Saturday, September 19, 2015

TINGS 2015

Iron bridge

The International N Gauge Show - usually shortened to TINGS isn't one I normally visit but being just around the corner, and the place where you are most likely to find new products in the scale, a worthwhile trip.

I covered new products over on MREmag but what about the layouts?

Well, there were layouts but if I'm honest, very little really sparked my interest. I'm not a huge N gauge fan at the best of times but I don't think this was a vintage year.

Worst crime, perpetrated by several people, is to take the hugely chunky N gauge track and paint the rail sides with a bright oxide colour. Far from dulling the thing down, painting it red makes the over scale rail even more obvious. 

There was some nice scenery on display as you can see above and a fair bit of quality model making but overall, I got the feeling that the layouts are lagging behind the quality of RTR models available.

N gauge fans are forever bemoaning that lack of coverage they receive in the mainstream mags but when you point a camera at much of the modelling, it is horribly cruel. I know working in the scale is much harder than it is in 4 and 7mm but the readers don't always grasp this.

On the other hand, on the Saturday morning, the show was buzzing and everyone seemed to be having a good time, so it can't be all bad!

Photos on Flickr.

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