Allis
8:00 A.M. To 12:00 P.M.
2007 March 18

Wisconsin Train Expo
Serb Hall
5101 W. Oklahoma Ave, Milw.
9:00 A.M. To 2:00 P.M.
2007 December 9

-----------------------------------------------
Wise Division Meets
Best Western Midway Hotel - Airport
Meets usually open @ 12:30 PM
2007 April 15

Great Midwest Train Show DuPage County Fairgrounds Wheaton, IL
10 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
2007 April 1

2007 March 16
April 20
May 5
Programs are held at the
Milwaukee School of Engineering Student Center,
1025 North Broadway
Milwaukee, WI.
3^rd Floor Student Center
Doors open at 7:00 pm.
Programs start at 7:30 pm.
Programs are subject to change without notice.

The Central Ohio S Gaugers are hosting the annual Spring S Spree March 30^th & March 31^st, 2007 at the Makoy Conference Center located just west of Columbus in Hilliard, Ohio.

The Baltimore Area American Flyer Club is hosting the 2007 NASG Convention July 10^th thru July 14th at the Best Western Hotel and Convention Center in Baltimore Maryland.

32^nd Annual Fall S Fest
St. Louis MO, Nov. 2 thru 4, 2007
Information will be available online at:
www.trainweb.org/afsgsla/

For the first time in a long time we had a meeting cancellation. I can only remember one other. Then again I can’t remember what I went down the basement for. I own a two-story house, which means I have a built-in Stairmaster Exercise Apparatus. Down the stairs, forget what you went down for. Up the stairs look around for a while, remember what it was, and then hope to hell that you don’t get distracted before you go back down the stairs. Up. Down. Down. Up. From the computer on the second floor to the basement and back. I’m asking my wife for oats and grass for supper with the assumption that is what a mountain goat eats.

Thanks to my wife for getting unlimited long distance. I spent over two and a half hours calling every one of our swap meet vendors and every BSG member within 150 miles or so, informing them that both events were cancelled. After over 100 calls, I figure my old AT & T, if I still had them, would have sent me a personal thank you card along with my bill.

For those of you who have never seen Brad’s absolutely fabulous layout, there will be other times.

Remember the headline in the last newsletter Dues Increase. "There will be a late fee". The weatherman just saved some of our members a little cash, but only temporarily. The subject will be brought up at the next meeting. As a matter of fact, some "other" members have made suggestions that are just short of public floggings. As miserable as my memory is, (not to mention that I am a conservative spender, or as others have labeled, a cheap S.O.B.) I have always managed to get my dues paid on time.

There will be no more funny scanned jokes into the newsletter. They take up to many bytes and make it difficult for some computers to handle. I can’t believe how much larger the document sizes got, but then again I know nothing about computers or software. Beside this newsletter is not supposed to be funny.

I was planning on doing what I would call a "generic" newsletter. Just event dates, meeting notice and little or nothing else. This would be very similar to some of the newsletters that I receive form other types of organizations. ("Just the facts Maam". Jack Webb. Dragnet.) However, (however being a word that in itself strikes terror) for a number of reasons, I have decided not to do this.

Number one is that in many cases, I would only fill an odd amount of pages and would waste paper. The printing cost would be difficult to calculate for the printing machine collator.

Number two some of the spouses that read my newsletters would have nothing of interest to peruse. There would be even more "Desperate Housewives of Model Railroaders".

Number three it would also become so boring that I would have little interest in doing this at all.

And finally the Number four reason for these dopey newsletters. Sincerely, I would like to personally thank all of those, who have in one-way or another, be it phone calls, emails, letters or just with kind words, have encouraged me, over the past few years, to continue to publish my somewhat idiosyncratic nonsense. Thanks.

And thank you spell checker.

I needed a lot of fill for two pages this time. I even went to ten-point spacing between paragraphs.

Steve Lunde did host a "play with trains" session at his house Saturday February 10, 2007 at 1:00pm. The handful that showed up had a good time. They didn’t bring any of their own engines, but Steve’s are a lot better and more fun to play with than most. When it comes to some technical advice on your model railroad equipment, Steve is an excellent source.

This year’s event once again appeared to be a success. I have requested information from the South Central Wisconsin Division on the meet, but as yet they have not responded. I did hear that there were over 7,000 paid in attendance on Saturday and that did not include the children under five years old. That may or may not have been a one-day record for them. It was very, very busy at the layout. As usual our club had the BSG information booth, the Hi-Rail layout and the modular layout. The Hi-Rail layout finished third in the "best of show" layout judging. I can only give a report on that layout, since that is where I spend all of my time. Many improvements were made on it since last years showing.

If you were looking for bargains at the show there was an abundance of them. I picked up, what else, some more people. In my infinite lack of wisdom, I should have bought even more due to the price. There were new items priced at 40% of retail store prices. There were many other items at around 25% or more off. If you wanted S gauge it was there. If you needed scenery materials, structures, or controls they were there. If you wanted American Flyer there was plenty. There was something for everyone. If you were looking for loose women..….I’ll bet they were there too.

Some day, I want to spend around two or three hours at a show looking at what is there. I never even saw the second floor this year. Unfortunately when I have an opportunity to really graze at the vendor tables they are still all covered up.

Many of our members, certainly your editor, were able to beat the parking attendants there in the morning and avoid the parking fees. Once again many of us stayed at the AmericInn. This is really a nice place and they give us a really good deal. Dave Smukowski usually reserves a block of rooms. For next year, even though Dave has the rooms reserved, those wishing to stay there have to call the hotel and give your name in advance. We may have ten rooms but they will only hold them for those who call. Dave will also help out with this, if he knows that you are absolutely, positively, barring your own passing, going to take one of these rooms. Neither BSG nor the hotel wants to have an empty room. They always sell out for that particular weekend. Traditionally there is more than the model railroad show being held on that weekend in Madison. There is the circus at which many of our politicians should appear as clowns. In addition there are a lot of sporting events at which some of our politicians should be hurled from the stands.

Many thanks to Rich Eveleth who brought the video equipment for the "Ride the Train with the Badgerland S Gaugers" display. The camera was mounted in a gondola and pointed a little inward toward the layout. However the kids (of all ages) were able to see them selves on the TV set, wave and make funny faces. They also got to see some items that they might want to checkout on other areas of the layout. No obscene gestures were documented. One of the most heard comments was "look at all of the little people". The Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) was the favorite of the eight celebrity figures on the layout. The maturely aged sector preferred Elvis and Marlon Brando.

I have observed a few layouts at the show and will say that the crew of Rick Wade, Rich Eveleth, Doug Stoll and Norman Rick are the best. Manning the outside of the layout, passing out the BSG stickers and asking the public if they had any questions was done in a tireless fashion. They pointed out areas of particular interest and controlled the masses. Sorry modular layout guys, they are "my" crew.

This is for all of our members at the layouts and the BSG booth. The Badgerland S Gaugers as a club, might be the "best of show" in the communications category. I know that most model railroaders receive senior citizen discounts, but our "old" guys get it. We are there to inform and entertain. A lot of the other layouts might as well set up cots after they set up the layout. As one of our BSG members has put it, some layouts look like gopher farms. Occasionally a head pops up from behind the backdrops.

A lot of S gauge literature was handed out in Madison and there might be some perspective new BSG members.

This was the 42^nd year for the show at the Milwaukee School Of Engineering (MSOE) held by the Society Of Model Engineers (SOME). It runs two days with the setup being on Friday. BSG has been attending this show for the past few years with one layout or another. The last three years we had the Hi-Rail layout. This show has no admission charge and affords low-income families the opportunity to see model railroading in action. There were around 20 layouts at the show along with a handful of vendors. The weather was not bad and the attendance may have been one of the best ever. They take an estimated count as there are no ticket sales. The Saturday attendance was around 750. The total attendance was around 1,300 or more for the two-day event.

Dick Kloes assisted me with the setup Friday. Fred Vergenz and Kathy Pilon were there Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise it was the Ron Schlicht one-man road show. With all of the features on the high rail layout, dizziness nearly set in. I was one insane moment away from ripping off the BSG (Badgerland S Gaugers) sign and inserting a RCT (Ron’s Crazy Trains) sign. I may cut out the fifties music playing under the Frosty Bar and substitute it with either the theme from Monty Python’s Flying Circus or the Benny Hill opening melody. Had Fred not stayed to help me break down the layout and put it in the van, I would have been able to attend the first MSOE engineering class Monday morning. We did finish in two and a half hours, which I thought was terrific. The good news is that the show was a success for the school and the layout got rave reviews. The bad news is that we had no literature to hand out to the public regarding our club or S Gauge.

Thanks Dick, Kathy and Fred.

The next newsletter will have a report on the following weekend, which was at the Mitchell Park Domes with Ron’s H-Rail layout.

Nothing to Report. You just don’t want to hear about some more of the really neat new people that I bought.

I have referred to my spending habits as being conservative to say the least. However judging by the amount of new products reports that I have received from BSG club members, nobody in our club buys anything worth reporting on or perhaps they purchase nothing at all. Call me cheap?

If any of our members would like to receive the newsletter via email please contact Ron Schlicht via email.

Join this group you will receive periodic club updates, BSG news, tips and information on various S gauge websites that may be of interest to you.

If you are interested in using the For Sale column give me a call. I would like to limit the amount of different items to a maximum four per member.

I will list items under "Wanted" for two or three newsletters. Please contact me if you want a listing continued or it will be dropped. The same applies

to the "For Sale" column. If you sell an item contact me so that I can remove it from subsequent newsletters.

American Flyer All Aboard Panels
Looking for right and left switch panels.
Contact:

If you have any items like old issues of Classic Toy magazines, S Gaugians or other model train related items that you no longer have need for, you might think about donating them to our club.

Contact Ron Schlicht or drop them off at a swap meet or his home. Nothing with mouse droppings please.

American Flyer Erie Passenger Set
A-B-A Units
Baggage - Combine - (2) Coaches
(2) Vista Domes - Observation
Condition: Excellent Plus

Over the past few years a couple of our members have called me on occasion and listed one, two or three items in the newsletters, that are for sale. They are usually reasonably priced.

Did you ever notice that they only appear in very few newsletters? This column was established as a service to our members to assist those who may have only a very small number of items to sell. It works for two reasons. You may have that one item that someone was looking for. And at least a dozen people read our newsletters. Admittedly I don’t expect, or want this to end up looking like the Journal-Sentinel classified ads.

I also don’t have any desire to anger or undercut any of our swap meet vendors.

You can also bring a very limited amount of items to our swap meets and place them on the club table.

The views and opinions expressed in the Badgerland S Gaugers newsletters are those of the editor, unless otherwise credited, and do not necessarily represent that of the club, it’s officers, directors, or the membership.

The Badgerland S Gaugers do not offer any warranties, guarantees, nor assume any liability from information contained in this publication.

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