A very sad put up to start out the week. In the event you loved this article and you want to receive more information regarding boat hinge (had me going) generously visit the web site. Saturday noticed the last buying and selling day of Gee Dee Models in Nottingham.
I’d not deliberate to visit, rushing to the closing down sale of any model store seems a bit ghoulish, but I was invited to have a look round by one of many folks helping clear the decks — and that i reasoned that they had loved some of my money in earlier years.
That might sound strange, but I actually cannot stand people who’ve refused handy over cash till there’s a stonking nice sale on. Model shops are an endangered breed. Deserve our assist. No-one is getting wealthy operating one, however they provide a valuable service for our group. This does not imply the odd packet of monitor pins or pot of paint, but those huge-ticket gadgets too. Maybe you can save a couple of quid on-line, but what’s the bigger value?
I digress. The shelves were looking pretty naked once i arrived, however there have been bargains to be had and i bagged a few after my tour and a free cup of tea. The place is enormous, with appreciable storage as well as a generous gross sales flooring. There were just a few surprises found when digging to the back of the cupboards, a very good model shop builds up a nice bed of odd things over time which might be nuggets of gold to a certain type of modeller.
The very first branch opened in 1946 so we’re speaking a couple of business with seventy three years of buying and selling, solely closing on the retirement of the owner now into his 80s — who dropped in to see the ultimate closure.
The photograph above comes from the Gee Dee web site, effectively value a look for photos exhibiting a superb model store in its heyday.
Among the many goodies discovered have been some «Joy Club» playing cards used by consumers within the 1960s to save lots of up for items. You’ll are available in and pay your cash into the financial savings scheme and eventually have the ability to afford the Hornby Dublo locomotive or Aerokits boat you desired. At one point there have been 4000 members, all information being painstakingly recorded by hand — no computers in those days!
Gee Dee was a proper, traditional shop masking all branches of the model-making passion. Railways, radio management boats/planes/vehicles, plastic kits and marine parts hardware diecast collectables crammed the shelves in all scales. The train area might need been largely OO and N, but 7mm and G scale had been additionally properly represented.
I remember my first go to back within the mid-1980s. My dad and i had taken the train to the Nottingham present, it being (appropriately) urged as one to visit by our new mannequin railway club colleagues. After having fun with the event and a hearty chip-based mostly meal at the ice rink the place it was held (the lady serving seemed to contemplate a bag of frozen chips equalled two portions) we walked to the shop and were in heaven.
Just a few years later, when building Melbridge Dock and needing some boat fittings for boat hinge the scratchbuilt Clyde Puffers, we dropped in and have been allowed to raid a stack of tiny plastic drawers in one of many cabinets. I’ve by no means seen such an array of model boat fitting in a shop since. Some of those we purchased are in all probability still in our drawers as it was a long way to journey, so we stocked up!
Every visit to Nottingham since has centred on a go to. Much as I like the town, it is nice to have a focal level and i never left empty-handed.
Sadly, this has all come to an end. The shutters got here down. The lights were turned off. Those shelves nonetheless have goodies on them, although there were more spaces at closing time than when the doorways opened.
I went for a beer with the workers afterwards. Obviously, they will miss the place, many having worked there for years and all being modelmakers themselves. Everyone seemed in good spirits regardless of the occasion.
The individuals of Nottingham could have misplaced something important too. Some will name me silly and sentimental, after all, we’ve got the Internet so who needs a bodily store when you may order your newest Bachby locomotive sat in your pants at home?
Places like Gee Dee are extra than simply a shop for getting things. Peter, the boss, defined that if you want to talk football, you can go to any pub. In order for you to speak mannequin railways (or boats or planes) you cannot do that.
Maybe you are lucky sufficient to belong to a membership to sate your want to chat, but for lots of people, this isn’t an option. In a very good model store, you may discuss the belongings you make, the hobby you love, and no-one thinks you’re weird. Because in case you are bizarre, so is everyone else in there. At the very least we could be bizarre collectively.