Ottawa Train Expo

[hugh1]

I visited and toured the Ottawa Train Expo today. Eastern Canada's largest train show. $8.00, $7.00 with a coupon and they give you the coupon so-.
It was held at Carleton University Fieldhouse, a great venue with lots of parking. It was a big hit, you should have seen all the people.
Lots of great displays, HO scale clearly dominates the model train hobby, there is no question about it, I would say they have about 90% of the hobby in their pocket.
Ottawa Valley N-Track had a great layout, really great, youtube it.
Rapido trains was there but didn't have any N scale on display, disappointing.
N scalers have to think of was to make ourselves more relevant in the hobby.
I think if the larger manufactures saw the turn out they would be tempted to attend future train shows in Canada.

[KIM]

I miss attending shows like that. When I lived in the lower 48, I got to a lot of them, but the logistics are so difficult from here, that I just don't do them anymore. I appreciate the feedback that those that do attend bring back to us.

[rhpd42002]

Sounds like a really good display, Hugh.

Did you happen to take any pics while you were there that you can share?

I don't get to many shows, but the small, annual one held near here, goes out of their way to get at least 1 display layout in N, HO, O, O27 3-rail and G/LGB. The dealer tables at this particular show I'd guess are almost evenly split between O-27/3 rail and HO, with N running 3rd.

I dabbled a bit in N many years ago and was moderately satisfied with it, but had and have waaayyyyyy too much in HO to seriously consider switching scales anytime soon.
Should that "bug" ever bite, I'd really consider 2 rail, O scale and build a switching layout.

[umtrrauthor]

There's a pretty extensive thread about this show over on Railroad-Line Forums. I don't know about the protocol for cross-posting thread links "from another network" so I'll refrain from that.

This show is definitely on my wish list for next year. As a plus, I've never been to Ottawa so this makes for a great excuse.