I am not sure if N Gauge is really picking up but I hear all the time that folks exchange the 00 Gauge for N Gauge all the time, I buy Railway Modeler every month and this month it has got to me that they do not like over catering for N Gauge enthusiasts, all that is in this months Railway Modeler is the Wenbridge to Tapley line which is a very fine model but the rest of the mag is devoted to bigger gauge models, come on guys at Railway Modeler or any one else give us something to read we can get our teeth into, I am really considering into stopping buying these model rail mags, I want N Gauge stuff to read now..
Thank heavens for this forum.
Sorry for my rant but it winds me up.
Well the NGS magazine is every other, so I guess it depends how often Mr Hedges releases his magazines in between 8)
Hi Geoff - yes, it would be great but the 'main' mags try to cater for all and, in the case of :NGAUGE:, fail quite badly. Could this be because not a lot of N gaugers send articles to them for publication ???
I know we get our bi-monthly fix from the NGS (which is far better than the monthlies) but if only it were monthly itself :thumbsup:
N'spirations is gathering speed, although not monthly still a good read,,,, between that and the ngs journal I get my fix,,,,
I'd also like to see more N gauge in mainstream magazines.
I always look forward to my N Gauge Journal and I was considering joing the 2mm scale association for the scratch/kit building side to help improve my modelling skills - so that would be an extra fix of pseudo N gauge stuff.
But we do have to remember that; (please don't take offense), most of the people that buy Railway modeller etc are 50+ years old with failing eyesight and increasing attention to detail, which is easier to achieve in the larger scales.
I hope N gauge continues to grow for years to come! :NGaugersRule:
From what I know, one of the main mags does like to ensure there is at least one major article in each edition in each of 2mm/4mm/7mm scale and something 'Steam Era' and something 'Diesel Era'. Beyond that, quality rules over any strict division between scales and I support that policy. I'd much rather read an interesting well written article on any scale/prototype/era etc than another identical "I nailed sum PECO track down and got my trains stright out the farish boxes" article. If there is any skewing of the content (and everyone believes the mags are biassed against their particular interests don't they ;) ) is it far more due to the standards of contributions recieved than any deliberate editorial policy.
If you want to see more N-Gauge content get on and write it, but find a new angle, add a new perspective, dont just mimic evey other layout article you see...
Paul
While I agree it would be nice to have a dedicated monthly N Gauge magazine, many of the 'How To' type of articles are easily adapted to suit any gauge. Added to that the 00 layouts can easily be scaled down to N Gauge. Just because a layout is built to 00 gauge does not mean it should be dismissed as irrelevant to N, or any other gauge. I would imagine that 0 and G gauge modellers feel just as marginalised as we do.
The one thing that does irritate me, however, is that when competitions are held the prizes are always 00 gauge/scale with no option to exchange them for comparable items in other scales.
Just to add that RM and other mags receive complaints like this all the time, and they always reply that they can't feature N layouts if people don't submit them for publication! The following for 00 still far outweighs us N-gaugers so it will always be prominent, and the 0-gaugers probably complain just as much as their scale is rarely featured as well ;)
As the previous Paul said, we need more quality N gauge layouts to be submitted for possible features :thumbsup:
Paul
Quote from: Zaonite on February 23, 2012, 03:26:48 PM
But we do have to remember that; (please don't take offense), most of the people that buy Railway modeller etc are 50+ years old with failing eyesight and increasing attention to detail, which is easier to achieve in the larger scales.
I hope N gauge continues to grow for years to come! :NGaugersRule:
None taken :evil: :wave:
You can get an exclusively N gauge fix on a daily basis from forums like this.
You can get a bi-monthly all N gauge fix from the NGS 'journal'.
You can get some more exclusive N gauge content in 'N'spirations'.
And you can find a bit of N gauge in all issues of all the major monthly commercials like Railway Modeller, Model Rail, BRM, Rail Express modeller and even the Hornby magazine. Not a bad choice and coverage overall.
I actually find it quite nice to also see what is going on in other scales. Usually they have something you can learn from and as already mentioned by PLD, Chinahand and Red Death it does offer an extra quality aspect to railway modelling.
H.
All very interesting comments and the publications mentioned are no doubt quality publishings but one aspect of n gauge that has not been mentioned here is those of us who prefer US rolling stcok.
The last magazines I bought were N'spirations a which is great buy if you are into British stuff, I ended up selling the copies I had bought to another member here as, apart from layout ideas, there was nothing US in it. I have not bought any of the mainstream magazines for over a year because of this.
In the recent weeks there have been a few members here who have posted their intentions to sell off their British stock, mainly because of quality and running issues, and are moving to US stock because they bought a Kato loco and were floored by its quality and performance.
I signed up for the Model Railroad Hobbyist online magazine and apart from being free and not having a great deal of n gauge/ scale in it, there is at least more relevant information in it.
So if a publication was to appear on a monthly basis, if there were no American content in it - guess who would not be interested? ... and there are no prizes for anyone correctly guessing ::)
cheers John.
To be fair to them; 'Railway Modeller' does have it's sister mag 'Continental Modeller' covering the European and US prototypes (generally 50:50 ish) and as for 'British Railway Modelling' - the clue is in the title!
Quote from: scotsoft on February 23, 2012, 05:43:06 PM
All very interesting comments and the publications mentioned are no doubt quality publishings but one aspect of n gauge that has not been mentioned here is those of us who prefer US rolling stcok.
There are, of course, the Americans mags, like
Model Railroader, that are available here and have quite a bit of N and absolutely no British (or other overseas), and, as mentioned,
Continental Modeller that features some American and N. Plus the NGS worldwide Area Group produce a newsletter exclusively about N gauge and featuring lots of foreign railways.
But that's the problem; as one specialises you restrict your interest range and therefore tend to marginalise yourself and limit what is available to you. It's a bit like those who are only interested in only the steamy (or D&E era), or a particular region, perhaps for just a few years, and with only stock designed by CME so-and-so. It gets difficult to sustain such narrow spheres of interest in magazines.
H.
Quote from: PLD on February 23, 2012, 05:51:31 PM
To be fair to them; 'Railway Modeller' does have it's sister mag 'Continental Modeller' covering the European and US prototypes (generally 50:50 ish) and as for 'British Railway Modelling' - the clue is in the title!
I am not aware I singled out "British" Railway Modelling ???
cheers John.
i'm bored of model train magazines now to be honest...
i prefer to read magazines on the real things (i like traction and rail express). i just flick through the model ones in the shops, i flick through continental and us magazines as well if they have them on the shelf.
for advice / questions / reviews etc etc i use this forum now instead, so in a way the internet has removed some of the need for the magazines.
tim
I'll second the last post, why spend money on a mountain of paper each year when all the info and help you could ever want is on this forum ??? The reviews are totally honest real life experiences, a new model may perform well for a magazines short test, but long term reliability and problems can be found here, for FREE ;D
Quote from: bluedepot on February 23, 2012, 06:09:08 PM
i'm bored of model train magazines now to be honest...
i prefer to read magazines on the real things (i like traction and rail express). i just flick through the model ones in the shops, i flick through continental and us magazines as well if they have them on the shelf.
for advice / questions / reviews etc etc i use this forum now instead, so in a way the internet has removed some of the need for the magazines.
tim
I agree with this. I find the model magazines get repetitive. I prefer to buy 'Modern Railways' as it is today's railways that I am interested in. I can find plenty on this forum if I need help with modelling.
I hope i'm not going to offend anyone (it's not my intention) but if magzines like this can be made.....
(http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee442/djmikeymike2011/original_f44d9aksjg5i8.jpg)
.....then surely N gauge has a chance !
I would welcome a monthly N mag with open arms and it would most likely increase the membership on here too ! There is a huge market for N gauge out there - the UK is the perfect market for small scales, just look at Japan, N gauge is everywhere and HO is the 2nd choice ! If (and it's a big IF) I came up trumps on the Euro lottery, i'd invest a large chunk on an N gauge warehouse (a real one !) as I believe with the right promotion N gauge in the UK could easily catch up with 00 (sorry, i swore..) and make a big pile of cash as well... Just look at ebay and you can see the silly prices people pay for what is really somebody else's junk... If people could find new stuff advertised in a shiney glossy mag they are more likely to buy new and that helps the cause no end !
A dedicated N gauge mag could help to bring us out of the shadow of other scales in the UK... sounds a bit ott, but trust me - we need a mag asap !
:NGaugersRule:
Mike, i hate to break it to you, but that is BIG business here in the US. There are crafting superstores and scrapbooking stores. It may be mostly ladies, but there are a lot of them. There is no doubt that they outnumber N gaugers considerably!
Quote from: Mustermark on February 23, 2012, 10:04:00 PM
Mike, i hate to break it to you, but that is BIG business here in the US. There are crafting superstores and scrapbooking stores. It may be mostly ladies, but there are a lot of them. There is no doubt that they outnumber N gaugers considerably!
and i thought i was safe with that mag ! oh well.... :-[ Here in the UK it's relatively unknown, there are loads of titles i could have used as an example... my main point was to show that if other smaller hobbies can have a glossy monthly mag, so can we !
I really do think it could work really well in the UK and possibly overseas as well :thumbsup:
Quote from: red_death on February 23, 2012, 10:39:38 PM
How many people do you think model N in the UK? I suspect it is an awful lot smaller than you think.
I'm confident it's growing steadily, houses are getting smaller so less space for 00 gauge, the general quality of N is getting better all the time - Even this forum is growing steadily....
I would probably guess around 5000 ish - no actual data, just a rough guess... But they do spend a lot of money, i should know !
Quote from: red_death on February 23, 2012, 10:53:35 PM
This forum is relatively new so not surprising that it is still growing.
You may not be too far wrong with 5000, but that is hardly a number to support a monthly mag.
But's that's why i think we need one - to get the word out ! Think positive i say.... ;D
Well Mike that is yourself and me going to take out a subscription we just need to get the other 5000 on board.
:NGaugersRule:
You'll probably need sales/circulation of more than 25,000 a month to make a high street stand commercial magazine viable and lots of advertisers. Although as a subscription only mag like Scale Model Trains you'll probably get away with less. Here's some figures to consider; circ/sales of RM is about 60,000 and MR is 35,000. Membership of the NGS is 5000.
But if you think there's potential why wait for a lottery win, why not take a loan out and get up and running now. I'm sure that if the banks agree that you have a good business case they'll be more than willing to lend and then you could be on your way to becoming a highly successful millionaire model publisher.
I'd be willing to take out a subscription if it's good quality.
H.
The issue for me is that I like the current EMUs (no pun intended) and DMUs which do not get as much coverage in the magazines on sale - this is why I buy Modern Railways from time to time.
This is what would tempt be to buy on a regular basis:
Scenery (making and buying), DC/DCC, simple maintenance (e.g. oiling), baseboards (wood/foam etc, pros and cons), lighting, ballasting, people, what people have in their toolkit, loco/rolling stock reviews (maybe new and after so many hours/years of use - so that we know what faults are possible when buying second hand), paint reviews and how to apply, planning a layout, track types - pros and cons, peoples layouts, a train first aid section, readers views etc. I would expect the reviews to cover Kato/Atlas/Tomix/Fleischmann etc as well as Farish/Dapol/Peco and also cover EMUs as well as the other types of trains. Maybe you could include some Z scale to increase the readership?
I'd take out a subscription to support a new venture from someone from this forum though (provided it was not too expensive)
It looks like our prayers may have been answered !
http://www.ngaugemodelling.co.uk/ (http://www.ngaugemodelling.co.uk/)
(http://www.ngaugemodelling.co.uk/siteimages/11/2/5/112535/10/2/3/10236687/595x842.jpg?1439039548)
Long_running thread here ;) :-
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=17802.0 (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=17802.0)
Paul