Z Scale modelling / New Member from overseas

[Anonymous]

Hi modellers,
as a new member I just want to introduce me a little bit:
50 years old and living in Germany, livelong nearly interested in Train moddeling, H0 as a child up to 16 ... than the " Disco and Studies " time without Modelling .. and starting 1972 I started with Z modelling ( I still keep the first Starterset in Z = 1 :220. Our Z Friends - Europe - community ist still based in Msn Groups, but soon will move to a free Server!
Most of us are based in Gemany and most of us do both: collecting and moddeling! As an example I would like to introduce my friend Joachim ... who has a lot of experience and on his homepage every Z Fan can take profit for his hobby pay a visit to: www.schwellenhopser.de !
Me myself I had to stop for nearly one year with modelling as I had to reconstruct my old house and then movved in that house.... !
Currently we there are in a state: The chaos ruled the family .. but now family is starting to rule the chaos more and more!
Most of us are still friends of moddeling the good old Steam Loco Time... !
Regards

Hermann F. Becker
Please do not worry about my bad writing in english....

[Anonymous]

Hi Hermann,

Welcome! I don't model Z (HO is much more available, and easy to see [;)]), but you might want to look at this thread:

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8640

Andrew

[CBQ_Guy]

Hi Hermann,

I have never seen a z-scale layout in "real life", only in pictures. I live in the Midwestern part of the U.S., state of Illinois and I, too, am 50 years old.

Z-scale is a bit pricey here, as I understand it. HO is the most popular by far with n-scale a close second. As I said, I would like a look at more z-scale as it it barely mentioned, let alone covered in our model magazines here. So do you have any links to layouts in Z you could share with us from your part of the world?

Thanks and welcome.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting the link to your friend's site: I looked it over, and I simply cannot believe that he is modeling in such a small scale! His layouts, while small, are crammed full of European detail, (which because I am American I surely do not appreciate as much as you do), and they seem much larger, especially in photographs. Great job!

What I would love to see modeled in Z is a "normal"-sized American-style shelf layout, one which places the tiny trains into a really big world, with expansive scenery. Real railroads, even in Europe, cross great distances and deal with large topographic features, which could plausibly be modeled in Z scale. I model in N, the next bigger size, and this is what I'm trying to do. I want to avoid having to compress model towns into too small a space.

[Anonymous]

Hermann,
Welcome to the forum! I'm very fond of Germany having been stationed in Heidelberg 1968-1971. Many happy memories! I'm also into N scale but have always had an interest in Z scale and European modeling. I hope you continue to post here and keep us informed about your activities.

Doug