I would be interested if anyone knows if there is anyone modelling the South African railway and any photos of them

Hello,
Have a look here.

http://www.modeltrainshop.co.za/N-Gauge_Module_for_New-Fair_Stuttgart_November_2011.html

Lived in RSA for 5 years and looking at these modules sure makes me remember.

Kind regards
Mark-Jan

Looks great.

I found this vid of South African N gauge, which raises 2 interesting points...


SAR Model Train with working catenary6

1 - Where can you buy these loco's ?
2 - Is there a record for being the first to run working overhead wires in N gauge, on the carpet  

Interesting points would love to have a 16f class if it was available.

Much of it is also Cape Gauge so you'd want to use Z scale track and mechanisms to build some big Garratt locos and perhaps one of the fantastically angular RVR Henschel's

Quote from: Thebigshot on October 04, 2013, 10:18:11 PM
Interesting points would love to have a 16f class if it was available.

No No NOOOOOO!!!.

Visited several years running from 76 onwards for the Steam. My Sister had emigrated to Joburg and for the first few years she worked for Kodak (Free film!!)  and later on managed a car hire firm (Free cars!!).

I would tear up my British layout in an inkling for SAR ready to run steamers.

Back to sleep now....

Jerry

I, for my sins, am the membership secretary of the N Gauge Guild of South Africa so hopefully I can part with some information.

Firstly, EP is right, to properly model SAR in N you would need Z gauge track. Our lot are a casual bunch and don't bother with that. Our club layout is modular and features a glorious mix of scenery and rolling stock from all over the world. We do however try to run prototypical trains but often fail 

There are no commercially available N gauge models available. Lima used to do rather bad ones in H0 and Frateschi do some of their diesels in H0 . DJH do very expensive H0 kits and a new manufacturer is hand making resin steam locos, also in H0.

The few members in our club who have modelled SAR locos and trains in N have made use of del Prado bodies (probably still a few left on eBay) and kitbashed similar looking locos and stock from other countries. One has kitbashed a Fleetline LMS Garratt.

Our club is guilty of building the modules seen in Stuttgart, we had a rush of blood to the head and sent them and a handful of members to the Stuttgart Show, we left the modules behind with the organisers so they could use them in future layouts.

To understand why SAR models in N are not commercially viable you need to know that railways are not a major part of the way of life here and that the majority of the population have more pressing needs than buying model trains. It is estimated that there are only about 500 railway modellers in the whole country. Most of whom model in H0.

There are very few local model railway manufacturers here and they tend to be cottage industries. Most of the modellers here buy imported items from the few local model shops or import them from the UK or USA.

Once the models get here they are very expensive so this discourages most modellers from hacking them about.

In our club British outline is in the minority as most of our members favour American outline, particularly Kato diesels.

This is a link to our website but there's not much to see as it's being revamped so it might be better to take a look at it in a few weeks time. http://nggosa.co.za/wp/

Regards

Veronica

PS. We don't have any train shows as such but I have just come back from a general hobby show where we had an N gauge and H0 layout on show,  so we are doing our bit to promote model railways.

It sounds like we are privileged to have you here then Veronica!