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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:
A. Doty, D. Kloes, C. Hartert, J. Lebovitz, S. Lunde, J. Madden, R. Meissner, R. Puls, R. Schlicht,
R. Wade, J. Young, K. Young. (12)
Treasurer’s Report

Steve Lunde opened the BSG October general meeting and welcomed all of those who actually showed up in spite of the beautiful weather. The weather appears to have a dramatic effect on our meeting attendance. It is either that, or our members are just losing interest. We have had a "total" of 21 members for the last two meetings.

Steve has not been a member for as long as many of us. However he has made some interesting observations. BSG has turned into a "no fun club" over the past few years. It seems like we are always talking business at the meetings. We have train equipment that needs repair and we have modules that could be improved. We don’t seem to get together for anything other than business meetings. Wine is said to get better with age. It appears that our members are just turning into vinegar and grumpy old men. Unfortunately we do not have Ann Margret to pick up our spirits or whatever needs picking up.

After a brief discussion it was decided to maintain the same monetary level of our charitable donations for this year.

For years the small layout, that has traditionally been set up by Dave & Sandy Smukowski at our swap meets and many other events, will need some volunteers for a while. Ron Schlicht has made a diagram of the three loops of track, which take the guesswork out of a good portion of the setup time. At this time the layout is not being used. It was always a staple at our swap meets.

We have already committed to the Green Bay show. I will probably haul the small layout up there along with my wife, who will again make our annual donation to the Oneida Indian Gaming Casino. Some things in life are tradition, however when did casinos become a Native American tradition. I don’t remember seeing any of them in the old black and white cowboy movies. Come to think of it, John Wayne always went into a number of saloons run by some sinister fellows with mustaches and mean dispositions. They didn’t even leave the Indians (sorry Native Americans) into their establishments. Oh how times have changed. They now reserve the right to remove me from their place of business if I win too much money. Unfortunately that has not happened yet and undoubtedly never will.

Actually the term "cowboy" appears to be somewhat demeaning and insensitive. The New World Webster’s dictionary states: a conventionalized character in novels, motion pictures etc.; typically an adventurous Westerner who rides horses, carries pistols, sings ballads etc. Etc.!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about stereotyping. In my opinion, and I’m sure that in some of the residence of Madison, WI, the "politically correct" term should be "Domestic Bovine Engineering Specialist." The word cowboys and guns should be outlawed. Come to think of it, weren’t some cowboys’ outlaws? Enough divergence for now and back to trains.

There was also a brief discussion on the Trainfest preparations and BSG equipment. Prior to next year’s Trainfest the modular layout will have to be updated. Club work sessions outside of the general meetings may be in order.

Club finances and methods of future income or fundraisers were briefly talked about. Many clubs exist without swap meets. An annual budget will be put together to see just what we need to be a viable club. We need to be more mindful of just how we spend our limited income. We may actually possess more equipment than we really need for the train shows that we attend. S-Fest alone, if we manage to do well, could actually match our annual three-year income from the swaps.

Dick Kloes gave a brief report on the swap meets. The attendance has been down a bit this year. This is not only by the public but also the amount of vendors that we have.

Since there was a small turnout for the general meeting and since a majority of the Fall S Fest committee members were present, we followed the general meeting with an S Fest committee meeting.

The 2008 Fall S Fest car has already been ordered. There was a rendering of it at Fall S Fest in St. Louis. Ron Schlicht got a frame for the artwork. We also had a promotional sheet that was to be passed out to the vendors and other interested parties. Some of the Fall S-Fest budget was discussed. We will have to promote our event better than we have in the past due to the increased price of the new venue.

We were fortunate to have Joel Lebovitz at this meeting who is one of the organizers of the Chicagoland Fall S Fest. He provided us with a lot of insight. This will help to insure that we keep in line with CASG’ s future plans.

The registration and table fees were discussed. An emphasis will be placed on early registration with cutoff dates. A registration-escalating rate will be added for later registrants. We will be receiving a report from St. Louis on this years Fall S Fest results. Ron Schlicht has been compiling a spreadsheet with historical attendance numbers and other pertinent information.

Kim Young has most of the details of the guided tours already set up. The success for Fall S Fest 2008 will depend on amount of promotion, promotion, and promotion. We will be including much of the information in our mailings and will have to put as much as we can on our website.

Nominations were taken for the Director position. The term is up this year. With the low turnout, we were only able to come up with one nominee. Dick Kloes’s director term will be expiring this year. Dick Kloes accepted the nomination for the upcoming three-year term. Dick will be running against the ever-popular "Unopposed". Not through laziness, but through the extraordinary ability of your newsletter editor being able to predict the outcome of an election, when a candidate runs unopposed, I will not be making a special ballot for the December meeting. The write-in idea has not worked in thirty-some years and I don’t want to have to tabulate ballots with Mickey Mouse, Goofy or any of the Seven Dwarfs on them. If you have any objection to NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Pravda and myself projecting Dick as the winner, come to the next meeting and present a written, two-page, notarized document explaining your concerns. Make sure that it is in a bilingual format. Not that it is required in our BSG club by-laws, but there hasn’t been one thing that I have recently purchased, that doesn’t have the instructions in at least two languages. (French is optional, as it is a cultural choice.)

Art Doty gave a brief report on some of the model railroading activities taking place that are of general interest to our members. For those of you who were not aware of it, Art has recently had a pacemaker installed. This means, that like the energizer bunny, he can maintain his intense schedule. He can now continue to attend every meet, of any kind, anywhere, all of the time.

This is our annual Christmas get together this means food, treats and fun. Our hosts for these annual events cannot be expected to put out a complete buffet for the membership. This is a club event. "Please" contact Jeff or Kim regarding what dish or item you could bring to the party to make it a success. By letting them know in advance, they can set up priorities as to what will be needed. Too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing.

January Meeting – No Host Found
February Meeting – Brad Nelson February 16^th & 17^th Mad-City Model Railroad Show & Sale
March Meeting – No Host Found
March MSOE Traintime 08 Model Railroad Show
April Meeting – Roy Meissner
April 26^th & 27^th Titletown Train Show Green Bay
Trainfest November 8^th and 9^th, 2008

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.

10 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
2007 December 9
2008 January 13
February 10
March 9
April 13
May 11
June 8

Programs are held at the Milwaukee School of Engineering Student Center, 1025 North Broadway

Programs are "Free". General Public Welcome. The programs are subject to change without notice.

Please accept my apologies for the brevity of the last newsletter. A family emergency came up and I was lucky to get a newsletter out at all. Some of you may know of the situation. I just want it known that my daughter is getting better and doing fine. What this does mean is that I have to give an account of all of the reports that were not previously published. For many of you that will be a good news/bad news scenario.

Dick Kloes hosted the BSG October general meeting. He stepped in to volunteer at the last moment. This was your chance to see the layout that appeared in the July 2007 issue of Classic Toy Trains. Dick has been concentrating on some of the structures for his four modules that are usually part of the BSG modular layout. Dick is one of the few members that has integrated his modules into his home layout, yet still able to bring them to shows. As usual we had a great time at Dick’s.

We ended up combining this general meeting with an S-Fest meeting since most of the S-Fest committee was present, thus killing two birds with one stone. I noticed that some of "us" older folk use terms that end up being "politically incorrect" in today’s vernacular. Number one, to any PETA members, no living creatures, two birds or anything else, were harmed at Dick’s house. Any debilitating injuries to any member were self-inflicted, for example, the killing of brain cells.

This is all that I will say on political correctness today since I can no longer keep up with the continual additions and updates. In addition I can personally always use the brain dead excuse for myself. Hopefully my Medicare plan will cover me for that.

We list all of the local swap meets in our area in the newsletters. I don’t attend all of them but I have been to the new location for the Lionel Club’s meet. The meet is still dominated by three rail vendors but here and there were more than a few items that I found of interest. The facility is very, very nice and the public turnout, as far as I have seen, looks pretty good. The show has the potential to be bigger than it was in the past. One of the reasons that I believe this show will do well is the amount of club members that participate in trying to make the meet a success. Grant it they have a larger membership pool to draw from, but nonetheless there are a lot of people involved. It’s nice to see.

For model railroaders and the general public Trainfest is a cure for what ails you. Or for me, it just gives you a moment in time that takes you back to B.C., Before Consternation. Everyone becomes a child at heart at this event. This year there was even more to see.

Every gauge from Z to live steam is represented at this annual event and the majority of the layouts and displays were really high quality. Then there are the extraordinary layouts like "Bits and Pieces" who perennially take the first place honor and that group justly deserves the award. Almost every layout even if not completed had at least one or two really impressive modules on them. Many individuals take a lot of pride in their craft. A ton of ideas can be taken from many of the layouts and applied to any gauge.

This year’s show was bigger than ever. There were more manufactures, more layouts and more people than ever. The attendance for the two-day event was nearly 21,000. Congratulations to all of those who work for the WISE Division for all of the time and labor that they put into this year’s event.

As usual BSG had the modular layout, the American Flyer layout and the BSG information booth. The modular layout had Ray Puls on one side, 2-BSG modules along with Wil Holt and Joel Lebovitz DCC controlling modules on the other side. Don Goeke’s 2-amusement park modules were on one end with the geezer gate on the other end.

For a few years now I have been begging for volunteers to take at least one set of corners, which equals two modules that measure approximately 23-1/2 inches deep by 43-1/2 inches wide to enhance, maintain and transport them to the shows. They would fit in the back seat of a small car.

A few years ago I decorated and maintained two sets of corners. They never looked better. Since the creation of the small layout, I no longer have any room for them in my van. There are a few terms I could use to describe the condition of the ends since I gave them up, none of them would be complementary. If I weren’t constantly working on the small layout and "continually" making improvements and upgrades I would fix them myself. We certainly have more than enough extremely talented individuals in our club to make these eight small modules tremendously attractive showpieces. Apparently our members don’t have the time or interest.

***Fixing up these modules sounds like it could be one of those club fun/work club session projects. Dick Kloes and I have been discussing fixing up one of the end sections. Still the transportation to and from the shows is an issue. We need bodies or cars to transport the modules. Until robotic vehicles enter the picture we will be in trouble. For those newer members that might think the club should have a trailer, we have been there and done that. Logistics were a problem. We can’t find anyone to take a small set of corners, much less drag a trailer around and store it.

And now for the good news. As usual the small Hi-Rail, American Flyer, Plasticville, non-scale, scum of the earth layout received a ton of attention at the show. The operating accessories, the celebrity figures and the camera on the train were a huge hit.

I also want to say nice things about all of the BSG members. Their continued willingness to communicate with the general public just might be better than "any" of the other clubs at the show. Some day I’m waiting for one of those G gauge guys (I won’t mention the name of the club) to fall off of their Hollywood style chairs and wake up. Reading a book or the newspaper, with your back to the public, facing your layout gives me the impression that they are not in the least bit interested in even being at the show, much less being "bothered" by the public.

Since I am on the topic of G gauge, it has finally come off of the floor and out of the green carpeting stage. (The floor style layout is still very popular with the children.) There were more than a couple absolutely extraordinary G scale layouts. There were some modules that in my vision of model railroading were some of the best modules (including all scales) that I have "ever" seen. It seems like most of the other gauges are making great strides "forward".

I’m not sure of the status or level of our club’s participation in next year’s show will be. That is in the hands of the Trainfest committee. The area that has been allotted to our club has been shrinking every year. There has been a lot of freedom given to BSG to expand a little here and there and fit in what we brought to the show, so we have nothing to complain about. Floor space is at a premium.

The Independent Hi-Railers (I’m not sure of the name) may end up filling the entire manufactures area with their layout by next year. They just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. If you enjoy looking at more track than you will ever see in your life, you’ll love their layout. There are modules and modules of "JUST" track, ballasted, with no other scenery or backdrops. If that makes you happy, you may have just died and gone to track heaven. There are a handful of nicely decorated modules. However personally I do not see the fascination with that layout. Nonetheless they do have fabulous engines, rolling stock, and a great control system.

A few year’s ago I made a couple comments regarding the modular layout to a friend and BSG member. I did not have "any" modules at the time. He looked me straight in the eye and told me if I wasn’t participating in the layout, I had nothing worthwhile to comment on. I don’t know if I ever personally thanked him for being completely candid with me. But that straight from the hip approach, led me to get involved. It only started with four relatively simple modules. The end product, whether you like the layout or not, eventually resulted in the small AF youth layout. In essence this member called me out with a "put up or shut up" remark. It’s time that our BSG membership takes one of those two suggestions to heart. Talk by itself, has not made one improvement to the modular layout.

Just another reminder why we need only members that will devote a considerable amount of time helping out. We are limited to only 20 passes per year. This limit has been imposed because of past abuses of this privilege. BSG has not been one of the abusers.

We have members that are there for all four days and are present from setup to breakdown. (By breakdown, I mean the disassembly of our equipment, versus going crazy and starting to throw things.) Other members stay for two complete days. Of those, we are talking about individuals who work over 16 hours during the show. Most other clubs require many of their members to pay for additional passes. In the future BSG will have to be very selective in which members receive passes. Early purchases and coupons from the Internet can result in a ticket discount of 20%.

Finally, I want to thank all of the BSG members who helped out at this year’s event. I won’t mention the names for fear that I will forget someone. In addition I don’t want to spot out the ones who are never able to help. Remember, start thinking about next year’s Trainfest November 8^th and 9^th. It’s less than a year away and we are hosting Fall S Fest the week after Trainfest 2008.

The Fall S Fest-2007 was hosted by the AFSGSLA club in St. Louis. Their club motto is "just for the fun of it" and that’s what it was, a lot of fun. "Most" of their members helped out to make the event a success. Some of them were attending their first Fall S Fest but stepped up to volunteer for some tasks. There was an extremely friendly and helpful atmosphere at the convention. AFSGSLA always does a fine job of hosting the Fall S Fest.

This past year they had a change of venue, the Marriott hotel by the airport, and the swap meet hall was bigger than in the past. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t as packed as past events, it just meant that there was even more S gauge on the premises. And I mean that the hall was loaded, even John Wickland had a ton of American Flyer Trains and not the tree-rail variety.

There was a heap of door prizes and raffle items, most of them were really nice. They also had extremely striking centerpieces at the banquet, that were given away. They featured a K-Line car on a track with flashing crossing signals and scenery with trees, log piles and other fine details. I wish I could tell you more, but I didn’t win one. In keeping with tradition, once again I didn’t win a thing. In all of the years that I have gone to Fall S Fests, I should not really complain, I have won once. What did I win, the ever popular, highly sought after, extremely rare and valuable, manual uncoupler? Wow what can I say outside of the fact that I have tried to sell it for $1.00 and I guess that the price is just "way too high".

We got to see some extraordinary layouts on the layout tour. There were 10 open houses altogether. I didn’t get to see them all. However from what I did see, means that there will be some changes to my home layout, I was that impressed.

Rick & Chris Wade hosted the BSG annual picnic. We all had a fine time. The weather was very cooperative. Mr. Green Thumb (Rick) also gave personal tours of his yard, which displayed a fabulous variety of beautiful flowers. Who says that all we know is trains?

The food was great, the beverages went down easy, and getting together with Badgerland S Gaugers outside of the meetings is always a lot of fun. This year the turnout was pretty good with the total being 28 including members and spouses.

The only disappointment that I have found with our picnics is that more members don’t show up. I know that there is a lot to do in the summer. However the old saying ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch" doesn’t hold true at this annual event. The acronym BSG should have another meaning, Big Social Gathering. I only hope that we can keep this tradition alive. There were a few years that we didn’t hold a picnic.

Don’t forget the upcoming Mad-City show February 17^th & 18^th being held at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, WI. There will be a limited amount of "free" passes available. Those helping out the most will receive more information on getting in and out of the building and when to be there.

For more information on the show, go our website and click on Public Shows Events, then click on the poster. We will be setting up Friday, February 15^th. I will be there around 12:30pm.

Contact me now. Also don’t forget to get in your hotel reservations. Any other members that want a room for that show can call the AmericInn 101 W Broadway Monona, WI (608) 222-8601 and reserve a room. Indicate that you are part of the Badgerland S Gaugers group.

Nothing is planned at this time. This is something that we have to continue. We need to have more fun.

I have little to report at this time. The only thing that I might mention is that the Fall S Fest cars, that were offered this year, were really nice. The Campbell Express piggyback flatcar sold out early I’m not sure how many were made up. I really love the UP generator boxcar that I purchased. Of course the car was not a prototypical car and was a Hi-rail, American Flyer. Like that was going to bother me.

If any of you have any tips for your fellow model railroaders send them to the BSG Newsletter Editor.

On the last page of your newsletters the BSG officers are always listed. Please note that three of them have had Email address changes.

If you have any complaints address them to the president or vice president.

Any newsletter related items or information changes should be sent to the secretary editor. I will gladly assist in answering questions relating to many other club activities

Remember to send me your updated email addresses to insure that I change it on our group listing and put it in the newsletter. We like to give all of our members the opportunity to keep in touch with one another.

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.

Fall S Fest Patches for the following years: 9^th -1984, 15^th–1990, 21^st – 1996.

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.

We have a limited of the 2004 Fall S Fest Cars left and will not be holding them back for club purposes.

The newsletter prior to the December meeting will contain the BSG dues schedules. This will act as an official dues notice. This will be repeated in the January newsletter and will be considered your overdue dues notification. Any member who fails to pay their dues by January 31st shall be dropped from membership and receive no further correspondences from BSG.

*Must be accompanied or sponsored by a Full Participating Member. Junior members do not have voting rights.

*Family rate regardless of number of immediate family members. Immediate family member definition is: spouse and children under the age of 18.

All family members will receive a club membership card, which entitles them to full member privileges.

I started the Editors Notes with my apologies for the brevity of the last newsletter. Aren’t you glad that this newsletter is finally done with? Most of you haven’t done this much reading since high school. If we keep the Christmas meeting to a minimum like it should be, perhaps you will get a short newsletter again. I hope that you won’t feel cheated.

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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Waukesha, WI 53188 Kenosha, WI 53140 Menomonee Falls, WI 53051 Greenfield, WI 53220

Phone: (262) 574-1086 Phone: (262) 652-9549 Phone: (262) 250-0618 Phone: (414) 421-8512

Directors: Dick Kloes (07) – Art Doty (08) – Ray Puls (09) – Trumann Garrett
Modular Layout Committee: Dick Kloes, Steve Lunde, Ray Puls, Dave Smukowski and Don Goeke.
Small Layout Coordinator: Dave Smukowski, Ron Schlicht.
Hi-Rail AF Layout Coordinator: Ron Schlicht.
Badgerland Display Booth Committee: Gary Children and Jeff Young.