The Way Forward

There's been a fair bit of discussion on the NZ120 group in the last couple of days, starting with,"where are all the NZ120 layouts at shows?"
this might well be extended to the question, where are the NZ120 layouts full stop?
I know there's bits and pieces lurking around the country, but they are well hidden. Gary Gloag is still on the exhibition circuit and flying the flag, but at the moment he appears to be rather alone. I must admit that I should probably be doing more modeling wise, but its a work in progress and a quite sizable project. I've already started contemplating modeling a bit of the Kapiti coast further towards wellington on the Pukerua bank to get something running. We'll see what happens to that.
I've probed my brains trust today to see what they think. One came back with;
"The scale needs:

1) Affordable, easy to put together locomotives that don’t look like crap (one piece cast tops?)
2) Lots of well written, pertinent articles in the modelling press
3) A nationally known layout that goes to exhibitions."

(then there was a bit of waffling prompted by a post lunch sugar high which I've spared you all from)

while I think No 1 is a bit more difficult than it seems (given the recent discussion on rapid prototyping of models and the real costs involved), number 2 should definitely be doable, and number 3 should follow on. in a reasonably straightforward manner.
So the question would then become why aren't more people writing articles for the local rag? Now I've chosen to communicate by writing a blog, which admittedly is not widely read at the moment (a check on Google reveals I'm No28 on the search engine rankings). I'm not sure when the last time i saw an article in the journal, and apart from pictures from the latest convention of K900 I think that's about it. Now this contrasts from the late 80's to the mid 1990's when there was an article in every other journal, plus at least 1 cover shot.
A thoughts just come to mind here (German weiss beer is cheap this week at the local supermarket). in the last 15 years the standards in S scale modeling have markedly increased, to the point where you no longer see average modelers submitting their work. now in NZ120 with the difficulty of actually working to higher and higher standards (apart from the gubbins in the loco's), maybe its something to do with the age old modesty, that my modeling isn't good enough etc. Well, gents, regardless of whether you think its good enough, others don't share your views. I cringe at some of the shortcuts I was forced to make, but some of the best fine scale modelers were impressed by what Darryl and I had done, simply because we have tried something that not many of them could contemplate; the New Zealand scene. Its all very easy to model whats on railway land in the larger scales, but not many step far outside the boundary fence.
I think that's enough rambling for now. Send me some photo's and a note or 2 and I'll post them here ( I appear to have solved the picture problem, so feel free to go back and have a more close inspection of the track plan further down the page).
And maybe I should make this thing more widely known. Its the modesty thing again I guess.