Britain's best selling steam & vintage magazine!

Comment... January 2012

And so we welcome in 2012 – a year that has long been in our subconscious – helped no doubt by the ‘London 2012’ media frenzy overload, although I’d bet my last hat that the vast majority of Old Glory readers have nil interest when it comes to our athletic prowess on the world stage. Perhaps when the Olympics are over, we will be able to see a return to the level of Heritage Lottery funding that the sector once enjoyed before the Government decided to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ for the Games. While heritage projects do not have a divine right to cash handouts, the HLF has certainly speeded up the pace of many projects that would still be floundering for want of funds.

So, to new year resolutions: How’s your restoration project going? Will you be spending this winter in the confines of your workshop or shed? Will 2012 be the year that you unleash your pride and joy at a rally for the rest of us to admire? There’s certainly some nice engines coming along in the closing stages of their restoration (and some certain wagons spring to mind as well) and we look forward to featuring them in these pages.

The NTET gave its audience a few resolutions at its recent AGM as well. Following a survey as to what the trust could/should be doing, it has vowed to do more ‘communicating and to listen more to its members’. We look forward to the trust acting on the suggestions made, and to be fair it has started the ball rolling with the appointment of a communications officer, who is one of two younger members that are now on the committee, which is great for succession management as the older ones get older. I’m sure I’m not alone when it comes to wondering what the ‘National’s’ policy is on a number of issues (although conversions and lost registrations are two subjects that immediately spring to mind) as there seems to be much ‘fence-sitting’ and mixed messages filtering down.

Our resolution here at Old Glory is to continue to bring you interesting news, features and archive on the subjects that you yourselves find of interest – and if doing that is measurable, then we must be doing it right as we have gained a further 2% in sales of the magazine in 2011, which can’t be a bad thing at all in these recessionary times – so thank you sincerely one and all for your loyalty.

Just a quick reminder, if you are organising a rally or vintage event in 2012 and haven’t yet told us about it, then please do so as soon as possible via the usual address.

May I wish all of our readers, advertisers and contributors the compliments of the season and the very best for 2012.

Colin Tyson
Editor