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Club Purpose
Based on A.C. Gilbert Inc. American Flyer trains, "S" scale modeling has
grown into a wide multi-faceted hobby. Many of our members are collectors and
collector/operators of classic American Flyer
trains. Others, who had a start with American Flyer trains have turned to other aspects of
the hobby, such as scale and narrow gauge. And some are still "armchair"
modelers who will someday have a layout when the time is right!
The South Jersey "S" Gaugers club is dedicated to promoting all aspects of S gauge model railroading, including:
The SJSG holds at least two meetings per month. One to discuss club business and activities, and one for workshops, seminars, road trips - and just plain having fun! Several of our committees also hold meetings as necessary, such as the layout committee to work on our sectional layout. We promote the "S" hobby by displaying our sectional layout at various train shows in the area and have won many "First Place for Presentation" awards. In the past we sponsored a bi-annual Train Show/Meet, and Flea Market (with the emphasis on "S" of course!) However, due to building renovations, we are looking for a new location to hold our train show.
Membership
Based in the Philadelphia-Metro region, our club has members from New Jersey,
Philadelphia and Delaware. We welcome all members interested in our goal of
promoting and supporting all aspects of model railroading in S Gauge. Annual dues are currently $30 which covers the cost of printing our club
newsletter the "WayBill".
Street address
South Jersey "S" Gaugers
6 Hazelhurst Dr.
Voorhees, NJ 08043
Phone no/Electronic mail address
President - - (856) 783-9200
Vice-Pres - - (856) 678-3598
Secretary - - (856) 763-6871
Newsletter Editor - - (856) 223-0412
Treasurer - - (856) 627-5538
Asst Treasurer - - (215) 288-3745
WebMaster - - (856) 678-3598
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How it all began - the first meeting
The first meeting of the South Jersey S Gaugers (then known as the South
Jersey S Scalers) occurred on July 29th, 1989 at Roy Hoffman's House in Cherry
Hill, NJ (Roy is currently the NASG President). Judging from everyone's comments the meeting was a huge success. The attendance peaked at 28 people
drawn from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. In addition to a large
supporting attendance from members of the Central Jersey S-Scalers were John
Bortz, John Hall, Russ Downs (of Downs Model Railroad) and Don DeWitt (of S
DeSigns).
(The above is excerpted from an article run in a 1989 issue of
the Dispatch written by SJSG founder and first President, Bill Lane.)
A short list of events in our club's history
Roy Hoffman was the first newsletter editor of the "Hotbox" and he
created what we now publish as the SJSG Waybill. Bill Lane was our first
President and held that position until 1993. During Bill's tenure, the SJSG'ers
became involved in hosting the Valley Forge Express, the 1993 NMRA/NASG joint
convention. The convention car was our
first club project - a Pacific Rail Shops Pennsylvania X29b
Merchandising Car kit, and it was a sell-out success!
In 1994, our new President, Bill Moore took the club reins for what turned out to be a five-year term. The club successfully completed several more club car projects which helped fund the building of our 10x24 portable layout. One of the first public viewings of the layout was at our first club-sponsored train swap/sale meet in 1995. Our next public layout display was due to the organization of Bill Moore, the layout was displayed over a weekend at the A.I. DuPont Children's Hospital in Delaware. We have since taken the layout to other locations such as the Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia and local elementary schools, train shows and public events in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
In 1998 we settled into our first permanent meeting location at the Belmawr Fire and Rescue Station and started our string of bi-annual train shows. Our membership hit its peek at 48 members and our meeting attendance regularly held 20 or more members. For the next three years we participated in the Memorial Day event at Steamtown by taking our layout to Scranton, PA for display during Steamtown's weekend celebrations. In July 1999, the club celebrated their 10 year anniversary by publishing a special full-color 12-page edition of the Waybill.
In 2000 our next President, Dan DeSantis manned the controls of our club until stepping down in 2002. Dan, who took over the duties of publishing the Waybill in early 1999, continued to refine the Waybill. He also started the discussion of replacing our now weary layout (to date, the plans have been drawn up and the first three modules have been framed in.) In February, 2002 we moved into our current meeting location in the Stratford Senior Center, Stratford, NJ. Unfortunately, we also had to discontinue our club-sponsored train shows.
Our newly elected President, Hank Worrell, took over in January 2002, and we are now well established at our new home in the Stratford Senior Center. We regularly plan rail-fan trips and excursions for our members, and we are continuing the construction of our new layout. We hope to add a couple more children's hospitals or schools to our tour of duty for the layout display, and someday we will resume holding our s-centric train shows in South Jersey. Look for us at the Spring and Fall Greenberg Train Shows in the Pennsauken Civic Center in the meantime!
The history of Web site updates. Check here to see what's the latest update.
Please about the SJSG WebSite and how it can be improved.
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Privacy Policy - The SJSG WEB site does not record or retain any information about your visit to our site. We do, however, subscribe to a "counter" service which records an aggregate total of all visitors and certain particular information about how you found our site. You may check the privacy policy of our counter service by clicking here.
THANKS to Charles Wilber for permission to use his "American Flyer Horizontal Rules" graphics as buttons. These graphics are copyrighted by "Tandem Associates". Visit the Credits page for more information about Charles' graphics.
NOTICE: The South Jersey S Gaugers is not affiliated with, nor does it endorse any of the advertisers that appear in the advertising banner at the top of any page. The SJSG WEB site has no control over the advertisements that appear within the banner. Please direct any questions about the advertisements to TrainWeb.com
