Founder's Favorite - The OGF Railroad!
May 18, 2024 19:11:21 GMT
Country Joe, dennym57, and 2 more like this
Post by Adam on May 18, 2024 19:11:21 GMT
Note: Going forward Founder's Favorite will be more seasonal and periodic. However, the invitation for anyone who may want to post a Founder’s Favorites column stands (shoot me a private message.)
I distinctly recall an early conversation with Brian when he was just starting the O-Gauge Forum. I didn't know him very well, but we had previously discussed some odd things happening on a previous forum and why he wanted to create the OGF. Brian and I hit it off quickly and became good friends. He told me there would be no paid advertisement. As we all now know, this was intended to allow members to speak more freely (as long as being respectful of one another), even so far as being critical of the manufacturers we give our money to and, of all things, be able to say Happy Birthday/Anniversary/etc. to each other. Of course, it sounded great, but my first question was “How would we pay the bills?”. Brian, being sharp as always and never without a plan, responded with “We will sell trains!”. It took me a bit to process this answer. The analytical part of my brain went through the possible challenges and work needed to pull off designing, building and selling trains. I didn’t think it could be done.
Early on, the forum designed some simple things to sell such as a pickup truck, mugs, hats, keychains, etc. Of course, these items were not enough to really sustain us. Then came the next phone call. “Hey Adam, how are yuh?”, came the first sentence, something I would come to distinctly associate with a call from Brian. Brian had an ask of me. He had already been working with others on some basic graphics (the OGF shield, lettering, etc.), but he wanted to do a caboose. So, off to work we went and a caboose, using an MTH model and the "The Friendliest Model Railroad Forum'" theme was soon offered to our members. The forum also did an MTH Cylindrical Hopper car (full scale), an MTH Premier Engine and now, soon to be completed, Pup Trailer flat cars. The shift to the Hottest Forum on Rails theme, complete with flames, came after Brian said we needed something more exciting and that he had an idea. Every time he called me with an idea I had to brace myself. But I need to hand it to him, they were usually big, outside of the box, type of ideas. We also expanded into cars with some Brooklin and then Automodello brand vehicles.
What’s next? Stay tuned! We intend to keep it going. As long as members are buying and we can pay the bills, we won’t change the formula.
Share some photos of your OGF Railroad models!!!
I distinctly recall an early conversation with Brian when he was just starting the O-Gauge Forum. I didn't know him very well, but we had previously discussed some odd things happening on a previous forum and why he wanted to create the OGF. Brian and I hit it off quickly and became good friends. He told me there would be no paid advertisement. As we all now know, this was intended to allow members to speak more freely (as long as being respectful of one another), even so far as being critical of the manufacturers we give our money to and, of all things, be able to say Happy Birthday/Anniversary/etc. to each other. Of course, it sounded great, but my first question was “How would we pay the bills?”. Brian, being sharp as always and never without a plan, responded with “We will sell trains!”. It took me a bit to process this answer. The analytical part of my brain went through the possible challenges and work needed to pull off designing, building and selling trains. I didn’t think it could be done.
Early on, the forum designed some simple things to sell such as a pickup truck, mugs, hats, keychains, etc. Of course, these items were not enough to really sustain us. Then came the next phone call. “Hey Adam, how are yuh?”, came the first sentence, something I would come to distinctly associate with a call from Brian. Brian had an ask of me. He had already been working with others on some basic graphics (the OGF shield, lettering, etc.), but he wanted to do a caboose. So, off to work we went and a caboose, using an MTH model and the "The Friendliest Model Railroad Forum'" theme was soon offered to our members. The forum also did an MTH Cylindrical Hopper car (full scale), an MTH Premier Engine and now, soon to be completed, Pup Trailer flat cars. The shift to the Hottest Forum on Rails theme, complete with flames, came after Brian said we needed something more exciting and that he had an idea. Every time he called me with an idea I had to brace myself. But I need to hand it to him, they were usually big, outside of the box, type of ideas. We also expanded into cars with some Brooklin and then Automodello brand vehicles.
What’s next? Stay tuned! We intend to keep it going. As long as members are buying and we can pay the bills, we won’t change the formula.
Share some photos of your OGF Railroad models!!!
