I went to my first swap meet yesterday evening, at Theydon Bois, near Epping, but came away a little disappointed. Nearly everything there was 00/H0, and the little N gauge stuff that was being sold was almost all modern Grafar and Dapol at high prices. I appreciate 00 has a far longer history than N gauge, but while there was plenty of 1960s/70s/80s/90s equipment from the likes of Triang, Kitmaster, Hornby etc, of the equivalent Treble-0-Lectric, early Graham Farish, Wrenn and Lima stock there was absolutely nothing.

Are all swap meets like this one? Has nothing from the early days of N gauge survived, or is it just not 'collectable'?

Alan

I've never been to one.  Is the name misleading, or should people be swapping things temporarily/permanently?!     Or maybe I'm completely wrong. 

I also found this at a local exhibtion. Even though there were plenty of N gauge layouts and several traders, only one had any meaningful N gauge stock. I would also hazard a guess that this is the reason N gauge items always go for silly money on ebay.

Second-hand N Guage is very expensive anyhow, especially UK outline where I see some truely dreadful models going for silly prices - £45.00 for a 30 year old Farish Spamcan (3 pole motor of course) anyone? In many situations it is a case of dealers needing a reality check...some stalls sell 20 year old Farish for the same price as you can pick up brand new stuff from Hattons. They will also offer you next to nothing for it, so of course less people are inclined to sell their collections this way...much prefering the Ebay route, or direct via forums.

Second-hand Japanese makes me laugh though. I recently saw an old (and I mean 25 years old) Kato EF58 on a stall for £50.00. I can buy a brand new one from Japan, and get it over to the UK, for just over £60.00. The old EF58 is no collectors item, just far cruder than its latest incarnation...

I was asked to go to a swap meet last weekend but couldn't, a close friend went and when I saw him the next day he told me that I hadn't missed much as there was hardly and N Gauge stuff there, same story here in Australia nearly all OO and HO at swap meets.

I have never been to a swapmeet and don't have any plans to go to one. Would love to go to a good exhibition though.

There are usually three N gauge stalls at the Gateshead toyfair. Prices for locos and rolling stock is usually way higher than Ebay, but you can get some bargains, such as a complete set of tracksetta's for under £3.00. 

I go to every swap meet within a sensible distance of Aberdeen, which amounts to about three/year. It's true that 90% of the stuff is for gauges other than N, but 90% of the punters are too, so I usually manage to pick up something.

The term swap meet is a little misleading, they're usually just specialised car boot sales. I have only once ever swapped anything.

A lot of exhibitions have a swap meet element, ie., traders.

going to a model railway expo at macclesfield tomorrow, hopefully will find some n gauge stuff there 

Didn't know they did them up here tadpole, anything down towards the Dundee area?

lawrence - there is an annual expo/swapmeet in dundee approx 20 october. It used to be in the Caird hall but is now in the international sports arena. See you there.

There's another in Perth each June. And regular ones in Falkirk (too far for me).

I did go along to one of these swap meet/toy fair type things a couple of years ago but found n gauge mostly absent. I think you find much better bargains at dedicated train shows, and there's the bonus of seeing some great layouts. I suppose the one thing you might see at the former and not the latter is second-hand goodies, but then there is always the issue of whether you can see something running before purchase. While I might buy rolling stock, scenic materials etc, I wouldn't buy a loco without seeing it working and some traders aren't able to demonstrate that

R E Faust

Funnily enough I have been lucky with buying secondhand (from forums). So far I have bought a Minitrix class 27, a farish 47 and a Farish 24 secondhand at about 1/2 new price and they are excellent. I also bought a new farish 24 which is good.

Having said that the first new loco I bought was a dapol steamer which did not run from new, the shop swapped this for another one which packed up after 1 week. I also bought a Farish steamer which was awful. Then I got another dapol steamer for Christmas and that did not run. This run of duff locos nearly made me give up the hobby. But then I bought a Bo-Bo diesel (the class 24) and realised just how good N-Gauge could be. I would love to run steamers but the run of duff ones has put me off.

So I have had more luck with secondhand than new!

I've been to a couple of swap meets and they all seem to be top-heavy with 00-H0, that being said there is still to be found some real gems amongst all the 00 junk in the form of N.
I have found that stalls selling 00 with a few N items pay little emphasis to the N items they have, meaning I have got some real bargains. At a stall in Loughborough I spotted a brass kit built class 58 albeit painted poorly. This was on an 00 gauge stall, the seller could'nt tell me if it was a runner or not, he picked it up as a job lot and just wanted to clear/sell it quick. I bought it for £30 (gamble), but when i got it home it was a superb runner, I have since paint-stripped the dodgey EWS attempted paint job from it, meaning now I have a running pre-Dapol class 58 N gauge loco  in brass finish ready to be painted to my standard/chosen livery.

My favorite 58 is 58005 in mainline blue livery, so i guess she will end up like the real thing. Iam also an avid member of the CL58LG (Class 58 locomotive Group). We have recently secured a real mainline 58 for future preservation. If your interested in helping, fund raising or assisting us help keep this great British made loco alive for future generations please join us at:

http://www.c58lg.co.uk/

Thanks Guys

OWL

Wow, a Class 58 in preservation...well done.  Are these not being used any more?  Or being phased out? I would love a model 58 in mainline or a class 60.  I have a 58 in Railfreight, a hand made one in NSE, and I sold a BHE kit built last year that was in Coal Sector livery.