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I have to stick my oar in here and drop a penny's worth.? I came to Z scale by default after modelling Nn3 since 1980 and meeting MrDave and his layout at the NMRA national convention in 2002.? and joined his crew along with? Don Avilla and it quickly became a couples gathering annually for the next decade with 4 or 5 senior couples? Then we were joined by a young couple from? Houston, the Buckley's.? Over this time it was obvious to me that Layouts with cute little trains were the thing that got the scale noticed and were always the big draw, with trains going round and round and staying on the track. and this is what got people's attention.
operations:-? yes it can be done in Z scale but I do not think that sort of operation is going to be a crowd pleaser, and draw in people, the attraction to Z, for the public, is the grand vistas on layouts like Mr Daves and SoCal.and others using T track modules, With long trains running both freight and passenger.?
?
Track there are quite a few options to go with tie based , and the roadbed? brands,some are easier for each modeller to get laid down properly and operate flawlessly, than others, but there is one thing that I have learned over time and I learned it first in N? scale and ported it over to my Z scale operations. and that is, if I want to do switching, the cars need metal wheels and body mounted couplers.?
?
Metal wheels are a costly conversion if you have a fleet of MTL cars, but the difference is no heavy track cleaning and wheel cleaning required once the delrin plastic wheels are gone, no grey gunk building up on wheel treads and being spread all over your track, your engines no longer operate intermittently, areal bonus for DCC.? Next is no Talgo trucks with couplers attached, though they do operate better with metal wheels, they still do not push reliably through points.? There are two things that make this difficult. Unlike on the real railroad our points do not nest tightly to the rail they are closing too. and so if there's pressure on the couple, on a talgo truck it can turn slightly, loading one flange against the stock rail and then the flange hits the blunt end of the point rail and climbs up and over the stock rail, causing a derailment.? This can be avoided if the point rail is formed so it comes to rest on the web of the rail or drops into a slight notch in the stock rail, and this can be coupled with tighter positioning of the guard rail opposite the point of the point rail.? and With body mounted couplers the trucks are not loading the truck to twist in the rail and are free to seek the center of the gauge and is less likely to pick a blunt point rail. On Z scale track, get away from the magnet in the road bed. It works but there is a steep learning curve to get to work reliably. The first thing is to set the glad hand to correct the height above the rail, once you have done this the electromagnetic uncoupler is marvelous, but why is that so? It is because it sits outside the rails, so use a magnet that spans the track and ties, now you have the right magnetic attraction at the right distance from the center between two coupled couplers and the couplers open easily.? It can be buried under the roadbed or automated with a servo to lift it up under the roadbed to the height of the ties for use and dropped down when not required.?
?
At 80 and ten years post stroke my 2 x 4 ft show module can be run on DC or DCC, uses Rokuhan track and draws a big crowd to the table it is sitting on at every show.? I can run 3 trains on separate loops: a double track main and a single track figure 8.?
?
The most common comment I get from the ladies is how cute they are. From the modellers, I can't believe how well that runs and no derailments and it's too small for my big hands or for my eyes to put it on the rails. From the kids, gee this is low enough to see it. ?
?
To me at this point I still enjoy running trains at shows and showing what Z is about and sharing my love for these little trains. At home I still run N scale with DCC and sound, do switchingand spend countless hours enjoying the hobby, the only thing I miss I am no longer building things like my steam engines in N scale or my doodlebugs in Z and N, it has been a great hobby for 50 years so far and looking forward to a few more.?

cheers Garth.
?
?
 

Interresting comments, Garth. But I’m able to say that even with MTL’s plastic wheels and truck mounted couplers, I’m able to perform switching ops the way I described a few days ago, even if it’s true, the trains I’m running on my layout are short, 15 to 20 cars maximum.

Dom





Le mardi 2 juillet 2024 à 16:41:43 UTC+2, Garth Hamilton <garth.a.hamilton@...> a écrit :


I have to stick my oar in here and drop a penny's worth.? I came to Z scale by default after modelling Nn3 since 1980 and meeting MrDave and his layout at the NMRA national convention in 2002.? and joined his crew along with? Don Avilla and it quickly became a couples gathering annually for the next decade with 4 or 5 senior couples? Then we were joined by a young couple from? Houston, the Buckley's.? Over this time it was obvious to me that Layouts with cute little trains were the thing that got the scale noticed and were always the big draw, with trains going round and round and staying on the track. and this is what got people's attention.
operations:-? yes it can be done in Z scale but I do not think that sort of operation is going to be a crowd pleaser, and draw in people, the attraction to Z, for the public, is the grand vistas on layouts like Mr Daves and SoCal.and others using T track modules, With long trains running both freight and passenger.?

Track there are quite a few options to go with tie based , and the roadbed? brands,some are easier for each modeller to get laid down properly and operate flawlessly, than others, but there is one thing that I have learned over time and I learned it first in N? scale and ported it over to my Z scale operations. and that is, if I want to do switching, the cars need metal wheels and body mounted couplers.?

Metal wheels are a costly conversion if you have a fleet of MTL cars, but the difference is no heavy track cleaning and wheel cleaning required once the delrin plastic wheels are gone, no grey gunk building up on wheel treads and being spread all over your track, your engines no longer operate intermittently, areal bonus for DCC.? Next is no Talgo trucks with couplers attached, though they do operate better with metal wheels, they still do not push reliably through points.? There are two things that make this difficult. Unlike on the real railroad our points do not nest tightly to the rail they are closing too. and so if there's pressure on the couple, on a talgo truck it can turn slightly, loading one flange against the stock rail and then the flange hits the blunt end of the point rail and climbs up and over the stock rail, causing a derailment.? This can be avoided if the point rail is formed so it comes to rest on the web of the rail or drops into a slight notch in the stock rail, and this can be coupled with tighter positioning of the guard rail opposite the point of the point rail.? and With body mounted couplers the trucks are not loading the truck to twist in the rail and are free to seek the center of the gauge and is less likely to pick a blunt point rail. On Z scale track, get away from the magnet in the road bed. It works but there is a steep learning curve to get to work reliably. The first thing is to set the glad hand to correct the height above the rail, once you have done this the electromagnetic uncoupler is marvelous, but why is that so? It is because it sits outside the rails, so use a magnet that spans the track and ties, now you have the right magnetic attraction at the right distance from the center between two coupled couplers and the couplers open easily.? It can be buried under the roadbed or automated with a servo to lift it up under the roadbed to the height of the ties for use and dropped down when not required.?

At 80 and ten years post stroke my 2 x 4 ft show module can be run on DC or DCC, uses Rokuhan track and draws a big crowd to the table it is sitting on at every show.? I can run 3 trains on separate loops: a double track main and a single track figure 8.?

The most common comment I get from the ladies is how cute they are. From the modellers, I can't believe how well that runs and no derailments and it's too small for my big hands or for my eyes to put it on the rails. From the kids, gee this is low enough to see it. ?

To me at this point I still enjoy running trains at shows and showing what Z is about and sharing my love for these little trains. At home I still run N scale with DCC and sound, do switchingand spend countless hours enjoying the hobby, the only thing I miss I am no longer building things like my steam engines in N scale or my doodlebugs in Z and N, it has been a great hobby for 50 years so far and looking forward to a few more.?
I have to stick my oar in here and drop a penny's worth.? I came to Z scale by default after modelling Nn3 since 1980 and meeting MrDave and his layout at the NMRA national convention in 2002.? and joined his crew along with? Don Avilla and it quickly became a couples gathering annually for the next decade with 4 or 5 senior couples? Then we were joined by a young couple from? Houston, the Buckley's.? Over this time it was obvious to me that Layouts with cute little trains were the thing that got the scale noticed and were always the big draw, with trains going round and round and staying on the track. and this is what got people's attention.
operations:-? yes it can be done in Z scale but I do not think that sort of operation is going to be a crowd pleaser, and draw in people, the attraction to Z, for the public, is the grand vistas on layouts like Mr Daves and SoCal.and others using T track modules, With long trains running both freight and passenger.?

Track there are quite a few options to go with tie based , and the roadbed? brands,some are easier for each modeller to get laid down properly and operate flawlessly, than others, but there is one thing that I have learned over time and I learned it first in N? scale and ported it over to my Z scale operations. and that is, if I want to do switching, the cars need metal wheels and body mounted couplers.?

Metal wheels are a costly conversion if you have a fleet of MTL cars, but the difference is no heavy track cleaning and wheel cleaning required once the delrin plastic wheels are gone, no grey gunk building up on wheel treads and being spread all over your track, your engines no longer operate intermittently, areal bonus for DCC.? Next is no Talgo trucks with couplers attached, though they do operate better with metal wheels, they still do not push reliably through points.? There are two things that make this difficult. Unlike on the real railroad our points do not nest tightly to the rail they are closing too. and so if there's pressure on the couple, on a talgo truck it can turn slightly, loading one flange against the stock rail and then the flange hits the blunt end of the point rail and climbs up and over the stock rail, causing a derailment.? This can be avoided if the point rail is formed so it comes to rest on the web of the rail or drops into a slight notch in the stock rail, and this can be coupled with tighter positioning of the guard rail opposite the point of the point rail.? and With body mounted couplers the trucks are not loading the truck to twist in the rail and are free to seek the center of the gauge and is less likely to pick a blunt point rail. On Z scale track, get away from the magnet in the road bed. It works but there is a steep learning curve to get to work reliably. The first thing is to set the glad hand to correct the height above the rail, once you have done this the electromagnetic uncoupler is marvelous, but why is that so? It is because it sits outside the rails, so use a magnet that spans the track and ties, now you have the right magnetic attraction at the right distance from the center between two coupled couplers and the couplers open easily.? It can be buried under the roadbed or automated with a servo to lift it up under the roadbed to the height of the ties for use and dropped down when not required.?

At 80 and ten years post stroke my 2 x 4 ft show module can be run on DC or DCC, uses Rokuhan track and draws a big crowd to the table it is sitting on at every show.? I can run 3 trains on separate loops: a double track main and a single track figure 8.?

The most common comment I get from the ladies is how cute they are. From the modellers, I can't believe how well that runs and no derailments and it's too small for my big hands or for my eyes to put it on the rails. From the kids, gee this is low enough to see it. ?

To me at this point I still enjoy running trains at shows and showing what Z is about and sharing my love for these little trains. At home I still run N scale with DCC and sound, do switchingand spend countless hours enjoying the hobby, the only thing I miss I am no longer building things like my steam engines in N scale or my doodlebugs in Z and N, it has been a great hobby for 50 years so far and looking forward to a few more.

cheers Garth.





 

Interesting comments, Garth. But I’m able to say that even with MTL’s plastic wheels and truck mounted couplers, I’m able to perform switching ops the way I described a few days ago, even if it’s true, the trains I’m running on my layout are short, 15 to 20 cars maximum.

Dom?? Yes ,I have had success with short trains 10 to 15 cars and talgo trucks but, I tend to run double this amount and body mounts with metal wheels work for me. When I first got into Z many of my original cars had body mounts, and I mixed Nn3 cars with Z cars.

Garth
 

Malcom - just want you to know that Dave George and I have re-submitted photos of our z-scale layout to the NMRA for consideration for the 2025 calendar just as we did for the 2024 one.? Gerry Leone and Thomas Morrison have acknowledged our entry and I have hope we may be published this year.
?
Rob Klutz - thanks so much for all you do for our z scale hobby!
?
John Buckley

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