W.E.M.E. Show

[ChooChooMike]

Anyone from here going to this weekends Western Engine and Model show in Pleasonton, CA ?

http://www.wemeshow.com/

The Bay Area Engine Modelers club, BAEM, is hosting the fifth Western Engine and Model Exhibition (WEME). This exhibition will take place in the Agricultural Building during the GoodGuy’s 25th West Coast Nationals, August 24 - August 26, 2012 at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, Pleasanton, CA. http://www.good-guys.com/events/2012-events/item/west-coast-nationals-2?category_id=2 for more information on the location and sponsor.

The Bay Area Engine Modelers (BAEM) club and other Model Engineers will exhibit all types of Model Engineering, including model steam engines, locomotives, internal combustion engines, Stirling engines, tanks, tether cars and aircraft engines.

Earlier post:

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/f41/western-engine-model-exhibition-weme-17809/#post182299

I'm flying up from Los Angeles on Friday to attend. Friday for sure, other days up in the air, as I may go to Sacramento to visit the CA State RR museum.

Mike

 

[Bastard Thread]

My friend and I will be there three days It's a great time. hope it cooler than last year.

 

[vpitool]

I went to the WEME show yesterday and am sorry to say that it was a pale shadow of what it used to be when held in Vallejo as a stand alone event. Didn't seem to be very many exhibitors and was almost entirely dedicated to I.C. engines. On the upside there were a couple of interesting live steam locos and the Paul Knapp engine collection was there. Other that that I didn't see much in the way of stationary steam engines or shop tooling and not many commercial vendors. At $6 bucks to park and $18 for admission its pretty expensive if you're not also fascinated with the acres of hot rods and associated parts sellers. I'm not sure what drove the decision to combine the WEME show with the Two Guys hot rod show but IMO it didn't work...

 

[ChooChooMike]

I totally agree with vpitool - I flew up from Los Angeles with the intent to spend the day at the show. vpitools comments are spot on. About 1/2 the room was empty tables

The BAEM (Bay Area Engine Modelers) club members put on a good display of their engines. Earplugs were provided at the door since the I.C. engines, especially the V-8 were louder then the 1000+ hotrods at the show

From what I can tell, pretty much every display was from BAEM members and there were some fantastic engines. (yes have lots of pictures I'll get posted somewhere). I'm partial to steam engines, and there were only a few there - a nice 1-1/2" scale steam locomotive, a partially completed Shay locomotive chassis running on air, and a few others.

Many of Paul Knapp's engines were on display, some of them, I think, are now displayed in Sherline's Craftsmanship Museum in Vista, CA (visiting is highly recommended if you're in the Southern California area.

http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/

I.C. highlight: One of the guys had a beautifully made rotary aircraft engine - the kind where the whole engine spins. He demo'd that outside - WOW ! Very cool !

The real highlight of the show for me was meeting Jerry Kieffer

http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Kieffer.htm

and seeing his Harley Davidson Knucklehead motorcycle model and talking to him all about it ! WOW !! th_confused0052 It does run, though he didn't demo it (drat), He said he hopes to be able to use the kick start to actually start the engine ! Wonder if he'll make a scale model of himself to drive it !! LOL

Everything is to scale and he even handmade the sheathing for the cables (brake, clutch, throttle, etc) with a custom jig for the Sherline lathes !!

There were only 2 vendors there - the omnipresent Little Machine shop (great vendor) and the folks that make the laser edge-finder (I bought one years ago at the now defunct Visalia's Man Metal and Machines expo).

So was it worth it for me - plane fare, car rental, hotel, food ? Yes, to see some great engines (for the 2nd time for me); In terms of cost ? NO. I spent probably 1-1/2 hours in the engine hall and 1-/2 hours wandering around all the hotrods. There were some impressive cars out there, no doubt, but kinda all blended into each other after a while with so many of them (100's and 100's). At $18 gate fee, $6 or $8 to park, that was a bit stiff for 3 hours. Glad I went on Friday, was told Sat/Sun would be a zoo.

I'm glad I had a few other things planned (and unplanned) for my long weekend up in the Bay area. Got to see a couple of real Shay steam locomotives at the Roaring Camp and Bit Trees Railroads near Santa Cruz, CA:

http://www.roaringcamp.com/

Got my steam fix for sure !! Not to mention a great train ride amongst old-growth (never logged) redwoods !

Did a zip line course through the redwoods:

http://mounthermon.org/redwood-canopy-tours/

That was fun !

Then went to the San Francisco waterfront to visit the Jeremiah O'Brien Liberty ship:

http://www.ssjeremiahobrien.org/

They were supposed to steam up the engine (triple-expansion steam) this past weekend, but was cancelled due to lack of sufficient personal. Yes, this is a fully operational steam ship from WWII era.

Then did a list minute visit to the Red Oak Victory ship:

http://www.ssredoakvictory.com/index.htm

The ship is not operational yet, but in the process of being restored. Was told, hopefully next year to steam it up. This is a sister ship to the Lane Victory ship (fully operational and does summer cruises):

http://www.lanevictory.org

where I am a tour guide, so I have a slight interest in Victory/Liberty ships !!

So all-in-all, I made the best of my 3 days

Mike

 

[yellow_cad]

Apparently the Bay Area group usually has a display at the Hillsborough Concours. I understood that they were still going to have a display there this year even though it conflicted with the Pleasanton event. I was at the Hillsborough Concours with my car and hoped to visit their display but never found them. I don't think they made it and I can understand why if they were struggling to get a full turnout in Pleasanton.

 

[mrehmus]

Folks, this is not an effort to defend WEME or BAEM but to put into perspective, the lack of participation by Model Engineers for all shows. I am using WEME as the example since it is the only show I know from the back side.

I do agree that the show was under populated with engines. However, the majority of the visitors did not care. They came to see the IC engines and hear & see them run. From that aspect, the show was a roaring success and WEME was the acknowledged hit of the hot rod show last year and this year. The Goodguys would like WEME in every one of their 25 shows around the U.S. Even in Vallejo, the majority of the paying visitors were car people, not Model Engineers.

BAEM cannot fill the display hall all by itself. Many non-BAEM groups either did not show or only came a single day this time.

Importantly, model engineers from other locations did not attend to show their stuff. It is a sad commentary on other clubs and model engineers when the venue is free (parking and entrance tickets provided free), the number of interested visitors is large and still nobody participates. This has caused BAEM members to wonder if they should attend/support other shows where BAEM is normally well represented. Support from other clubs has never been forthcoming. I am not certain, but I think we didn't have a single person from Southern California or Oregon or Washington displaying anything. Yet Ron Bement from Denver saw fit to come with his engines, Jerry Kieffer came from Wisconsin and Paul Knapp came from Phoenix. Pretty sad for the only Model Engineering show in California; the state where all of the magazines in the hobby ship the most copies. Where were the Model Engineers?

I do believe no single club can provide all of the displays for a show so if Model Engineers do not support shows, they will languish as did MM&M and Iron Fever.

As for why WEME was moved to the hot rod show? Purely a money issue. The Vallejo location cost the club about $7,000 for building rental, insurance and publicity. We came close to recovering the money with entry fees but never completely. The effort to run the show ourselves in Vallejo was immense.

The Goodguys give us the pavilion free; they do the publicity and pay for our expenses. The tables are arranged and draped, the walls are covered, the AC works and they will get us anything we need if we ask. Since our goal is to show our models to the public, the hot rod show is the best opportunity to do so. It is better, from that aspect, than any other Model Engineering show I've ever attended. Importantly, the majority of visitors in the Vallejo and Goodguys venues were car people, not Model Engineers.

Oh, and since the vendors normally don't sell much to car people, the lack of Model Engineers last year caused some vendors to not attend this year.

We cannot and will not lie to potential vendors and convince them that they’ll sell a lot of their products when we know what sales were for most of us last year. It costs big $ to attend a show as a vendor and somehow we have to pay for our time and costs. No sales = no attendance.

Sorry if I've ruffled any feathers.

 

[misfitsailor]

As a member of BAEM, I still miss the Vallejo WEME. I exhibited the first year and every year thereafter. I was hoping that we would be able to expand the show to the point where we would attract modelers and vendors from a larger area. I did not show at Goodguys, this year or last year. I feel like WEME was highjacked. I guess I will have to start making the trek to GEARS.

 

[mrehmus]

As a member of BAEM, I still miss the Vallejo WEME. I exhibited the first year and every year thereafter. I was hoping that we would be able to expand the show to the point where we would attract modelers and vendors from a larger area. I did not show at Goodguys, this year or last year. I feel like WEME was highjacked. I guess I will have to start making the trek to GEARS.

I have no problem with personal preferences but you haven't said why you didn't attend WEME inside Goodguys. The show certainly was not highjacked. The club members (or at least those attending the September 2010 meeting) voted to move WEME inside Goodguys. The subject was discussed and the decision was made. It was primarily a financial decision and secondarily, the popularity of the model engines displayed in a small booth at Goodguys the previous 7 years by BAEM members had been an outstanding success.

The whole point of a show is to exhibit our models and have a good time talking to other modelers and appreciative visitors. WEME inside Goodguys does that in spades.

Vallejo was on its way down in terms of attendance. We lost more money every year and the expenses continued to climb. You may remember we tried to raise the entrance fee to $7 from $6 and that outraged a fair number of people.

We'd also maxed out the space (WEME could not grow) and Solano County Fairgrounds, perhaps the natural place to expand to, will not allow gasoline inside their buildings. And their prices were $2500 per day plus insurance and every piece of furniture had to be rented from them at outrageous prices. So the number of possible and affordable venues was and is very limited. You do remember that we attempted to move WEME to another Convention Center South of SF airport and they would not allow gasoline in their buildings. And parking was not free and we would have had to pay one of their caterers to provide food services.

And frankly, the number of club members willing to work on the show was and is very small. Those of us who have done all the work find that while some work is still necessary, the amount is much less when working with the Goodguys.

My personal opinion is every club member, barring health or travel issues, should support club activities. That would have made a major difference.

Yup, I miss the Vallejo WEME too. Remember the magazine paid the rental on the building for the first show. I live about 2 miles away so attendance was very easy. But the financial advantages to the club are all in favor of continuing to have WEME at the Goodguys show in August.

Feel free to bring the issue up at the next club meeting, a week from this Saturday and test the waters.