G.D.S.F. Sunday 2017, Miniatures Etc.

[wjvardy1942]

A few more of the Miniatures and other exhibits from Great Dorset.

[steamy1]

It looks like the same old faces mainly, the show needs refreshing.

[hedge]

dorset is very much a love it, leave it show so those that love it will always return and the rest of us wont.

saying that when we have asked to take some thing different it is always refused but replied with "you can bring your showmans tractor" that is of putting for me as what you bring shouldn't really matter and if different then it should get first shout.

might take the Diamond T one year just to see what it is like in the military section see if that is any different compared to the steam side.

any way superb pictures and thank you for posting them Mr Vardy

[meyrick]

I heard from people that the traffic jams into the site were much smaller, and from other steam people that a lot (some- quite few?) engines either hadn't entered or hadn't turned up.

My view is that for most rallies one is showing for charity, so you turn up and do your bit, enjoy yourself and thats all OK. You get a bag of coal and plaque or a mug and a thank you, and you don't need any more. GDSF is a money making company - if they want me to give up 5 days holiday, so they can make their money on my back, then they can pay me for it. I only have a miniature, and I don't suppose they will miss me, but I do make a point of trying to contribute by towing kids all day. Also, I am not a great one for traction engines or tractors etc- beyond a passing interest. I go to run my engine

Great pix - interesting. Thank you..

[Mick1020]

meyrick- just curious about GDSF they don,t supply coal or am i picking it up wrong on your post.
regards mick

[meyrick]

They supply coal all right. I think Northovers are the contractors.

What I meant was that, for charity, a bag of coal and thanks is plenty - any money that is made goes to some good cause. (Air ambulance, West somerset Railway for steam restoration, to keep Yeovil Steam Centre going etc) Delighted to contribute a bit, if I can - I get a great weekend.

However, if they are making money on me, as a commercial venture, then that is different issue altogether. Then, as part of the overall attraction, my time and engine is worth something. (IMO)

So I go elsewhere.

[trfdevon]

"However, if they are making money on me, as a commercial venture". I think GDSF has to be seen as a commercial venture due the sheer size of it. I once heard that the field owners get £1m, well if that's the case, you need to charge a decent price to cover that.

Add to that there's 700 toilets which are there probably 14+ days, the cost of water, electricity, hiring of the stables, tents, security and god know what else.

I think comparing a 'normal' rally to GDSF is like comparing a carboot seller to poundland. They will have a couple of full time staff, but they don't have shareholders, so the income is being used to make the show better.

Saying that, I did hear 18 gennies were nicked from the public camping and a blacksmith had his anvil of 30 years taken. Plus kids of a certain group of people were knocking on caravan doors and if no answer was breaking in, so perhaps they need to invest in better camp security. Up by the fair there was a lot of security, but outside of the fair is was pretty scarce.

[meyrick]

If I run a factory making cheese, it has costs and it has outputs and it runs at a profit. If I run a show, it has costs and it makes entertainment Royal Tournament GDSF etc, The bands get paid and all the rest. Likewise Eavis and his Glastonbury pop festivals.

Other rallies are no different but the scale may be less. They have to hire loos, rent the ground, pay bands and the medics, so they have costs just the same, which have to be recovered each year. Every show is a commercial venture - if it runs at a loss, eventually they have no float to fund next years show and it goes under.

GDSF pays haulage for many of the attractions, it pays attendance money, it shipped engines over form New Zealand in the Mac benefit year. But it wants me to give up 5 days plus 2 days home and back for free.

Its a private limited company - of course it has shareholders, and one or two of them are earning a great deal of money.

So the difference is where the money goes in the end. And that is one of the 3 reasons I now decline to enter, though it is a great one for spectators.

Next you have a very restricted running area compared to other shows running on the same weekend. Personally I was bored to death after five days of going round same postage stamp.

Then there was the chronic lack of organisation for miniature entries (unless it has changed just recently, but I have no need to find out). You used to put in early in the year, got told you were on mid year, so if you were turned down - which you weren't told, so the only way you knew you weren't going was eventually you realised your documents hadn't come. - at which point, late in the day you found you had a weeks useless holiday booked, and saw empty spaces if you visited. (You can cancel holidays - but in many places which only allow one person away at a time, it is difficult to reschedule).

Yet it is so easy - you have a database, respond by e-mail. You even send your car passes by email. You have 100 slots say. You allocate your hundred slots, (weed out the hangar queens whose engines spend 5 days pumping water - which implies that as a steward I have actually left my tent and got round 3-4 times each day so I know who is doing what). As the entries come in you can respond and tell them they are on within 24 hours. Anyone who comes in after the 100, you tell them they are in the short notice reserves. Anyone cancels, you call forward your short notice people in order. They may or may not be able to come, but they knew they were reserves from day 1. Everyone knows where they are - it really isn't that complicated. Yet GDSF miniatures stumbled though its entries at snails pace.

It was just a masterpiece. Doubtless it is better now.