Happy 4th of July,
As far as I remember, there has never been a Z scale month in the NMRA calendar.? Not because there are not great modelers in our scale, but because I don't think anyone has ever bothered to submit photos!? For example, I begged David George to submit photos of his award-winning layout but never received a reply, so I infer that he did not.? The blurb in the attached NMRA request for submissions says that they're looking "for a few good layouts", but that's untrue.? What they are looking for is excellent photos of small, richly detailed scenes.? So pictures of an excellent diorama would qualify.? Something like the Z diorama featured on the cover of the Feb 2011 NMRA Magazine by MMR Gerry Leone.?
Why do I think this is important?? I think our scale is losing traction.? Many would-be modelers think HO when they consider taking up the hobby.? If knowledgeable, they may consider N scale, but they are rarely exposed to Z scale, hence rarely consider it.? This is not helped by the lack of highly visible retail access to Z.? Walthers does not carry it and M.B. Klein (Modeltrainstuff online) is phasing it out.? These are huge losses.? I think getting some photos in the NMRA calendar would boost much needed awareness of our scale.?
Malcolm Cleaveland
MCZ Models
