Can we have a N Gauge magazine monthly.

[hairygit]

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

[Pengi]

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.

[4x2]

I hope i'm not going to offend anyone (it's not my intention) but if magzines like this can be made.....



.....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 !

[Mustermark]

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!

[4x2]

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 

[4x2]

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 !

[4x2]

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....

[Geoff]

Well Mike that is yourself and me going to take out a subscription we just need to get the other 5000 on board.

[H]

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.

[Pengi]

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)

[Graham Walters]

It looks like our prayers may have been answered !

http://www.ngaugemodelling.co.uk/

[Sprintex]

Long_running thread here :-

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=17802.0


Paul