What are we lacking in Z scale?

A Hp0/Hp1/Hp2 signal
A re-railer track
More K.Bay.Sts.B locos.
Info on the future of Marklin's Z scale.

Chris.

How are you mate, Märklin make a rerailing ramp 8974, and definetley Hp0/Hp1/Hp2 signals; working of course.

Karin:

Thanks for the detailed reply. It's interesting how you design/fabricate integrated models. That must take a lot of time.

As for the windows, doors etc. I can see where Kelley was going with his rocketry analogy. What was one of the greates toys ever? Legos! Why? Because the possibilities with what you could do with them was limited only by your imagination. So having basic building blocks for those who don't want to build everything from the ground up would be nice.

Speaking of the ground up, since you do buildings - what about buildings with foundations that can be anchored into the layout? A lot of models I see are flat bottomed structures that sit onthe layout. It always looks odd to me. My house does not sit on my yard - it is anchored into it by the foundation. And my siding does not touch the ground. That would be very bad for my house - bugs, moisture, etc. To see a modern house on a layout that has siding go to the ground does not look right. It would be great to see barns (we need good barns) with rock foundations and houses with concrete foundations.

It also seems that maybe we could use some roundhouses as well.

Jeremy

Jeremy, agreed! That is why I have already designed and made such houses. See the following photos...

Front

Back

front

back

I want to again be the middle of road guy.. Foundations should be the easiest things to scratchbuild?!? Maybe because they have the sheets in the German hobby shops and they dont have them in the US but I use the n scale Kibri (honest I dont work for them) rock wall sheets or even the bricks (N scale bricks are almost..Z scale blocks) I mean you just score them, bend and they break..and paint, wash and drybrush and BAM, foundation! Or just styrene strips painted concrete. Or just a thick piece of styrene cut square and edges painted. sut a Basic model building. You then have to landscape and set the building in the layout not on it..I like those Ohio barns that has a dirt ramp and the earth is part of the building.
OH while I am thinking about it, something they have in both HO and N but not in Z...Modern highway guardrails.. I think this would be good Photoetched...but maybe sombody has those already? Good for interstate, mountain roads, and autobahnen.

Karin:

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. You rock. Those houses blend seamlessly into the ground. BTW, do the blue houses have the attic vents on the side?

Kelley:
Yes they should be easy to scratchbuild. Those products sound great. Actually, Paper Creek has some rock foundation that I was interested in trying. Could just apply it over a wooden base.

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy, in fact those are attic vents. Girls love to accessorize, I just like to do it with the laser:silly:

Bricks, vent, and meter. More of what "rocks", Jeremy

Oh, my word! What is the little silver box down there. Is that a dryer vent or a gas meter?

Okay, how 'bout gutters, crawl space vents, plumbing vents? J/K. Looks good.

Jeremy

As a folk modelling present era North America I must admit that most of my requirements are now fullfiled: modern motive power, modern rolling stock (including hoppers and heavy modern tank cars, high-cube boxcars, double-stack, etc), prototypically tie spaced track & turnouts, an huge choice of structures, etc.

However I see 3 principal points:

1-as most of the available locos are EMDs, we should need now some GEs and Alcos.

2-I don't forget my fellow mates working on transition era, and they still miss decent looking and decent priced steamers. When ( www.nascalemodels.com )'s heavy Mike becomes reality, a great step beyond will have been done.

3-and finally I don't forget my fellow mates workin' on european prototype, as for they there have been roughly only swiss/german/austrian for 35 years since the beginning of Z scale, and those wanting to model french, italian, spanish, british, swedish, danish, belgian, hungarian, polish, check or dutch railroads have better to consider another scale.....

Dom

Catenary - realistic, easy to install, and that will work with the ballast base of the MTL track - I converted all my entire Marklin track to MTL a few years ago (except for some of the smallest radius inside mountains and some Marklin Z track in the Marklin bridging
As I lived in Germany for seven years, I came to particularly enjoy the stretches along the Main and Rhine rivers - river/two laned roads/double tracks with catenary and vineyard covered hills beyond - I would like to model that in Z. I have neither the time or the skill to create my own wire and simply having the masts without wire is not what I want either.
Ralph

This is really a tough one! Also their masts are useless for Dutch/other countries.

Ralph, Welcome to ZCS. As a West coaster here in the US we don't have catenary on mainlines. All deisels. I've been to Europe and I know our East coast uses them and I understand your query. What I would like to know is how does one clean the track beneath all this wire and masts? It is hard enough just on wide open track. Cheers, Jim CCRR:)

Please see thread-- " A THOUGHT "
Fred

Jim -
After decades of only having Marklin HO, I decided to have both HO and Z - and in both used the overhead - quite successfully - even though the Marklin wire is not the most realistic ever produced. Then, I downsized the Z because it was so hard to keep the Marklin track clean. In that downsizing, I rid myself of all the Z catenary. I still had my 120 sq ft Marklin HO layout - 95% of which was under catenary, so that satisfied the need to relive those years (1960-1965 and 1970 to 1977) that I lived in Germany and so enjoyed the electric lines. Then, I found MTL track, for some reason became enamored with it, swapped out most of my Marklin Z track and now want to enjoy catenary again - hence the query.
Ralph

Ralph, Z is good. I assume you are talking about MTL Micro Track with the built in ballast? Good stuff. I do all my layouts with it now. Good luck with the 'cat'. Cheers, Jim CCRR:)