We are on a mission to increase opportunities for BAGRS members to get together.
BAGRS is a social club for people interested in garden railroading. Opportunities to get together were waning before the pandemic, then disappeared during the pandemic.
Getting together is fun. We compare, even debate, techniques for successful garden railroading. We get to welcome new members, and, of course, give them the benefit of our advice. We enjoy meeting old friends and making new ones. Just ask our ‘Live Steamers’ who continue to get together a lot.
We have configured 7 Areas which we hope will have 2 or 3 ‘events’ each year which bring area members together. ‘Events like:
A BBQ at a RR under construction where we can all offer sage advice! A BBQ at a RR which is relatively new. A BBQ preceded by a clinic or two/A field trip to a local RR point of interest. A work day to help a RR owner resuscitate/expand a RR (with food & beverages of course)
There are many possibilities and each Area will have its own ideas. A day at the G&O in the East Bay? Trains on the beach in Santa Cruz? Cruising Marin & Sonoma for evi-dence of the North Pacific Railroad?
Where possible, Areas were configured to include enough members that even a 33% turnout for an Area ‘event’ would be OK. City boundaries, natural barriers and traffic corridors were considered, and the number of garden railroads. See the map on the next page to see the configuration of Areas that we arrived at.
Refinements may well be necessary and there will be a process for suggesting boundary changes and requesting individual member changes.
We are now on the hunt for one or two members in each Area that would enjoy orchestrating 2 or 3 Area Events a year!
That could be the hard part!
