Stopped in at a hobby shop in downtown Stavanger. A fair sampling of HO, tiny bit of N, and some scenic accessories. No O gauge of any kind to be found however. But, Stavanger is Norway's 3rd or 4th largest city so maybe pickings are better in Bergen or Oslo. I know this post has very narrow (or maybe no) appeal but I just wanted to share it with the O-gauge faithful here.
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Thanks - your post is appealing because it is interesting. Norway is a pretty nice country to visit. I've been to only Trondheim (too far North) and Oslo. Beautiful countryside, and very nice, friendly people.
Lots of big cities here stateside have shops with zero O scale items. Charlotte NC the biggest city in the state has no real hobby shops that carry any inventory of O scale. Maybe a bottom line Lionel starter set.....little else.
But places like Columbus Ohio has 3 good shops within 3 miles of each other. One 80% O scale with used vintage and parts! So it varies greatly here too!
I do like Norway, and have ridden the trains there, too, including the cog rail past the
waterfall up from the fjord. And camped around Norway, Sweden, and Denmark on a British camping tour in the dim, distant, geologic past. I have walked over both Bergen and Oslo and never saw a hobby shop, but may not have known what I was looking at, and, admittedly, wasn't looking for one. I did find one in London earlier on the same trip.
I did find a hardware store in rural Norway when I needed bolts to fix my camera case,
and a camera store with film in Oslo. Beautiful country...I would love to drive it, one
lane cliff-hanger roads interrupted by fjords and ferries, or not.
Columbus has 3!! good shops??? Where, where?
Michael, enjoy your trip. The O-Gauge products will be waiting for you back home. I am not surprised by your report.
Thanks all. It was a great trip. I did get to ride a Norway steamer and see some of their electrics in action. Trains are great wherever you go.
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