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1889 1st trainload of fruit (oranges) leaves Los Angeles for the east


1968 Pennsylvania Railroad/NYC Central merge into Pennsylvania Central

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
o o o o o o o . . . ______________________________
o _____ || |
.][__n_n_|DD[ ====_____ | |
>(________|__|_[_________]_|____________________________|
_/oo OOOOO oo` ooo ooo 'o!o!o o!o!o`
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

1840 Housatonic Railroad opens


1877 US railroad builders strike against wage reduction


Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
o o o o o o o . . . ______________________________
o _____ || |
.][__n_n_|DD[ ====_____ | |
>(________|__|_[_________]_|____________________________|
_/oo OOOOO oo` ooo ooo 'o!o!o o!o!o`
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Hearing no objections, continuing the history lessons:

1935 Pennsylvania RR begins passenger service on new streamlined electric locomotive

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
o o o o o o o . . . ______________________________
o _____ || |
.][__n_n_|DD[ ====_____ | |
>(________|__|_[_________]_|____________________________|
_/oo OOOOO oo` ooo ooo 'o!o!o o!o!o`
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

1815 NJ issues 1st US railroad charter (John Stevens)

1891 1st great train robbery by Dalton Gang (Southern Pacific #17)

1951 "Broker Special" train crashes in Woodbridge NJ, killing 84



Sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
o o o o o o o . . . ______________________________
o _____ || |
.][__n_n_|DD[ ====_____ | |
>(________|__|_[_________]_|____________________________|
_/oo OOOOO oo` ooo ooo 'o!o!o o!o!o`
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

WARNING : Contains minor adult language !!

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
o o o o o o o . . . ______________________________
o _____ || |
.][__n_n_|DD[ ====_____ | |
>(________|__|_[_________]_|____________________________|
_/oo OOOOO oo` ooo ooo 'o!o!o o!o!o`
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
"A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns."? MARIO PUZZIO







?Now, ?for your history lesson today...........?
?
?????
????
???Railroad ?tracks.

??????????????????????The??US ?standard railroad gauge (distance between the ?rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd ?number.
????

Why ?was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in?England, and English expatriates designed the?US ??railroads.
????

Why ?did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were
built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
????

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

?
?
???

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if ?they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in?England , ?because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

?
???
????


?So ?who built those old rutted roads? Imperial?Rome built the ?first long distance roads in Europe (including?England) ?for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.??
?????


?And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, ?which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.??
?
???
???
?
???
?Since the chariots were made for Imperial?Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States ?standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the ?original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. ?Bureaucracies live forever.??
????


?So the next time you are
handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder "What horse's ass came up with this?", you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses (two ?horses' asses).??
?
???
???
?
???
??Now, the twist to the story:??
????


?When ?you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad,
there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. ?These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by ?Thiokol at their factory in ?Utah.??
?
???
???
?
???
??The?engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about ?as wide as two horses' behinds.?
?
???
???
????


?So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two
thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important??? ?





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In the newly created Crossover Module photo album on this group, I have place 2 photos (one overhead and one side) of the 6 foot crossover module that I created a couple of years ago and that we use for the DC ZBend Track group. It has been used at a couple of shows, and can support trains of 50 or 60 cars. Brian, Rob, Randy et al, please correct me if I am off on the numbers. To compensate for the crossover, a specially wired balloon end module is used next to the crossover. One pair of tracks dips down and one rises up, for perhaps a 2+ per cent grade. For the first show, a non-balloon end module was used, but it severely limited the train lengths because a too tight radius was used. The balloon end module, with a much wider radius, appears to have alleviated this issue. For the balloon end module, the track feeder wires that normally go to the outside rail outer track are wired to the connector post for the inside rail inner track, etc.

Pat

Thanks. Got it. It will take me a while to study ans absorb it all.???? DEWEY
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
o o o o o o o . . . ______________________________
o _____ || |
.][__n_n_|DD[ ====_____ | |
>(________|__|_[_________]_|____________________________|
_/oo OOOOO oo` ooo ooo 'o!o!o o!o!o`
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

--- On Sat, 1/15/11, ztrack@... <ztrack@...> wrote:

From: ztrack@... <ztrack@...>
Subject: Re: [Z-Bend_Track] crossing back to front
To: Z-Bend_Track@...
Date: Saturday, January 15, 2011, 11:24 AM

We have the Z Bend Track standards posted here:



Rob



Ztrack Magazine Ltd.
www.ztrack.com
www.ztrackcenter.com
www.ztrackresale.com
6142 Northcliff Blvd
Dublin OH 43016
(614) 764-1703






------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I'm new to the group and Z-scale. Where can I get a copy of the standards mentioned below?
DEWEY

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
o o o o o o o . . . ______________________________
o _____ || |
.][__n_n_|DD[ ====_____ | |
>(________|__|_[_________]_|____________________________|
_/oo OOOOO oo` ooo ooo 'o!o!o o!o!o`
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

--- On Fri, 1/14/11, aprsrdw <ah.v.schaijk@...> wrote:

From: aprsrdw <ah.v.schaijk@...>
Subject: [Z-Bend_Track] crossing back to front
To: Z-Bend_Track@...
Date: Friday, January 14, 2011, 2:29 PM

when I look at the pictures of the standard I get the idea that connecting the left front inner track to the right back outertrack and visa versa is not alowed but there is not actualy written anything about it.

the same goes for the end modules, the other tracks and inner tracks loop but nothing is written about alowing the front tracks and back tracks loop.

finaly the y and x modules the tracks keep following the edges but again nothign is written about alowing the tracks to cross or turnout.

are alternative track connections alowed provided you keep taps on the directions?



------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

We need to get you hooked up with the Zmod groups, a 2 track mainline module standard. There a couple of Niederlander gentlemen and many others in the Europe and Scandanavian region. Z Friends Europe is a place to start and the Trainanini online magazine. Also, every 2 years is a HUGE Z scale meet, formerly in Geseke, now Altenbeken Germany. Next year is the scheduled meet.


Jeff

SF Bay Area Z

We have the Z Bend Track standards posted here:



Rob



Ztrack Magazine Ltd.
www.ztrack.com
www.ztrackcenter.com
www.ztrackresale.com
6142 Northcliff Blvd
Dublin OH 43016
(614) 764-1703

--- In Z-Bend_Track@..., Don Fedjur <donfedjur@...> wrote:

The beauty of the Z-Bend configuration is a standard of which you can modularly hook up with your fellow railroader to create multiple configurations. You can cross, loop, spread out in any direction on any given module, as long as you connect back to the "connection standard". Now.........if you want to custom "pin" or connect say the middle section of a yard module, such as what is in the planning stages for 2011 NTS, as in no expansion tracks, you can do that too. Just that you are now confined to a module of your own making that is not interchangeable, read modular with any one of your fellow railroaders. That is the beauty of having a standard.

While doing your own thing, keep in mind if you do hook up to others your track radius and clearances, especially rock and tunnel portals. If you have configured your module to run your 0-6-0 in some tight radius', criss crossing the continent..........my Challenger is not gonna be happy.

Hopefully you are building something to join in the fun for NTS?


Don

Thanks Don and everyone else who responded.

Just realise I forgot to introduce myself, I'm usualy called Hey you or Andre by friends :) I'm in Netherlands (for the geographicly chalanged that is the litle country between england germany and belgium with the capital Amsterdam :) ) I'm mostly going to use modules for my home layout because I have limited abilety to leave it up permanently but won't rule out finding a club to join in a larger layout. My job is civil engeneering, at the moment airfield runways for the dutch airforce but have designed a number of railroad projects

Glad to hear the freedom includes the abilety to cross and interconnect including using adopter modules between the standard and other module interfaces.

Talking about interfaces as randy pointed out if you do cross then the incomming wires need to match up with the right outgoing wires as wel, but what about the custom wires? has anyone used those 4 wires for module in use signaling, like first wire: this module inner track used, second wire: next module inner track used, thirth wire: this module outer track used, firth wire next module outer track used?

ps. joining NTS? not sure I could afford the shipping :P
greetings, Andre

The beauty of the Z-Bend configuration is a standard of which you can modularly hook up with your fellow railroader to create multiple configurations. You can cross, loop, spread out in any direction on any given module, as long as you connect back to the "connection standard". Now.........if you want to custom "pin" or connect say the middle section of a yard module, such as what is in the planning stages for 2011 NTS, as in no expansion tracks, you can do that too. Just that you are now confined to a module of your own making that is not interchangeable, read modular with any one of your fellow railroaders. That is the beauty of having a standard.

While doing your own thing, keep in mind if you do hook up to others your track radius and clearances, especially rock and tunnel portals. If you have configured your module to run your 0-6-0 in some tight radius', criss crossing the continent..........my Challenger is not gonna be happy.

Hopefully you are building something to join in the fun for NTS?


Don

Good point.? Probably should include crossovers in the next update of the standard.
?
Crossovers have been done before, but the elctrical connections have to be reversed I think.? I am NOT the electrical expert here, but if you?search the group archives, I think it has been addressed before.? Perhaps someone more versed in how to do the electrical part of this can chime in.
?
As for tracks coming off the sides of the modules, anything is permitted as long as the end connections to other Z-Bend Track modules are standard.? A few modules have been built that have non-Z-Bend Track interfaces for the personal use of the module builder while the ends still maintain Z-Bend Track standard interfaces to connect to other modules.
?
For a couple of national shows we have also built Z-Bend Track to Z-Mod interfaces (a standard similar to NTrak, but not as widely used as Z-Bend Track) as well as Jeff White's personal non-standard modules.? I suppose something similar could be done to connect with some of the module standards being used in Europe.
?
Randy Smidt

For crossing over from 'front to back' whether just the Inner track or both is doable, but not without limitations. You can do it with flat track (no grades) using crosses. Or, you can use grades over and under (one track goes down 1/2 way, the other goes up 1/2 way). This requires at LEAST 6' and is NOT recommended for shows, unless you are the only modules (or your colleagues will run with you). Marlkin locos will struggle with 5 cars on the grades, MTL or AZL can pull maybe 10 without too much trouble. However, running several trains on the same track will always have speed variations to deal with.

As for end modules or even any other module, you can crossover from Inner/Outer tracks (the ones next to each other) anywhere. If you lay out flex track on an End module, go can make a larger radius 'balloon' end by going out to 10 and 11" radius. This also allows you to make a much smoother 'asymeterical' crossover using one Left and one Right instead of the 2 L or 2 R.


Jeff

SF Bay Area Z

when I look at the pictures of the standard I get the idea that connecting the left front inner track to the right back outertrack and visa versa is not alowed but there is not actualy written anything about it.

the same goes for the end modules, the other tracks and inner tracks loop but nothing is written about alowing the front tracks and back tracks loop.

finaly the y and x modules the tracks keep following the edges but again nothign is written about alowing the tracks to cross or turnout.

are alternative track connections alowed provided you keep taps on the directions?

A few years ago I was shown a UP yard in Ft Worth. I was wondering if anyone from the Dallas/Ft Worth Z Group could provide some directions on any yard viewing opportunities in FW.

Thanks in advance
Larry Donsbach
San Antonio

The Twenty-Sixth Annual Sn3 Symposium ( ) will take place in Monrovia, CA, in February 2011. The Symposium will feature modeling clinics, presentations, exhibits, vendor sales and layout tours.

I'm organizing the layout tours. If you have an operating layout in ANY scale (Standard or Narrow Gauge) I'd like to have you display it as part of this event. We are especially looking for quality layouts with prominent narrow gauge, mining or logging elements. The tour area will cover Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura Counties.

Tour dates and times are:

Feb. 17 (Thursday) - Afternoon and evening
Feb. 18 (Friday) - 12:00 to 6:00
Feb. 19 (Saturday) - 12:00 to 6:00
Feb. 20 (Sunday) - Morning and afternoon

Owners would be expected to display their layout for four hours (more if they so wish) on any day or days above.

This layout tour will be sponsored by the Symposium and my Yahoo group, Model Railroads of Southern California. This will be the twenty-third tour sponsored by my group since 2006. The usual format used by my group will apply, that is, the tour will be self-guided and free, and I'll provide the publicity, schedules and maps.

If you interested in having your layout on this tour, please contact me OFF LIST at:

chiefbobbb@...

If you have any questions before committing to the tour, please feel free to contact me. I hope you'll join with other area layout owners and show your layout to your fellow model railroaders.

Thank you.

Bob Chaparro
Moderator
Model Railroads of Southern California

Hemet, CA

Nov 18, 2010

I have the NTS2011 Layout application packet in hand. First in. first accepted* (NTS applicaton says)

I need ALL modules planning to show in a data base NOW so I can draw up some example layouts NOW for submission.

Just reply to this post IF you ARE coming WITH a module AND the size/shape of the module. We can discuss this all later in the main NTS 2011 thread.

There is 35,000 SF, divided into roughly Four 80x80 and Two near half sizes and a lone smaller size. To ask for 80x80 isn't going to fly and neither is 40x40 for us. So I need to defend with the largest variations I can make. This is NOT the final layout, only window dressing for the application. I will submit 3 variations to fit "square", rectangle and L spaces (but not their E or H choices
:)

Preliminary layout allocation plans will be sent out by NTS in April, 2011

I will post more info Friday.

Just reply to this post IF you ARE coming WITH a module AND the size/shape of the module. We can discuss this all later in the main thread. Everything will be considered and the debates about this and that will be in the main threads.

Please keep this thread to only those bringing a module(s).

Thanks,


Jeff
SF Bay Area Z

Why not show your railroad to other model railroaders?

Model Railroads Of Southern California will sponsor another free, self-guided layout tour on Saturday, November 20. This will be our twenty-second tour.

If you live in the following cities and have an operating layout in any scale (including modular railroads) you are invited to display your layout on this tour:

Alta Loma
Arcadia
Charter Oak
Claremont
Etiwanda
Fontana
Guasti
Irwindale
La Puente
La Verne
Mira Loma
Montclair
Ontario
Pomona
Rancho Cucamonga
Rialto
San Dimas
Upland

The usual format will apply, that is, the tour will be self-guided and free, and I'll provide the publicity, schedules and maps.

If you are interested in having your layout on this tour, please contact me OFF LIST at thecitrusbelt@....

If you have any questions before committing to the tour, please feel free to contact me. I hope you'll join with other area layout owners and show your layout to your fellow model railroaders.

Thank you.

Bob Chaparro
Moderator
Model Railroads Of Southern California


P.S.: Don't forget to attend Layout Tour #21 in the San Luis Obispo area (Oct. 7-11) and Layout Tour #23 in Southern California (February 18, 19 & 20, 2011).

Our apologies for the delay, but it was well worth the wait!

See the pictures that I've just put up from the 75th NMRA Convention & National Train Show 2010. Everything was there: historical clubs, displays, vendors, manufacturers and layouts; all scales T to O including some narrow gauge. You can see the Metro Milwaukee Z Scale Layout at the show as well as Mister Dave's Golden Blackhawk & Central City Layout in addition to the new Z scale Car from Intermountain.

See for yourself what the show was all about! Check out:
hobbycraftsnmore.com
Just go to the green Shows and Expos button at the top and then go to the
75th NMRA Convention & National Train Show 2010.

OR copy and paste this link to see the show:





Kevin
Hobby Crafts N More
website:
hobbycraftsnmore.com
Email:
hobbycraftsnmore@...