N Club Finland

N-scale in Finland

N Club Finland is an N-scale enthusiast community founded in 2007. We aim to promote N-scale model railways in Finland and help N scale to to become a viable alternative for those considering model railway hobby. While N-scale is gloabally one of the most popular scales, it is fairly unknown in Finland where H0 scale dominates the model railway scene. This is unfortunate as N-scale could be the key to bring new people in the model railway hobby in this country. After all, N-scale tracks and rolling stock are ideal for smaller apartments and everywhere where the space is limited. It is quite possible to build an N track inside a coffee table, for instance. N-scale is also a relatively inexpensive model railway scale where there is plenty of choice.

Why N Club Finland?

The idea to start a new club, dedicated to N-scale, was born in the online discussion forums of the Finnish Railway Museum in August 2007. The museulm organizes an annual model railway weekend every year in May. In the forum there was a discussion about selecting a common module standard for forum readers with a goal to assemble a larger module based model railway in the 2008 event. It turned out that a considerable number of forum readers were interested in building N-scale modules. Unfortunately, the final choice was a module system for H0 scale.

As about half of those interested in modules in general were supporting N-scale, it became obvious that N-scale modules were also needed. A small group of N-scale supporters decided to make the N-scale module track happen and started a process to plan N-modules and their production. An unexpectedly high interest in N scale in the forums and outside the forums helped in reaching this decision. Several existing module standards were studied closely and the group decided on picking the standard developed originally by the German club,  N Club International. This standard is technically and from the point of view of prodcuing module kits, very suitable and it is also in use by several clubs in Germany and Spain.

Quite often when discussing with people who are potentially interested in the model railway hobby, it has become obvious that there is a lots of interest. But one of the factors that often puts people off is the space requirements and this is understandable as in Finland model railways mean almost exclusivley H0-scale which usually requires more space than many can afford to dedicate for this hobby in their homes. The solution is so very obvious: N-scale requires about one quarter of the space H0 takes. Until now, the H0 enthusiasts have been dominating the scene in Finland and representing the hobby to the general public. Understandably those involved in H0 are not very keen to present alternative and often more suitable scale offerings. In future  N Club Finland will make sure that N-scale won't be invisible in Finland anymore and that the general public becomes aware that the model railway hobby does not necessarily require huge amounts of space.