Sunday, February 18, 2018

Emsland modelling & toy train fair 2018

Last month, on 13 and 14th of January, the annual modelling & toy train fair was held in Lingen. I had been planning to visit them for several years. Last year there was too much snow and this year we could finally visit them. It is a swap meeting and exhibition of many trades of modelling. One hall was packaged with trains, one with trucks, the other with planes, boats, mini-steam engines and sterling motors. So it is a fairly broad happening in the Emslandhallen.
In a corner they flew with model air planes. But as usual in flight they are too fast to take a snap shot.
With RC trucks, it was apparently a custom to hire a dumpster filled with dirt and to let the off-road trucks run through it. We saw three of these dirt containers.

The collection of modelled boats was impressive. Most of them were RC boats that sailed in temporary pond at great speeds



My personal favorite was an Märklin scale zero layout. The rattling noise and the ozone smell were gorgeous.


In the swap meeting hall there were many sale booths with trains, most h0 and N. You had to look pretty good to find some scale zero stuff, like a Fleischmann train, a bunch of Lima railroad cars and one MTH boxcar. But the 45 € price tag for one box car without box was a bit too steep for me. I liked the many sales booths with electronic components, these were very handy.
The bread buns with salami, curry sausages with mustard were excellent. We just did not grasp the ice cream booth which had a healthy turnover. It ain't summer yet! Luckily the had plenty of beer to observe it all and to enjoy it all.