Blue FlamerThere was a great 6 page spread in the December 2007 issue of MRR titled "Conquering the Alps in Z Scale." It documents the SSB Gotthard Line in Switzerland in the contemporary era. . It is done in the "Island Style" and measures a whopping, (for Z Scale) 30 feet X 50 feet and the mainline run is 310 feet long and the scenery is complete from what I can see. The owner/builder is Rob Fullerton. You can probably order a copy by going to the "OUR STORE" link near the top of the log in page. If you are truly interested in Z Scale, you will be truly amazed at this layout. I give it Blue Flamer.
There was a great 6 page spread in the December 2007 issue of MRR titled "Conquering the Alps in Z Scale." It documents the SSB Gotthard Line in Switzerland in the contemporary era. . It is done in the "Island Style" and measures a whopping, (for Z Scale) 30 feet X 50 feet and the mainline run is 310 feet long and the scenery is complete from what I can see. The owner/builder is Rob Fullerton. You can probably order a copy by going to the "OUR STORE" link near the top of the log in page. If you are truly interested in Z Scale, you will be truly amazed at this layout. I give it
Blue Flamer.
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
As others have pointed out there is a Ztrak group and magazine. Also Yahoo has a 2000 member group online caled z_scale its a 1:220 Model train community forum. As others have said its a small group; mabye getting larger over the years with the advent of American "Micro Trains" z scale and American z scale line and marklin trains z.
George
R. T. POTEETAs it is I have to pass; my aging hands are having a hard enough time with N-Scale and I am having to give consideration to going back to Horribly Oversized-Scale.
As it is I have to pass; my aging hands are having a hard enough time with N-Scale and I am having to give consideration to going back to Horribly Oversized-Scale.
R.T. Potent, may I remind you that "HO" stands for "Honorable Scale" and "N" is strictly "Nasty"
Lol............
Johnboy out.....................
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
1) Ztrak magazine goes back to 1988. There may not be enough Zscalers to support a 2nd publication.
2) Z used to be supported by Marklin. Now MicroTrains make some nice NA product. AZL ia another fine manufacturer. MicroTrack is a very good track product similar to Unitrak. At this point, there is a limited selection of tracks.
3) The MTL GP9 & GP35 are very good locos, comparable to Atlas/Kato Nscale. The GP9/35 suffers somewhat by a fat hood & truck mounted couplers similar to 1980's style Nscale locos. They can be made to look & run better.
4) The main appeal of Zscale may be with those living in apartments with a spare bedroom at best & no basement space to put a HO/N empire. These layouts may be too small to appeal to the MR crowd.
5) Check out MTL & other maker's laser cut wood building kits!
My thoughts on layout height,get yourself a wheelchair,set in it then have some one raise the layout or at least a module to a comfortable viewing height.Then build the layout THAT tall.
BRAKIE N Scale started the same way and struggled along in its early years until MR decided to endorse N Scale beyond the occasional article...IMHO this endorsement came in 1979 with the Clinchfield layout series and the following displays at the bigger train shows and of course the national train show.
N Scale started the same way and struggled along in its early years until MR decided to endorse N Scale beyond the occasional article...IMHO this endorsement came in 1979 with the Clinchfield layout series and the following displays at the bigger train shows and of course the national train show.
MR tried to do somewhat the same thing for Z scale with Bruce Goehmann's Western Pacific sectional project layout, February through May, 1986. Perhaps it was a bit too early for the scale. Some folks associated with the Western Pacific Railroad Museum are restoring that layout and it was on display at the Anaheim NMRA Convention this last summer. Pretty neat.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
As far as coverage of Z scale, HOe, Humonguscale indoor live steam... in Model Railroader, it has been mentioned before and bears repeating:
Model Railroader publishes what freelance authors and photographers submit. No submission, no publication! it's that simple.
If you want MR to publish your favorite (fillintheblank,) find (or - gasp - build) a supurb example thereof, take a bunch of high-quality photos, man the word processor long enough to produce a coherent, detailed description, insert the package into a clasp envelope and send it to the Editor. You might be rebuffed with a rejection slip (I have a nice collection, from a variety of sources.) You might be pleasantly surprised with a check!
If anyone is really interested in taking up the challenge, MR's writers' guidelines are easy to find. Just click through the headings at the top of the page. (I actually saw them published in Writers' Guide about 25 years ago.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Catt Todd,I would suggest that if your going to get into Z that you start out with a 2' X4' handy panel.the trains may be small but they still look better on fairly wide curves.
Todd,I would suggest that if your going to get into Z that you start out with a 2' X4' handy panel.the trains may be small but they still look better on fairly wide curves.
I was on my 3rd N-Scale layout circa 1984 when I go tired of looking down at my trains from the top of Mr Everest and I raised my (minimum) track heighth up to 54 inches where it has remained ever since; the transformation was stupendous and extraordinary. I would suggest that anyone contemplating going into Z-Scale incorporate a track heighth of approximately 80% of their heighth. Trains viewed from the side look considerable less toy-like than trains viewed from altitude.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
I was stationed in Germany in the early '70s when Märklin introduced their Z-Scale--they called it Mini-Bahn or something like that; it was definitely cute but was it model railroading?
Ten years after its introduction it still was relatively toy-like.I did pause at Cincinnati in 2005 to examine it a little more carefully and by this time it was well emerged from out of the toy category. I also examined a copy of the Z-Track magazine which Kalmbach had just picked up for publication and, to be honest, there was an article of interest in that issue that prompted me to come home and look into a subscription but it was beaucoup bucks and I decided to hold off until a later-date. I found the scale intriguing; I guess I found that that 27 1/4% smaller size against N-Scale had a certain appeal. Anyway, were I 30 years younger--and had it reached the same stage of development as had N-Scale in the early '80s--I suppose I could give it serious consideration as a modeling scale. As it is I have to pass; my aging hands are having a hard enough time with N-Scale and I am having to give consideration to going back to Horribly Oversized-Scale.
I remember a feature on a swedish mountain layout last year (I think) that demonstrated just what Z scale can do.
I've mulled over switching to Z, but I'll stick with N scale, because the prices are better, and I'v already got so much invested.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
I really think there is going to be a big jump on those getting into Z. At the last train show there was a large crowd around the one vendor selling Z scale products. I couldn't believe how well the Micro Trains Locomotives ran. Heck, some of them are DCC ready(!). I'm in HO right now but am intrigued at what you could do in 1X3'...I do agree the prices need to come down a bit..
Todd,As of now many look at Z as being to tiny for "serious" modeling..
Not to worry..N Scale started the same way and struggled along in its early years until MR decided to endorse N Scale beyond the occasional article...IMHO this endorsement came in 1979 with the Clinchfield layout series and the following displays at the bigger train shows and of course the national train show.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
There are several Yahoo sites for Zedheads,plus we have at least 1 forum.The biggest problem I can see with Z is that every manufacturer seems to think their stuff should cost more than the last guy.
As for seeing Z in the mainstream publications,build it,picture it, submit it.If they get enough they will publish it.
Johnathan (Catt)
Minority scales also don't have as many authors/layouts etc. so not as much material is prepared. Plus it has only been recently that a fair amount of U.S. prototype has been available. A check of the trackplan database shows 3 Z layouts in the last 5 years in MR. I think this number will increase somewhat in the future, but I doubt that the scale will ever be a major player since it is so close in size to N.
Enjoy
Paul
Be patient--I have a feeling that as Z scale grows in popularity--and it seems to be catching on with a portion of modelers--that MR will probably devote more space to it.
N scale went through the same growing pains when it first came out, and now MR devotes a relatively fair amount of space to the scale. It's all in the growing process.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
MRR might not have a lot of Z scale but this magazine is devoted to it.
http://www.ztrack.com/
... that article appeared in October? November? 2007! Whereever you look in the world, Z scale does not get much coverage in magazines. Even the leading German MRR mags report only at the time of the Nuremberg Toy Fair about Z scale. Maybe there are not enough "serious" layouts around to report on. The only mag that frequently covers Z scale is the Marklin Magazin, running a promotional layout building series every year.
au contraire mon ami
Perhaps it was earlier this year - I'm not sure now and I don't keep hold of back issues of the magazine I buy so I can't check on this, but, MR did run an article of some sorts about a Z layout operating in, Switzerland, I think that is where it was located. In any event articles about Z layouts are pretty rare.
Bruce
There occasionally have been articles in MR featuring Z-scale trains in the past but with Z-scalers probably amounting to no more than 1%-2% of hobbyists, it just isn't reasonable to expect MR to devote much page space to that scale. I do note, however, that there is a Z-scale loco shell featured in the new products pages of MR this month.
CNJ831
I'm becomming more and more intrigued with Z scale, especially after seeing a vendor running some Micro Trains items at a swap meet recently. I notice there is pretty much nothing written about it in MR. It' the classic "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" question: MR doesn't feature Z because it isn't popular or people aren't interested in it because MR (and other non-online model train mags) don't feature it. I'm seriously considering building a small table top layout in Z. It would be nice to see some articles and reviews of Z scale items in MR.
Todd