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Free Z Central Station 2012 Monthly Calendar

Welcome to the 2012 Z Central Station's free PDF monthly calendar!  This is a free download.  Just click on the calendar image to start the download.  Enjoy!

Never had a blog but now seems just as good a time as any to start one. I think that I never really had a good subject to write on but chronicling the creation of my first layout seems like a good place to start.

When I was in high school my parent moved to Japan and I went from a suburban neighborhood to living in an apartment in Tokyo. I had always looked forward to November which is when my dad and I would pull out the boxes of train parts to set up a layout for Christmas. Each year the boxes seemed to grow with more and more stuff but they couldn't make the trip with us to Japan. That is where I discovered Marklin Z. I purchased a basic starter kit and amazingly it fit on the register that was under my window in my room. I was hooked.

While in Japan I collected a few more cars and the T1+T2+T3 and E expansion sets. I even brought some of them along to college and set them up during Christmas. The real excitement came later when I discovered eBay. Years had passed between college and that moment and I had all but forgotten about my trains. After a friend had showed the eBay to me I had fun poking around at all the vast diversity of items available. That is when it hit me and I quickly did a search on Marklin. I was astounded at the listings, over 100 items!

Over the next several years I purchased items here and there and stashed them away in my basement. The trouble began when my wife found the collection. I was surprised and a little embarressed at how large it had grown.  And thus I was given and ultimatum, do something with them or get rid of them!

 It has been nearly two years since that statement and I have finally begun to create. Where it will lead, only time will tell . . . 

I finally decided on the Zize of my layout. A mere 30 inches wide, L shape, length 77.5 inches on the short and 126.5 on the long. Now I've just gotta come up with a track plan that will let me do switching & run trains continuously. I have an idea from an article in model railroad magazine based on a real modern RR in Lakesville Minn. I think I'll take creative licence and fictionalize it. The article is in June 2002 MR mag. Name of real company is Progressive Rail. Now I need to find a couple of Eletromotive switchers in Z scale. I know good luck huh......

Creation actually began in January of 2008 as part of a New Year's resolution to get my trains up and running. I had looked at book and magazines for years dreaming and planning but finally time to make a reality.

I decided on a lightweight bench work with a quick set of supports that I could embellish later if needed. Most books seem to lean toward about 50" as the ideal height but I opted for something a little lower (42") because I thought it would be easier to work on and a better height for my kids to see.

The framing was done with 1" x 4"s topped with 1/8" plywood. 1" x 3" cross braces were added about 18" apart for a little extra support. The plywood was left over from another project so I build the frames to match and ended up with two platforms, 5'7" x 2' and 5'10" x 2'. The legs were 2" x 3" screwed to the underside 1" x 3" supports. An addition 1" x 3" frame was added 6" from the bottom of the legs for increased stability.

All screws were pre-drilled with a counter sink bit to keep the wood from splitting and provide a smooth finish. 1" x 4" were attached with 1-1/4" drywall screws, legs with 2" drywall screws and plywood with #8, 1/2" wood screws. Corner clamps were used to ensure everything was square.

I added 1" pink foam board on top and secured it with Liquid Nails. Not the best choice as it is rather thick and it was difficult to compress the foam against the plywood and force the Liquid Nails to spread out. As a result the foam stood off the plywood a bit in some areas.

I arranged the tables in an L formation and that is where they stood for nearly a year until Ifinally decieded what to do.

Uncle Sugar gave me a bit a change, so as soon as I could, I got in touch with my favorite dealer.  Picked up another B unit for the CB&Q (this one had all the stripes it was supposed to on it) and I got 2 PENNZEE reefers that were sitting on the virtual shelf for a while. This puts my total reefers at 6, even though the numbers are starting to repeat.

I got the Pennsy shell in the mail, a trade for a CB&Q A unit shell. When that comes in, oh boy oh boy. Next step will be trying to erase the tiny, tiny, art deco "A", and try to find an art deco "C" to take its place.
Hopefully, my new job will pan out and I will make enough scratch to send them off to get DCC'd.

For now, I am now running my A & B unit and reefers round and round my oval, chasing the tail.

I've read lots of advice, howto, intro, and helpful things on the internet about modeling railroads.

But nowhere is there any information for the beginner, such as myself, on how to document a build online. A sort of best practices for noobs. Sure I can read about how to blog one place and macro photo in another; there's an article or two published about photographing models every now and then. Composition and framing subjects aside, there isn't much in terms of sharing the process of building itself.

Some options:

• dedicated site / cms / blog 
• hosted blog (like this one)
• facebook / google+
• flickr / instagram
• live video stream

Micro-Trains Line Dormitory Camp Cars #2 Build

I enjoy building laser kits, but have never attempted to document a build.  This is my first try at documenting a laser-kit build.  But first, remember I am not a professional and I may deviate from the original instructions, even worse… make mistake(s).

After opening the package, I laid out the pieces.  I am not building the kits as logging cars, but plan to decorate them as MOW cars.  So my first step is to use my Prismacolor pens to paint the outset sides.  I have French Grey 20% and Cool Grey 50% color pens, the percentages represent the darkness (opaqueness) of the color.  I used the broad end of the French Grey 20% to paint a base color.  I am not worried about uniform painting, this is a MOW car.

Now we get to business with assembly.  The 3-piece chassis assembly is simple since they are “peel-and-stick”.  I have one chassis assembled and the other with three braces and a wall glued to it.  My preference is using Tacky Glue, but any wood glue will work.  And to apply the glue I use a toothpick or the safety pin, sometimes it is easier to hold the safety pin.  The emery board is used to clean excess from the parts and any dried glue from the toothpick/safety pin.



You can see the cars are taking shape, and you can see how the MOW cars are developing their own unique personality.  The sides are glued to the chassis and this completes Page #1 instructions.  This also completes assembly of the large pieces.



This next photo displays the completed instructions Page #2 and Page #3.  This part is the time consuming portion of the build.  Applying the “peel-and-stick” windows, door trim, and side strips took some time.  Using tweezers, I tried to lightly place the piece onto the area of coverage, then used the toothpick to set the piece.  One comment about the “peel-and-stick” is once it is on, it is firmly on.

 Note: If I every build another logging car kit, I will assemble the window frames, windows, and door strips first before assembling the sides.  It would have been easier to apply the window frames, windows, and the door strips before the wall is glued to the chassis.

Now you can see the cars really developing.  Oh, and there is an extra window frame, window, and strips for a future kit bash.

Now comes the car roofing.  Original instructions stated to glue the roof parts on to the frame.  Knowing that “I” have a problem with lining up pre-glued pieces with “area coverage”, I took a different assembly route.  I used the pre-glued roof side and applied that to the car frame, which I did not have to wait for it to dry or set.  Some of the roof pieces fit in a specific manner, so be aware of that.  This step also completes the instructions for Page #4.

Here you can see the kit pieces are missing from their original locations.  The MOW cars are definitely looking good.  Ok.  To glue the roofing tarp on, I used Elmer’s “Washable School Glue”.  Elmer’s produces several formulas of their white glue, and this type is thin and very manageable, it gives me extra time to align roofing pieces.  The stacks are in and this completes not only Page #5 instructions but the complete instruction pamphlet.

The stacks have been painted with Polly Scale Tarnished Black.  I started to use some chalks on the roofing.  I believe I used a few shades of gray, black, brown, and red around the stacks.  I applied my custom decals, and it looks my D&RGW MOW train project is turning out fantastic.  Once the decals are dried I will weather the cars more with chalks, then seal with some Dullcoat.



These car kits have been out for some time, it has not been until recently that I picked up a few, and set some time aside to build them.  I can see many different variations to building/decorating these cars.  Once I get the final finish, I will post those photos.

This is a test of some photos I took with my iPad2. It's all z-scale stuff - code 40 ME unweathered rail with z- and n-scale PCB ties from handlaidtrack.com. Not really sure if this componentized variant of trackwork is considered handlaid, but considering all the extra work required versus popping some snap track into place - it should be considered handlaid. The n-scale ties are for throwbars (not yet installed in photos).

The inner rail radius on the curves (bright blue line) is about 7-3/4", the turnout is a number 6 without the throwbar. The curves were done by pre-bending one rail, using a mainline straight jig to solder the inner rail to the PCB's, popping it out of the jig and then finishing with gauges to attach the pre-bent outer rail. This results in some natural hyperelevation in the curves which can be removed when the rail is attached to roadbed/substrate.

View the official photostream of the official chicken on flickr.

Right now, the complete build-time for a turnout is about 2-3 hours, and I'm laying curved or straight track about 6" an hour, just taking my time. 99% of the time is prepping the PCB ties - making all the stock, diverging, frog, point rails is easy in comparison (with the jigs and filing guides) to trying to sand down 1/16"square by 1/2" long copper-clad fiberglass sticks. I spent about an hour and half prepping 100 of the copper ties (28 per 90-degree arc) followed by another 20 mins soldering the rails. 

I expect that as my skills and technique increase, I should be able to build a turnout in about an hour, or lay close to 1 foot of track.

Quick note - Flickr sucks right now, but I hope it won't always. Good luck to MM trying to clean the suck out of Yahoo!

I'll take some more photos later with a better camera. Let me know what you think!

It's said that people who live with a pet being to look like each other. I wonder if it's true with layouts?

After a little advice with where to start, I'm going to start sharing how I'm about to make my first layout. I'll try to open it up to feedback as much as possible, especially at the beginning when it's most likely to have a big impact. I'm also going to try to rationalize some decisions here, irrationalize others for sometimes rational reasons, and hopefully share some photos of builds. 

Before I begin, I just want to point out that CAD and design tools are great. As someone with quite literally a lifetime using them, I also know when in the design process I shouldn't. Now is one of those times. I tried and tried and tried and have failed for months to come up with a decent small layout. I caught a case of "Not Invented Here" syndrome while focusing on other things. Once diagnosed, the remedy and recovery is quick and simple: find the pro.

David K. Smith has a great description of this plan at his website, but I could't find any examples or mentions of it being built. Reading the description of it made me jump! YES! This is what I've been trying to achieve and here it is, and I don't have to use a CAD tool! That's also how I stumbled on to this site. After a few false starts trying to design one myself, I had finally found a pro who is graciously giving the plans away for free on the internet. David, if you read this, I'll order some more of your fine products ASAP (awesome products, would not be working in z scale without that NZT ruler).

First, the base or source design - "Centraila & Western" by David K. Smith:

Copyright © 2007-2012 by David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.

Since I'm handlaying track, and theming with a greenspace-intensive "industry" centered in the layout, I softened, race tracked, and rotated a bit, resulting in a bit more closely parallel track an relo a building:

I reconfigured the roads too, adding a bit of parking lot to the 50% enlarged building in the middle. I can extend or cut the spurs to any length, and here I'm showing the max. Adding a bit of sand and grass allows me to play with positive and negative a bit. Night-time lighting is going to be fun! My roommate thinks that it should be for the Coney Island cyclones, but I'm pretty sure he just wants to watch me struggle trying to make a working scale ferris wheel with lights.

Thinking about zones in general (power, transit, urban planning, operations) and signals led to this quick sketch:

The signals or markers are mostly B.S... I haven't learned how/where they're prototypically positioned yet. Double dots are ends of line, dark blue are mid-point / double and cyan or light blue are single point/direction. I assume the signals are petty close to 99.9% wrong for a block system.

The eastern half may have a city/urban background backdrop bas relief to be determined.

I'd like to keep the elevation and bridge in the layout, but I still have some table-vs-coffee table issues to think about.

Let me know what you think about how I'm starting off, especially with regards to the documentation.

I have always wanted to start a blog, but 'starting' it is usually the first stumbling block.  This is true with a 2' by 5' canvas behind me for a layout.  I have projects and a test track on it, but nothing resembling any work of 'my' dream layout.  I am really hoping mid January to start some layout planning.  I do know I want to include a curved trestle bridge, a pickle plant, turntable, a couple of other types of bridges, and keep the scheme during the transition period.  I have some Marklin steamers and MTL F7's that will work well together.  But more on that project(s) later.

I do want to share different aspects of my modeling experience, along with maybe some ZCS website aspects.  I think mixing things up will be interesting.  Maybe some personal details too, so you can get to know who Soccrdad30 really is.  I do not want to 'plan' blog entries, so do not expect scheduled entries.

So, with that in mind.  I would like to share "My Favorite Z Project" Contest entry.  My project is a gas!  Okay, bad pun.  I am "Kitbashing" an MTL 40' standard single door boxcar, and turning it into a Navy U.S.N.X. Helium Freight Car.  What is interesting, is there were 3 container helium cars and 30 container helium cars produced.  And these were in the gray paint scheme.  I am working on the 30 container freight car.

In the below photo you can see the car so far. I used Plastruct channeled strip for the side supports, while cutting out the middle of the car but leaving the roofwalk.  I have the containers glued together and painted in gray.  I used 3/32” Plastruct tubing for the containers.  And you can see some of the tools I used, including my cheap 10.00 chopper that I bought at a train show (bonus!).  Slugger got me hooked on Plastruct Plastic Weld – Love it!  And for Christmas 2010, I received a couple of Railway Prototype Cyclopedia’s.  What is interesting is in this booklet has an article about brake wheels, but look at the Ajax April 1943 Brake Wheel ad showing a U.S.N.X. helium car.  The side supports are configured differently from the research images and from commercial RTR cars.  Oh well, I will stay with what I started.

Okay, here is a closer view of my contest entry.  I just need to paint, create my decals, then apply the decals before inserting the containers.  I know some thoughts are going on about the finer details.  But, on my next one, I would like to get it more proto.  This one I am happy to finish, and to be learning new modeling skills.  My next photos will be of the finished helium car, and will be entered into the contest.

Well here goes nothing. I bought a MTL F-7  trainset, a GP-35 trainset, also a Marklin 81466  Micado steam loco set.I also got 2 packs flex track (599),2 packs 110mm track.also add 990-40-101 and 990-40-102.This should get me started.I used to N scale but alas space and time constraints got in the way.I have a N scale turntable by atlas that i'm thinking of modifying to Z.I also think the # 2541 pier set can be modified for use as well.should prove interesting at any rate.

     Today I will start my Z blog.  At this time I am working on a  1/220 scale WW2 POW camp, just like on an old tv series out of the 60s.
     I downlowded some papers models of Stalg Luft III, from a wargamers site, and reduced it down to 32 percent. I measured and cut out of balsa the basic shapes using the paper model for measurments. Using contact cement, I glued the paper to the glued together framework. I used black construction paper for the roof with pencil lines drawn to make it look like tar paper. 
     I added wooden blocks on the bottom that  will be painted with Faller cement paint. I willuse the same paint to use on the balsa blocks I am using for the chimneys. 
    

Here's video of my layout, first in near-total darkness, then in daylight. [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLmc2DIJHkY 100x100]

In other news, John M. is hospitalized, suffering from shock. ;-)

So there I was..had my speeder all painted and glass in the window and everything dull coated and figure inside and..hunky-dory.
I went to LHS becasue they called and said my LED was there. The guys who sent it did not charge store so the store said, OK its free..COOL!
So I was comapring it to the LED I got from Conrad and ..HOLY SMOKES..The one fron Conrad was like 1.6 mm ..the one I got for free was as TINY..IF the LEDS were trains it would be like Z compared to O scale..
So ..there I was..drilled a tiny hole and mounted the LED to the back of the windscreen and ran the wires down throw holes I drilled.
I hooked up the battery and..
CRIPES the whole thing lit up..Im talking through the orange paint..the wheels the back the front, everything..like a plastic wallmart halloween pumpkin..I swear even the dude glued in glowed. The superglue glowed. Wowsers.
That cool paintjob..gone.I literally had to dunk the thing in the 5 gallon paintbucket of flat black to keep the thing from glowing. I mean even the wheels and the frame in the back was glowing.
This gives me ideas of glowy things..like perhaps for halloween or Christmas.

Micro-Trains Line Logging Camp Cars #3 Build

I built the Micro-Trains Line Dormitory Camp Cars Kit #2, now I am going to document the build for the camp cars kit #3.  The cars are both about 32’ long but from coupler-to-coupler they are about 40’ long.  Again, remember I am not a professional and I may deviate from the original instructions, or even worse… make mistake(s).

After opening the package, I laid out the pieces to check them over.  I am not building the kits as logging cars, they are going to be added to my train of D&RGW MOW cars.  So my first step is to use my Prismacolor pens to paint the outset sides.  I used French Grey 20% broad end to color the pieces.  I am not worried about uniform painting, these will be MOW cars.

Now, the kit assembly.  The 3-piece chassis assembly is very simple since they are “peel-and-stick”.  I have both chassis assembled, but this time I attached the wheels and trucks.  I found it easier to attach the trucks at this stage since the chassis is flat and I can use the small screwdriver to apply pressure to the bolster pin.  In my build of MTL’s Dormitory Camp Cars, I attached the trucks last which took some delicacy so I did not damage the assembled car.  And my preference in using Tacky Glue, but any wood glue will work.  And to apply the glue I use a toothpick or the safety pin, sometimes it is easier to hold the safety pin.

The MOW cars are really developing their own unique personality.  If you notice the door frames, window frames, clerestory’s, and windows, are installed BEFORE attaching them to the chassis.  In my previous logging car build, it was cumbersome to me to attach the window frames and windows after the sides were previously attached to the chassis.  The progress of this page completes Page #1 and Page #3 instructions.  This also partially completes Page #2 instructions.

The next photo displays the completed Page #2 instructions. The trim strips have been applied covering the center/end support tabs.  Use tweezers to lightly place the piece onto the area of coverage, then used a toothpick to set the piece.

The cars are really developing.  There is an extra window frame, window, and strips for a future use.  I keep everything that is left over.

I attached the roof upside down (wood up).  I plan to use Elmer’s Washable White glue to attach the roof paper.  Some roof pieces fit in a specific manner, so be aware of that.  This photo completes the instructions for Page #4.  I took the Prismacolor pen to “color in” any bare spots around the windows and trim pieces.

The roof tarp is attached and the stacks are set.  This photo shows the completed instructions for Page #4 and Page #5.  The last item(s) to attach are the couplers.  These car kits are very nice.  Normally one could spend a few nights assembling the cars.  I am sure there are some speed demons out there that could easily build the cars in a day.

The stacks have been painted with Polly Scale Tarnished Black.  I started to use some chalks on the roofing.  I used a few shades of gray, black, brown, and some reddish brown around the stacks.  I applied my custom D&RGW MOW decals.  Now I have two more unique MOW cars for my train project.  I plan to weather the cars more with chalks, then seal with Testor’s Dullcoat.

This is the first mainline run without any of the extras.

A few days ago I received the set that I REALLY wanted in the first place - the 81862 30th Anniversary set from 2002.

For some inexplicable reason Marklin only do their starter sets these days - big or small - as German Era I/II or US steamers. Great, if that's you're thing, but not too cool if you want a more recent layout (as I do). Not only was the old set a draw because of the Era IV electric loco and generous rolling stock included (6 cars in total), but the track layout includes 3 electric turnouts and one electric double slip. In comparison to the very much bare bones starter kits like the 81560, this is a LOT more interesting!

I'm still some time away from doing a proper layout... looking at doing a small suitcase layout to hone my skills - it's been a while! - before tackling a larger 600mm by 1500mm (2'x6') custom-cased layout based on the KC Cornish layout at ZTrack, your typical post war German layout. Ideally I'd like to have it completed in time for exhibition next year at our local Model Hobby Expo...

Until then, I needed some way to set up the track properly so I could run the trains... a simple small oval works ok on the table but with points and wires everywhere I really needed to get a board and mount things properly. I ended up getting a 1200mm x 600mm (roughly 4'x2') sheet of MDF, elevated with two chunks of hardwood to keep the wiring off the floor, etc. I didn't have any track nails, so the track is held in place with thin hookup wire, looped over a tie then twisted and secured with tape at the other end. It's not perfect but it stops everything from falling off when moving around the board. Wiring in the power and turnouts took a while but it all works great now and is a lot of fun, even without scenery and structures.

Hi all! I am attempting to model the Milwaukee Road in Western Wa during the early 70's. Lot's of Milwaukee to come!! My one problem was the Milwaukee road used old boxcars, cut down to flats, welded on uprights, and used them for log trains-no one makes those! So I did, using Micro-Trains flats and Stone Bridge Designs "Log Bunks". Looks good for me! I've made six so far, just need a trip to the paint shop!

Here's a pic of the six, so far...

The more I research the buildings involved in baseball, the industry, the more I realize two things.

1. The types and variety of buildings reflect all kinds of architectural styles, from colonial farmhouse factory to strip mall. The rather simple vocabularies of these buildings should be easy to manipulate in order to create the "right-sized" buildings and still maintain their familiar character.

2. Manufacturing is now done overseas. Many of the old buildings are in the process or have already been converted to lofts. In terms of architecture models, all this means is cleaner roofs with fewer chimneys and more reflective windows with beefier fire-escapes bolted on. And all the shrubs... condo dwellers love hedging, I guess.

The Harwood Baseball Factory, Natick MA

http://www.milb.com/milb/info/museums.jsp?mc=_massachusetts

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/42922241

Rawlings baseball glove factory, Toronto Canada

Probably the main difference between the time the factory was running and now is the the windows. The originals were probably clear glass in a simple grid rather than the 90's bowtop-infill-specials currently installed. The low ground level seems to indicate the original building design probably had power generation or other extremely heavy equipment located on the lower floors. This building does not have direct rail connection.

http://www.myarea.ca/One_Columbus_Avenue

Nokona baseball glove factory, Nocona TX

Not every industry has to look industrial. Some can look downright commercial. Simple sign and awning combo can be a winner, unless it's time square. Also, great telegraph poles down the right side of the photograph.

http://www.suitcasesandsippycups.com/2011/08/made-in-the-usa-factory-tournokona-baseball-gloves.html

Little League Museum, Williamsport PA

http://www.littleleague.org/learn/museum.htm

That's about all I have for now. If you have any buildings or ideas for industries (retail or commercial), please let me know. I'm looking at clothing factories, base plates and helmet factories, and probably some green houses too.

Well here goes, my first (and hopefully not only) attempt to blog my layout, it's progress (or lack), problems etc.
As a youth I first came across Marklin when Z first sprang up, started to collect it, plan vast layouts, then discovered work, girls, parties etc etc etc. Now some 25-odd years on I have come back to Z having rediscovered it via Ebay.
As an owner/operator of a small hotel in Norfolk I do find that I have a little time on my hands so thought that now would be a good time to try again.
I am humbled when I see the standard of modelling on this site, so hope that you do not find my sad efforts to be too pitiful. I must say straight away that I have decided that my layout will be be for me to enjoy (I doubt that I would ever get to exhibition standard anyway), running stock that I want to see with buildings and scenery that I like the look of, rather than try to be exact in my authenticity.
I have decided on a 8 foot by 2 foot baseboard, split into two 4 foot by 2 foot sections, bolted together. While buying track (the usual Ebay red mist frenzy I'm afraid, will probably be selling the vast amount of excess off at some stage I am sure), and drawing up various plans I have encountered what I am sure that you will all be familiar with - the "because it's Z I can fits lots and lots in a small space" delusion. Although I have started to use the Any Rail planning software, which I find to be excellent, I still find that what looks good on paper.....

Is so awesome!! Not exactly prototypical, but Milwaukee Road none the less! So glad someone made this!!

My layout is called the GREAT WEST ROCKY MOUNTAIN, KENORA-SUDBURY RAILROAD COMPANY. The general scenery is modelled on my hometown, Kenora, Ontario as I remember it in the 1940's and 50's. The engines and rolling stock are a blend of steam and diesel, matching the 1950's steam/diesel conversion era. I also enjoy running engines and carriages such as the Marklin's Orient Express and european, urban commuter and steam trains, which create a bizarre effect as they stop at the local hometown scale model former CPR station! It's coffee table size, consisting of a figure 8 track with steep inclined mountain and tunnel route, crosses a high trestle made of matchsticks with track connecting to a railway yard parking spurs in the center of the layout. It also has a 'long distance' national line as an oval shape running close to the front and back edges of the layout. The layout is wired for sound. I recorded the striking of the original town hall (formerly the old Post Office/Federal building) clock bell, and re-recorded the hourly strikes every two minutes on each side of a C-60 cassette tape, which acts as a z scale 24 hours per tape. All buildings have interior lighting.

     Since NOBODY will be reading this I guess I can vent here. 

     Same thing other people have griped about in the past, and actually people have said I have been guilty of. It's the "Why don't company X build Y" vs why don't YOU build X yourself. 

     I have NO skills at building, painting or decaling a model railroad car or engine to look like anything but homemade mud. Nope. Never ever going to happen. I will have to buy it ready made and that means either hope that the X I am wishing for gets made, or find someone with the proper skills to make it for me. 

   I am not that skilled with landscaping and a lot of other things dealing with model railroading, but most of those type of things can be redone and mistakes hidden. 

  While poking around on another site that I wont mention by name, I seen where someone wanted a store bought, ready made, modern highway bridge.  He was kind of desperate because he needed it to go further with a project. (I know what that is like, I am stuck because Ii need about 8 dollars worth of MTL parts, and well I am just flat out broke) 

   Now of course I had to throw in my 2 cents, that it could be easily built and would help his modeling skills, but someone else had to throw in 2 more cents and compare building a modern concrete highway bridge with handlaying track or building a steam locomotive from scratch.

   How could anyone compare the 2? I could build a modern bridge from scrap wood and perhaps 5 bucks worth of parts and hit it with some rattle can grey paint, and come up with a pretty decent highway bridge. Of course I cant make a steam engine with the same stuff.

   If you have the skill sets to build a module,  you can build a highway bridge. 

  Why would a company make a highway bridge? Wouldn't they be specific to the terrain, the landscaping, the era, the road, the height, the length, the width and the angle and slope? Would it be adjustable where you could add to it or cut it to size? Would it be only in one size and we now will have to design the layout around the bridge? This seems kind of backwards and silly, not that that has stopped companies from being backwards and silly.

   In the time it took me to write this out, I could have had the span built, with strips of wood or styrene, and would be working on the pylons.  They might take some time if I was being fancy and using dowels, and then the next tricky part would be the sloped concrete abutments. 

  If I had 5000 bucks or so, I guess I could buy me a nice ready built Z scale layout, where all I would have to worry about is putting the cars on the track and turning a knob. 

Check out my building blog on my homepage: PlateLayer Project Blog

I've finally added as much plaster cloth as I expect I'll need, and have moved on to priming the base before painting it.  Priming made it look unfamiliar, but also like I've actually *done* something.  No more odd mix of pink foam, black artboard and white plaster cloth. 

The painter tape on the track serves as motivation to keep moving on this layout.  I don't want to lay down and take up the tape again and again, so I want to do as much work requiring the tape as I can (plaster cloth, priming, painting, adding turf, etc.  It's made me move much faster, so I can get back to playing with trains.

    This is a rant, and you may agree or disagree, but you are welcome to comment.  

     The other night I was in a discussion with some very talented model railroaders, the top people in z scale.

     The subject came up about lighted bumper posts.  I asked the question, is it prototypical?

     The answers I got were the normal responses when that question gets ask. I will throw those out there as well as other comments I have read and heard, when the same question gets asked. 

         It looks cool.  I am sure there is a prototype for it somewhere.  You are a rivet counter. But the OTHER scale do it.  It´s MY railroad, I can do what  I want. 

     Ok I get it. The main thin is number 5. It IS your railroad. You can do what you want. you can run Easter Bunny cars in a tiny loop around Smurfs. You can run German steam engines from the 1920s  pulling American freight cars mixed with Japanese  passenger cars.  Some folks will be fascinated, some impressed. Some will go, hmmm. 

     It looks cool. I have heard this a million times in my other hobby, reenacting. Strapping a WW2 messkit onto a East German bread-bag, and pretending you are in WW1 because it looks cool, does not mean it is accurate. When you dress like a soup sandwich and you stand next to me and the photo is taken, its THOSE guys look like a soup sandwich, not THAT guy. Some people want Z scale to progress beyond the briefcase, a little bit of research goes a long way, and Google is our friend.  This leads us into number 2.

     I am sure there is a prototype for it somewhere.  Again with reenacting. Some guy sticks a feather in his Civil War hat, mainly because it looks cool, and he found a picture of a dude with a feather in same hat.  Next thing you know. everyone is walking around with feathers in their hats. Was this one dude from one unit that did this? Did everyone do this?  Of the hundreds of pictures of dudes wearing the same hat, what percent had feathers.? One word, research. Railroad books and again Google can be our friends.  The CB&Q had a steam engine that they took the pilot wheels off and made into a switch engine. It is in a book. there are several pictures of same engine.  Is it cool to make that engine? Sure. Is it cool to pry off the pilot wheels of every steam engine you have for every railroad and say it is prototype? Maybe not so much.

     Rivet counter. I think that is a cop out. In the reenacting world we call them stitch counters. Can I accurately portray My Great Grandfathers uniform? Nope , not even close.  There is compromises in all scales and perhaps more in our scale. This had been written about ad nauseum.  I try for a happy medium.  My MTL track looks cheesy. It is what I have and what I am using, but I am doing things to try and take away some of the cheesiness, not add to it.  Ballasting, painting, blending, trying to make it look more like a model railroad than a toy railroad.  Adding unneeded accessories that did  not exist, will not give me a better railroad. Using hays bumpers when the the real railroad I model used ties and dirt, can be accepted, because they existed, and was possible, but putting blinky lights on them is beyond me.

     Point 4 is a real thorn in my side. We are trying so hard to be LIKE the other scales, when we have an opportunity to be BETTER than the other scales. Model railroading came from toy trains. Toy trains were meant to play with and a train chasing it´s tail round and round can soon become boring. It needed  play value.

     So accessories were added to the old Lionel 3 railed trains and their brothers.  Over-sized crossing gates, milk cams popping in and out of reefers, cows going down chutes, literally  blinky lights and bells and whistles. Kids dreams spun out in the Monkey Wards Christmas catalogs. Post war, these things were transfused into the HO and later N scales. The Cold War and Space Race added radar and rockets and planes and even satellites on the model trains. Just because thy are found in others scales, does it HAVE to be made in Z?

     Do we need these things in Z? Maybe. If people want to play with toy trains then why not? Why they would do this in Z when there is a whole bunch of toy trains and goodies to play with in other scales is strange to me but, whatever. What I wonder about is all this talent, time, money and effort, being expended on kitsch, when it could be used to produce accurate models of real railroad stuff. Oh it is all about marketing and what would sell I am told. I guess if you build anything in Z scale, weather it existed or not, put the right paint and decals on it, it would sell. I think we are better than this .

    It is all about fun. But is it model railroading, or is it very, very small toy trains? How can we get upset with someone who does not take our modeling seriously, when we don´t  take is serious ourselves. 

Hi all! My name's Ben, from Australia, and after years of dreaming I'm finally getting into Z. I'm going to use this blog to track my experiences starting out with two Markin starter sets - the 81560 and 81862 - to create a portable, easily stored large-case layout with a IV-V era German alpine theme. I've received my 81560, and have unfortunately been suffering from forward slow-speed issues which are apparently indicative of Marklin's recent quality control (or lack thereof). You can follow my progress in this thread.

For the TL;DR - just scroll down an look at photos is useful since it's about architecture :) Feedback appreciated !

I want my layout to have a high level of what's called suspension of disbelief. Context and texture can't be altogether forgotten forever. Light, sound, sense, feel, can't really put my finger on it sort of senses should abound. If you're already feeling engrossed while doing something that occupies your attention, and forgotten about the world, then you know what I mean. It's sorta like a form of escapism. I don't feel good or bad when I see an actor die in a movie after I see it - they're an actor. But I might have felt bad or good for the character during the film.

It's a frequently used term. Coming from an architectural background, my use of the term might be different than yours. I'm usually referring to issues specific to materials used in making models, not the "real thing" when using that term. Think about making realistic z-scale spring grasses, beaches, or asphaltic shingles - that's how I usually think of the term. Similar to the french "Trompe L'Oriel", translates as "Fool the eye". When I am talking about it and the subject isn't a model, it's often in reference to cognitive behavior or psychology such as how Disney uses many varying scale bricks, windows, doors, and tiles on Main Street to make it seem so much bigger than it really is. This form of deception or fooling the brain with the eyes with techniques like large-scale and multi-scale model building is common and normally used in a good way, even being very important for entire artistic movements like op-art or psychedelia. I've heard the term in meetings with architect, interior designers, video game developers, animators, cinematographers, and recently with some advertisers on Madison Ave.  As might be expected for the cynic, the latter were not using it in a positive sense. 

We're just modeling perception. THE rule applies: have fun to win, exceed expectation to win over others. With models, the physical scale rule applies (what works at full scale may or may not at model scale and vise versa, model techniques usually don't scale very well to full size). 

Why Z (1:220) scale for me? Because it's closest to, but larger than my favorite scale for building models (1:240 or 1" = 20'-0"). Also, I live in an apartment where space is always a premium for "permanent layouts" - to the point where Z scale is cheaper than N, except for shelf layouts. Since I have scratch building skills (and materials still lying around) and no preference towards any particular road name or era, the choice for me was easy. It will be my model first designed for moving parts - and also implying my first without a single pre-controlled point of focus.

For my first real layout, I wanted to compose a list of baseball-related and other generic buildings (with a great tip for adding the Hollywood Candy Co. which I've just begun researching). 

1. The pencil factory 

Yes, pencils were made here! A classic NY building well known for tile work and architectural designs on the tops of the columns and pediments. I believe this building is becoming an historic site. The fascade is iconoclastic, and this sort of factory building is slowly being removed from urban areas. It did not have direct access to rail service. This factory is close to the water, and served with ships docked at the piers at Greenpoint. Also, it's an abandoned factory and thanks to architectural irony in stereotypical NY fashion, it has been overrun by artists and in the process of being transformed into lofts - priced at a premium for that neighborhood - no doorman included, yet.

The pencil factory, Brooklyn NY

http://www.fliffa.com/indexcontact.html

2. The Louisville Slugger factory

Classic brick architecture, crass modern advertising (hiding the glass anti-contextual architectural extension behind it). Cast iron storefront on a standard double-width factory building from that time. All pretty boring architectural massing and borg details really, including the arch-toped windows on the top floor. It's hard to see the pediment since it's in shadow of the photo, but I would assume it's just as uninspiring as the rest of the building. Hopefully there'd be some cool imagery architrave-like such as some player in stamped tin sliding for home, but I doubt it. Even the set-back modern two story black and glass extension is genericly de-emphasized... this building is all about the bat. It definitely can stand on its own, or stand out by contrasting it to small one and two story buildings. Proof that the prototype can be better than the freelance, without any complexity added (ok, maybe finding a real keychain-sized slugger and doing the scale fencing might be hard). 

The Louisville Slugger Factory, Louisville, KY

http://www.sluggermuseum.com/virtualtour/#big_bat

3. The Baseball hall of fame

One part Italian villa, one part Jeffersonian gallery, and one part brick city with factory-like floor to floor heights, this classic configuration of building is pleasing and subdued. Upper windows to allow in light contrasting with nearly solid brick lower with classic wood detailing in the frieze and soffit of this building catch the eye. The entry doors dominate the street front elevation, while not quite as open you would expect an public building such as the MLB Hall of Fame to be, it is still inviting with the semi-public space between the buildings. 

The dreams park is nearby - a gem of very small scenes and structures for parks and green spaces (url below, the subject deserves it's own blog post... Mr. T coaching little league batting practice is just a hint).

The symmetric wings of the building are always visible in photographs while other parts are usually cropped.

http://baseballhall.org/museum/experience/museum  http://www.baseballmomologues.com/?p=280

4. Hollywood candy factory

I will continue looking, and also checking out factories along the Centralia rail lines - which I just started learning about yesterday. However, finding a picture of the specific building became totally irrelevant after I read this on wikipedia:

"During the 1950s, the Hollywood Candy Company owned a Crosley Super Sport which was painted to look like the Zero candy bar wrapper and employed a midget, called Zero, to drive around and advertise the candy bar"

Even with an igloo factory, this proves the prototype is superior to freelance. You can't make up stuff like that. Comedy gold. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Candy_Company

Do not build one of these unless you need a temporary placeholder

For an example of the opposite, get into the google street view and check out Rawlings (bats and gloves) corporate HQ. I refuse to link it for you. It's 110% suburban office park lowrise mirror glass ugly. A wasteland of architectural potential and space, at best. If you need to add THE suburban office park building to your model, grab a mirror and a sharpie then draw a grid with the ruler. Just use the ruler, both sides in each direction for the grid. You can get creative and measure if you want - and end up with a non-square rectangular grid, but that ruins the design intent of the THE suburban office park building. Bevel the edges of the mirror, then finish by planting the tributary green pingpong ball on a soda straw or toothpick near the entrance to the oversized parking lot. Note that applying the scale rule to models means this might work if scale building mirror glass is tinted, especially if it's real and from a broken shard leftover from one of these monstrosities. Tinted-mirrored acrylic 1/8" thick is also available for purchase in 3" squares from canal plastics for about $2 if you want to try it out.

Any more non-stadium buildings?

A favorite animated film of mine is "The Man Who Planted Trees".  In it, a man spends a lifetime planting trees, and in different ways, affecting thousands of lives by doing so.  I likely will not affect thousands of lives, but I have spent the last couple of sunny afternoons planting trees on my layout.  The result:

I am a bit timid about certain things, making changes to my layout among them.  I note that my previous blog entry said I painted the layout was in July and now in November I can finally say I have taken the next step.  

This past weekend, at GTE (Puyallup, WA), I brought my mountain layout, a bottle of Woodland Scenics turf powder, a bottle of white glue, and a spray bottle.  On Saturday, just as I was starting an inconsequential corner of the layout, Jacob, the son of the folks running a neighboring layout came over, asking what I was doing, and could he help (I felt like Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence).  Once I showed him what I wanted to do, he was at it like a wild man.  In under 45 minutes, my "chocolate" mountain was replete with turf.  Jacob approached the task with a concentrated abandon.  The result was that we had to spend about half the time it took to add turf to clean up powder from the table, the floor, and spots on the layout that didn't get the prepatory glue.  The latter was actually an advantage, as it left some bare spots where the raw earth poked through the turf - just like the real thing.

Jacob going to town:

By the following day, the glue was dry enough that my Sounder commuter train was making a special Sunday run:

(Next task: asking Becky Thatcher to the dance!)

You may have a link on your desktop, a bookmark or favorite for ZCS, maybe you just key in zcentralstation.com into your browsers URL window.  Maybe, you key in ‘zcentral’ into your favorite search engine, either way or any way you get to www.zcentralstation.com.  There are many aspects of running a website, but what I want to share with you are the ‘Trues”, the actual data from 2010.  The old saying goes “Hind sight is 20/20”, and that is true.

How about I share more with you?  Here is actual 2011 data up to February 11^th 2011.  In January of 2011 we had 4,188 unique visitors with about a 3 to 1 return visit ratio, utilizing 19 gigabyte of internet bandwidth from our web server the visiting home computers.  At this point we have 1,639 unique visitors in February 2011 with the same 3 to 1 return visit ratio.  January 2011 was a better month than January 2010, and February is looking to better than last year too.

Here is the ZCS 2010 chart.  You can see by the end of the year, we were really bringing in the visitors.  That is when I worked on a banner trade program with Trainini and Z Friends Europe.  Thank you Stonebridge Models for coming on board to help support ZCS.  The only part that is untrue is October results.  The first of October 2010 we migrated to our new hosting company Site 5, but we did not have our site stats fully operational, so we ‘lost’ 10 days of ZCS visitor data.  As far as April 2010, I am not sure what the problem was, I would have to do some research.  Just think ZCS pushed out 182 gigabytes of data in 2010, all pictures I presume.
 


Ok, ZCS had that many visitors and hits, but where did they come from?  How about a breakdown by country, that also displays the total pages, hits and bandwidth usage.  Well, this next graph tells me that I need to get Gerd and Alex to work harder. (sorry guyz, lol)

Here is a breakdown of what our visitors used to connect to ZCS.  Please remember for operating systems, Windows could mean any version from Windows 3.11 to Windows 7, along with the many flavors of Linux.  The same goes for Internet Browsers.  Internet Explorer 2.0 to the new Internet Explorer 9.0 could have been used to access ZCS.  And there are many versions of Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome.  So if I really wanted a breakdown by browsers or operating systems I can access that report.  What is interesting is someone is out there is using their Wii to access ZCS.

This next screen breaks down the search engine that is used to connect to ZCS.  The reported numbers, 61.3% of our visitor hits use a direct link, bookmark, favorite, or link in email.  Almost 38% of our hits come from other web sites containing a link to ZCS.  Then the final 1% hits comes from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and the rest.

The last two screens displays the keywords and key phrases that are typed in the Google, Yahoo, or other search engine box to get to ZCS.

Well, I have presented to you few of the reports that I can get from my hosting company.  We can look at all of the data in any way shape or form, dissect it, and create exotic formulas.  But, what it really comes down to…  I want to see ZCS continue to grow and mature with you.  It does not matter how you get to ZCS.   It matters that you find ZCS useful in some way to help with your Z scale train modeling.

ZCS has many avenues to interact with other modelers.  We have a 24 x 7 chat service (all are welcome).  Eventz calendar to let others know of show, demonstration, or unique occasions. Forums to ask or answer questions, no matter how silly you think they may be.  A huge gallery to display your work or to search for modeling examples.  There are many more features that you are welcome to use.

 This is Micro trains Line SD40-2 Santa Fe model which I customized with working ditch lights.

Found a new resource for windows,doors,buildings,and cars/trucks ect.It's called micronart. You can find them on the web at www.micronart.com they can definetly save you time