February 17, 2008 - It was ten years ago this month that I was able to persuade Dan Goins, then president of the 1/87 Vehicle & Equipment Club as it was known at the time, to let me tackle a club web site. There was no debate about whether it was a good idea, just who would do it, who would pay for it, and how to implement it. Dan and I met in Dallas and agreed on a few guiding principles and this web site was the result. Neither of us has ever looked back or regretted our respective decisions!

The club name has changed; we've changed from a structured club with dues to a free-to-all format and seen many new manufacturers enter the 1/87 scale vehicle market. For an idea of what was going on ten years ago in our hobby, check the February 1998 New Products page. We will soon implement a "10 Years Ago" link in our navigation bar on the left to remind us of just how far we've come in those ten years. For all these changes, the one thing that has remained constant has been our original charter, "The 1/87 VEHICLE CLUB was established to promote the construction, use, and manufacture of prototypically accurate vehicle and equipment models in 1/87 scale." This has been our guiding principle from the very start of the club, even before the web site was introduced, and continues to be the inspiration for all the work that goes into this site and our communication with and contributions to numerous manufacturers and publications to further our hobby.

One of the more recent developments has been the introduction of the Ads that you've no doubt noticed in the margins of many of the pages on this web site. We've been reluctant from the beginning to promote ads on this web site because of the possible impression of any commercial influence on our content. However, the economic realities induced us to take a hard look at various options. After some careful analysis, Google's Adsense program looked to be the best overall choice for our web site. These were added to produce some advertising revenue to offset the cost of the web software and periodic upgrades and the hosting fees that accompany production of a web site like this. With over 10,000 web pages on this site and the desire for around-the-clock availability the necessity for a commercial web hosting facility has always been a requirement. You can assist us in this effort by clicking on any ad link which interests you; this creates a very small bit of revenue that, over time, adds up to offset the costs incurred and creates no commitment on your part to purchase a product. We sincerely hope that you do not find these ads to be intrusive or offensive in any way. They've become a necessity to keep this web site viable. As we increase our revenue from this source this web site will be promoting and supporting, financially, the hobby gatherings such as our recent Meet & Greet at the West Springfield train show in Late January. We will be underwriting the meeting facility for next year's event and will have an announcement posted to our calendar of events when all the arrangements have been finalized. We hope you continue to support this web site, and the hobby, through the participation in the Google Ad program on this web site.

On a personal note, I'd like to thank all the contributors who have helped make this web site so successful! Perhaps those to whom we owe our greatest debt of thanks are to all of you who have been, and continue to be, contributors to our outstanding Photo Gallery feature. We now have posted over 5,000 individual subject pages in our 325 (and counting) separate Photo Gallery sections thus far. We've featured an extremely wide variety of subjects from modelers all over our planet and encourage everyone who visits to submit photos of your models for consideration! Considering how far we've progressed in the past ten years we can only dream of who far we can advance in the next ten; but after all, dreaming is what got us this far in the first place! A very heartfelt thank you to you all for ten terrific years and here's to many more! Bob Johnson - webmaster [posted 02/17/2008]