This is a case of me wondering what most forum members would do -  If you could only go to one show a year would it be the N Gauge Show?

I used to travel to the UK once a year (it's a bit too expensive now) which meant I could only take in one model railway show, last year I went to the N Gauge Show but in the past I have been to shows with layouts in a variety of scales,sizes and gauges and to be quite honest I enjoyed them more.

I don't know whether the fact that I don't model exclusively in N gauge has anything to do with it but I enjoy seeing 00 and especially 0 layouts too.

I'm off to wash out my mouth with soap now 

I agree - as long as there are a few N gauge layouts, I am quite happy to see other scales.  There was a terrific layout at Ally Pally this year with large scale radio-controlled real steam locos on it.

Living in Japan, pretty much any model railway show is by definition N gauge, with a few freak sideshow exhibits in other gauges...

Mind you it's always interesting to look at Japanese HO and O equivalents, both are wonderfully detailed and while the former is merely bl**dy expensive, the latter will happily swallow a decent month's salary for a single loco.

For me it would be era - I prefer diesel and electric layouts in any scale to steam-era layouts.

Cheers  Jon 

For me the traders and demos are as much a part of a show as the layouts, I like to get inspired by the layouts, whatever gauge or prototype they are, and then go to the traders and be able to get them to match each others prices, so I can get a good bargain on whatever I just got inspired to buy!

Also I like a bit of a natter - I've been to many shows where there are beautiful layouts but everyone is too busy operating to chat, and the only traders are the local charity tombola and that bloke making replica station signs.

And cake. I like a good homemade cake and tea from a big urn 

My only must see show is Scalefour North.
Otherwise, at an exhibition, I tend to like to see stuff I am not that interested in - it makes a change and keeps the horizons wide

For me it would always be one of the medium to large sized modeller-run multi-scale shows.

Quality & variety of layouts; decent varied trade with an emphasis towards the modeller rather than the R-T-R collector; and without the 'padding' of the largest shows...

Best examples are York, Wigan, Railex (the Aylesbury one).

I would add Wakefield, Pontefract and your own home town of Hull to any list of good exhibtions, as a rule.
To counter my apparent Northern Bias, I would say RailWells is as good as it gets too


I really do not like overly big shows, or commercial ones that benefit publishers etc

Quote from: JasonBz on April 22, 2016, 09:43:23 PM
I would add Wakefield, Pontefract and your own home town of Hull to any list of good exhibtions, as a rule.
To counter my apparent Northern Bias, I would say RailWells is as good as it gets too

As would I (I think I've done all three every year this century so far!) but those three are all in the next size range down, so if I was limited to one only for the, year even I would most likely forgo even my own clubs show for one of the slightly larger ones...
I've never done Wells but on reputation I think it deserves it's place on the list 

Quote from: JasonBz on April 22, 2016, 09:43:23 PM
I really do not like overly big shows, or commercial ones that benefit publishers etc

Ditto... I'll go for quality over quantity every time. There seems to be a happy medium around the 25-30 layout count above which adding more means reducing standards and sacrificing the overall quality. And yes I'd prefer to support those shows where any surplus is put back in to the hobby and I'm confident the exhibitors will be well looked after in return for entertaining me...