IN
The N Gauge Society
TEXAS EXPRESS
at the
National Railway Museum, York
Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th May 2023.
NMRA Dallas TX
27-27 Aug 2023
The NMRA show in Texas near Dallas and Fort Worth was a great success for the Kato Mini Diorama. The display drew the most attention in the Kato booth at the public show.
Mini Diorama was started by Kato in Japan and has grown in the USA for the past 2 years and continues to grow. It is a great learning tool for schools from the 4th grade and up as it allows kids (both girls and boys) to express themselves in the physical world rather than on their electronic media. This brings out their mechanical and/or artistic skills and allows them to share with others. They share and enjoy by being able to connect them to other dioramas made by many other people and ages while watching a small train travel from scene to scene. We also display the mini dioramas in the library shows and hobby store workshops.
In Texas at the NMRA, members from all over the country and world met for about a week going on tours and sharing their stories and hobby with each other. Also, with the help of Stephen Moore and others in the NMRA, they set up a mini diorama build it project. The cost was $5.00 and consisted of mini diorama cut from 1 inch styrene foam board. and the Kato straight or curve track. This 1 inch foam board is exactly the height of the Kato Mini Diorama so they all connect together perfectly.
They had a variety of scenery materials available which they could pick from and also use their own materials and of course either the Kato straight or curved track glued onto the diorama piece. They could then display and connect to each other in the Kato USA booth at the show with an operating locomotive.
In the Kato booth, we had a 4 x 8 ft. table exclusively for the mini diorama. Displayed on it were the dioramas built by the NMRA members at the show and also 8 mini dioramas from the 4th graders in Villa Park (suburb of Chicago) and some built by the Kato USA employees.
There were also several prizes given out to the participants in a random drawing. If your diorama was part of the display in the Kato booth, we had a drawing where the 3 winners picked from the prizes provided by Kato USA. So it was fun for all. We wanted everyone to be proud of the diorama they made.
Why does the NMRA, Kato USA, Inc. and Hobby Stores promote mini dioramas?
1. To get young people in the hobby of model railroading.
2. To give people a way to express themselves mechanically and artistically.
3. To enjoy sharing their skills and ideas with the world
4. To give students another tool to learn and have fun doing it.
Mini Dioramas all connected at the NMRA Kato USA booth.
There is a club in the USA that builds mini-dioramas together. They were the leaders at this event and many creative creations were gathered.
NEXT SHOW :
Model Rail Scotland2024
Friday 23rd Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th February 2024
Scottish Event Campus Glasgow
Warners Exhibitions
November 23-24, 2024
SAT: 9.30am - 5.00pm, SUN: 9.30am - 4.30pm
National Exhibition Centre, Pendigo Way, Birmingham, West Midlands B40 1NT
