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.

Local scale zero gathering in Zutphen

Last weekend, the national scale zero gathering was held in Zutphen. I could combine a quick visit directly after opening on Sunday morning with another visit, so I checked the displays quickly.

The NS 3700 serie steam locomotive drove by the beautifully made draw-bridge. The highlight of Dutch-ness.

There was a beautiful small railway station that was built from scratch.

But there were also plenty of German, English, Swiss and Danish trains on the tracks.

And the master of mini-tram-layouts in scale zero presented a new one; The Hague, well kind of.

So it was a peaceful Sunday morning and it would most likely remain that way the complete day.

Local operators gathering

One of the local groups of toy train operators had their gathering today. So, we went through the morning fog to a sport hall of a table tennis sport club. As usual, there was plenty of space and room for chit chat.

The numerous men and -as far as I could tell- one women of the operator group displayed a few model train layouts in Z, N and half zero. Furthermore, there were a few tables with rendundant accessories, books and train cars.

Personally, I liked one American style N scale layout named Cattle bay the most. That layout was full of nice details.

But we also found a nice book on early Australian railroading and some other model stuff, so all in all we were quiet pleased with this mini local train show.

Local train swap meeting

Last weekend, the local train swap meeting was held in Zutphen. They even advertised for it in my street... as if I wouldn't know it yet. Anyway, there was some toddler musical of a fat red cat in the neighbouring theater so we had to walk 10 minutes to park the car. And even in the hall it was crowded.

There were several different children activities, loads of traders and a dozen or so layouts. Sufficient for me, for sure.

Besides Blik en Speelgoed which had sufficient goodies for me, there were only a few traders that offered scale zero. One bloke had a box full of old train cars and commanded ridiculous prices of 150 Euro for each car. I reckon that's why it is still the same box as last year. But for half zero and scale N there were plenty of deals to be made.

The guy of 'patience used to be dead normal' was pleasingly narrative in explaining how he used every day objects to scratch build trains with. He uses drinking straws as chimneys and cheap women's jewelry as front lights.

Anyway after we did our shopping, ate our fries and chatted with several new on-line model train stuff dealers that desperately tried to get acquainted, we thought that it was about time to visit the local operators open day. In their cactus oasis we looked at cheerful LGB trains puffing away through the barren landscape.

It was pleasant for us and particularly good for the cacti that it rained outside and that we were save and dry in a glass house with plenty of trains.

Swap meet in Aalten

The toy trains swap meeting in Aalten has always been a relatively small gathering. A few years ago they moved from "de Pol" to "'t Noorden". The latter being a party center complete with garden railway for children. So the move makes sense to me. Although in my perspective a name like "the East" would qualify better. Nevertheless, they have excellent hamburgers, pancakes, serve cold beers and also host a biannual toy train swap meeting.

Train nuts party center in the North of Aalten.

This year there were only three stands with toy trains, which is an all time low, but nevertheless, there were still plenty of toy trains and toy train artifacts. In fact more than that I was planning to purchase anyway.

One could argue that there was a little bit too much of Fleischmann and Roco and no zero. But I wasn't looking for zero scale stuff anyway, and needed a few switches,

During my slow search and salvage trip through the aisles, I found two objects of local toy train folk art that will blend in perfectly with my layout. Somebodies attempt to solder Andreas crossing signs and somebodies statement in wood crafting, that resulted in a nicely build wooden tower. This tower could one day be used as advertisement tower, I just would have to make the poster "Lionel trains if you got the brains". Although this might need some more consideration.

Here is today's loot displayed; a few switches, crossing signs, circuit for flashing lights, a relay and wooden tower with no current use yet but with potential for the near future.

Treinenbeurs de Pol in Aalten

Last Sunday there was a small local train show in "de Pol" in Aalten. It is held a few times annually. And last Sunday it was relatively small, since there was also a larger train show in Houten. Besides the organiser, Herman the clown, there were several traders with mostly Märklin, Fleischmann and minitrix stuff. Two were the most attractive for me. The ho-scenery stand showed a large choice of gypsym wall and road slabs, which are fairly cheap and look really nice once painted. Some of the coarser brick walls in h0 scale can easily be used in 0 scale, so it a tempting manner to make walls and brick roads with these slabs.
Another stand sold laser cut building kits of Moba Art and I purchased the simple shed in scale 0, so that will render some simple building fun in the coming days.